EHX mole question (collector bypass cap)

[birt]

the schem: http://fuzzcentral.ssguitar.com/schematics/moleschem.gif

the first .1 cap is a very crude low pass filter right? if removed there will be more high frequencies in the signal and the result will appear to be louder.

but what about the second .1 cap? i think it will also cut highs but i'm not really sure how since it's not connected to ground. will it have a similar effect as the other one if i remove it?

with both caps the effect is too muffled and doesn't boost that much. so i was thinking to get more gain by bypassing the emitter resistor and removing both caps. i'm just wondering what that collector bypass cap does. i know i can just try and listen and will do that, but i'm also wondering WHY it does what it does.

[birt]

the biggest dirtiest LPB/MOLE like booster i could come up with while experimenting was when i left out both .1 caps, used 4.7uF in and output caps, jumpered the emitter resistor and lowered the collector resistor to 4K7.

it's big and mean. i love that.

even bigger and meaner would be cool but i don't really know how i should do that. maybe a darlington pair? or do they bias differently?

[DavidRavenMoon]

I had a real Mole way back when.  It wasn't meant to be dirty sounding... just super thick and deep. It's a bass booster. I used to plug it into the input on my Brass Master. Now that was dirty and mean! 

I'll have to try your mod.

[birt]

i know it was supposed to be clean and deep. but i wanted deep loud and dirty :p

i'm using it as the "dry" in a blend with another effect (because a blend to clean signal never sounds right to me) but i think it would be a nice stand alone too. no controls, just a massive dirty boost when you hit the switch.

[birt]

hmm if i raise the collector voltage above 6Vdc it abruptly cuts the signal. a 3K9 collector resistor is the lowest value i can use.