Overdrive/Boost - good "platform" for socketing and trying transistors, diodes

[Toy Sun]

Built a Futura drive and put in a few switches to change diodes. Really curious about different components, older transistors, diodes, seeing if I can hear the difference, etc...

I'm looking for suggestions about a basic schematic that lends itself to socketing of transistors and diodes (and anything else) and maybe some interesting components to try.

Thanks in advance,
John

[stallik]

Welcome.
Why not get yourself a breadboard? That way you can 'socket' anything on any circuit. There's many a boutique pedal been made by changing a few components on a tubescreamer

[Toy Sun]

Sorry guys, I didn't do a good job of asking my question.
I'm totally familiar with breadboarding, socketing, etc..

What I'm looking for are suggestions for one of the real mainstay distortion circuit that will really let me focus on what different transistors and diodes sound like. Up to now, I haven't really thought much about it, but I see a lot of talk about geranium, NOS, rare components, etc.. And then I realized that there are guys selling NOS, rare Soviet, and matched sets, and things like that. I thought "wow, it would be cool to fool around with those".

So wondering if anyone has an idea of a relatively simple circuit that would be easy to breadboard up and then play with different components. I imagine it would be one of the classic DIY schematics. Fetzer Valve?  I had a brain fart, said I did this the "Futura" - I meant "Electra" - is that a good platform for this kind of experimentation?

Thanks,
John

[antonis]

http://diy.smallbearelec.com/HowTos/BreadboardUrsaMinor/BreadboardUrsaMinor.htm

You cal easily transfer diode pair after C5 for harder clipping..
(or select between soft / hard via a switch..)

P.S.
You can even try both NFB & Shunt diode clipping simultaneously just to verify how awfull it sounds..

[iainpunk]

You can even try both NFB & Shunt diode clipping simultaneously just to verify how awfull it sounds..

it sound great as long as the NFB & shunt diodes have a different threshold, not the same.
i like using LED and 4148's
4148's in the NFB and LED's to ground gives you overdrive with hard clipping if you play hard enough
vice verse gives you distortion without the annoying op amp fizzle, for smooth high gain sounds.

if you want a good platform for testing diodes, and/or chips, i recommend the DOD 250, or to a lesser extent the RAT.
they are both sensitive to changes to the chip and diodes.
i DIS-encourage tube screamers.
99% of matched transistor sets are for in use with Fuzz Face circuits
just because it's labeled cool, has cool origins or comes from russia, doesnt mean its any different than other components that are basically the same, most, if not all Ge diodes sound the same, all Si diodes, all LED's etc... i don't want to discourage you from trying things, but don't overspend!

cheers, Iain

[jebop]

Personally I've learned everything I know so far by swapping parts on the Electra Distortion circuit. Red Lights Distortion also looks super simple and good for testing parts. The main difference between the two is that Electra uses a bjt and Red Lights uses an op amp.
good luck!

Electra: https://i.pinimg.com/474x/15/b5/92/15b592ba43daeb496e7b208e86aec744.jpg
Red Lights: https://www.hgamps.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Red-Lights-Guitar-Distortion-Schematic.png

Gain control that I used for Electra: https://i0.wp.com/www.caravanelectroworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/15941047_10154115442297541_7245237190649636796_n.jpg