Little changes to Thor that made you like it more.

[pd3]

Hi.  I've been using my DIY Thor for sometime now and like it quite a bit.  It really puts my strat and Alchemist (I use the clean channel only) in a Marshally place for many of the classic rock tunes we do.   The layout was from the picture at ROG, the one on the pad per hole circuit board.  My only compaint about it is that it can get harsh at times especially when major thirds are in the chords and at higher gains.  I run it into my Fulldrive 2 which smooths and thickens things out a bit.   I made it faithful to the ROG layout,  schematic and component values but used Silver Mica caps for values .001uF and less so about 5-6 of the caps are Siver Mica.  On a second Thor project I tried my own layout but used all Polyfilm caps.  Something went wrong, I get speals, oscillations, and you get huge gain with the output knob barely cracked on.  Besides all these undesirable artifacts however, there was something about the general tone that was desirable.  Somehow, (between sqeals!) it is warmer and smoother sounding than the first Thor with the Silver mica caps.  Could the choice of caps make this difference?  I'm on the verge of ordering all the components with all poly caps and do the build again just like the first layout one from ROG.   Guess I wont really know till I try but, did you find ways of getting your Thor more to your liking with component type changes or FET bias  settings?  My FETS are biased as recommended but I wonder if a little adjusting may smooth things out.  On some of the youtube and ROG sound clips things were sounding pretty smooth.  Lots of gain, and no harshness or rattyness.  It would bve great to get a little closer to that.  I'm almost there but I know it can get closer.  Well, with that said, I'd be very interested in your road to optimum Thor perfomance.  I have a box already drilled, loaded with switchs and jacks, ready for yet another Thor CB.  I'd love to hear your experiences with this cool pedal.  Let me have it! 

Thanks, I appreciate your time!
Phil

[auden100]

I built Thor a while back, and I think it sounds fantastic. I did make a couple of mods. First off, when playing fast, low sequences of notes, I thought it became pretty muddy. I added some 1n34a clipping diodes to ground just before the volume, and that cleaned it up a bit. The tone wasn't quite what it was, but it did improve articulation. I'd be interested to see if there were some better ways (i.e. a lighter effect on the tone) of accomplishing that, but it worked, it's switchable on/off, and it's still a great sounding pedal. Secondly, while I didn't do it for my build, I think Thor could benefit from a broader tone stack.
Build report - http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=87555.0

[auden100]

This talk makes me want to build a new one with a full tonestack. Had a couple hours to kill so I made up a layout. This is Thor combined with the Tonebender, also from ROG. It makes for a heap of off-board wiring, but that's never stopped me in the past. I haven't built it, but it looks right. You might want to double-check it if you use it.

[pd3]

Now that looks fun!  I may have to just grow another half a testicle before taking on that one.  Will have to finish my Germanium Botiqu fuzz face first and I'll consider something like this.  The pedal is so fricken useful to me, I wouldn't mind haveing a few versions around to have at the disposal.   I thought I recalled the boys at ROG claming there was an issue with the tone stack in the first version.  Would just have to look into that first.  Hey, thanks for coming around.  I still am curious to do a build with all film caps, see if that makes any difference. If it doesn't, then I just have an extra Thor around.  Thats a good thing.   

Phil

[Mugshot]

i like it when the fets arent too pushed hard into distortion, but just some gritty goodness! i prefer it more as an overdrive which gets bright hence i hardwired the bypass cap for chirpy tones.

[pd3]

Mugsot, do you mean just keeping the drive knob (preamp)  down or actually lowering the FET bias's at the board level?

Thanks,
Phil

[Mugshot]

both. to me a thor at 9:00-10:00 sounds sweet. i also raised the source resistors a bit to lower gain.

[BoxOfSnoo]

This talk makes me want to build a new one with a full tonestack. Had a couple hours to kill so I made up a layout. This is Thor combined with the Tonebender, also from ROG. It makes for a heap of off-board wiring, but that's never stopped me in the past. I haven't built it, but it looks right. You might want to double-check it if you use it.

That looks awesome!  What kind of off-board wiring do you mean?