Green Ringer - no ring just fuzz

[DrScott]

1.What does it do, not do, and sound like? Bypass works, power light works, when switched on the sound is very fuzzy and distorted - worse when multiple stringes are strummed, no other pedals in chain, clean amp settings
2.Name of the circuit =Green Ringer
3.Source of the circuit (URL of schematic or project) =General Guitar Gadgets kit
4.Any modifications to the circuit? No
5.Any parts substitutions? No
6.Positive ground to negative ground conversion? No

Report the voltages as follows:

Voltage at power supply is 9.0 using voodoo labs power supply or 8.8 using 9V battery

Q1
C =5.23
B =1.79
E =1.42

Q2
C=3.33
B=5.19
E=5.92

Q3
C=9.32
B=4.16
E=3.81
.
D1
A (anode, the non-band end) =4.31
K (cathode, the banded end) =4.14

D2
A =4.31
K =4.13

I have triple checked all the conections and the values of all the resitors.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. This is the simplest of the 3 pedals I have built so far and it is giving me the most trouble.

[Pedal love]

These are better with a purer bass being processed. Have you tried backing off the fuzz/gain control and using the neck pu?

[IvIark]

I thought exactly the same thing when I built one.  It's more like a slight ring mod effect with chords, but when you use the neck pickup and turn the tone knob right down you should get quite a strong octave effect, particularly around and above the 12th fret.

[DrScott]

There is not any gain control - and none on the clean amp and no other pedals. I will try turning the tone nob down and using the neck pickup and test some of the higher frets. Thanks for the suggestions so far.

So I guess the voltages look OK? - they are not exactly what is in the instructions but they are not too far off.

[Pedal love]

Sorry. I looked at one of the schematics on the internet. You basically (as far as I can tell) have a phase splitter feeding a fwr with a buffer out. Have you tried a fuzz in front of it, like an Axis fuzz? That could make it a lot like a non-transformer Octavia. Then you could control the sustain with the gain pot of a fuzz. You might be able to get a sound that way. I can't imagine it working well as the circuit stands, unless I'm missing something. Something like a C.O.B. or RM Octavia have electronics driving fwr.

[Mark Hammer]

The Green Ringer is about the simplest rectifier-based doubler out there.  That means that it sometimes needs some help.  Some of that help has been described, in terms of how to use it (neck pickup, roll back tone control, don't expect miracles with chords or even with single notes below the 7th fret), but some of it can be electronic too.

A few suggestions to do that....

The signals arriving at the base of Q3 need to be as equal as possible for doubling to be apparent.  So the pair of 68k resistors should be equal in value such that one side is not more attenuated than the other.  The 10k resistors at the emitter and collector of Q2 should also be pretty close in value.

JC Maillet has suggest a trimpot inserted between the output of the collector and the .047uf cap to balance the amplitude of the two signals optimally.

It can also happen that the two diodes being used for rectification have unequal forward voltages, so you may want to try and match those up as well.

[DrScott]

Using the neck pickup and boosting the signal with a TS9 clone did wonders for the sound.

I think it was a case of me not knowing how to use the pedal rather than something wrong with it.

Thanks for the help - now I'm on to the next project - the Phase 45.

[Pedal love]

Anytime!