Soundclip of Doug H's "Highway 89" posted

[Gary]

B Tremblay has posted a clip of Doug Hammond's "Highway 89" circuit.

Check it out here.
http://www.runoffgroove.com/salvo.html#hwy89

Hope I did you some justice, Doug.
*no animals were harmed in the recording of this clip*

[Ansil]

damn.. i want to cry.. that was beautiful..  no really.

[zonta]

dammit man, that sounds like a 300 bucks worth butique pedal. :shock:

p-e-r-f-e-c-t.

[Bill_F]

So...can we expect a perboard layout anytime soon?

[Doug H]

Sounds really nice! Thanks!

What were your settings on the pedal and on the guitar?

Is it on the breadboard or in a box?


Doug

[Ed G.]

Heck, did anyone expect anything less from Doug?
Seriously, that is one great-sounding circuit. Sounds like it smokes any of those high-priced "boutiques" out there.

[Gary]

Doug,

It's still on breadboard.  I took the liberty of playing on the '89 theme and played some 1989-ish sounding stuff.  Grab your tophats and start snake-dancing, kids!

I had the '89's gain maxed, treble up full, bass pretty low.  I used my little PRS SE into the '89 and rolled the guitar volume way down for the rhythm track.  The lead is the neck HB pickup up full with the same settings on the '89 as before.

I've found the bass control acts more to loosen or tighten the bottom end, like an amp (makes sense).  I tend to like the bottom a bit tighter, but running the bass up can give you some nice squishy sounds at high gain.  Lowering the gain helps reign it in and the bass control can fatten the sound back up.  There's a good bit of combinations available.

From the '89, I ran directly to a V-Amp with the preamp bypassed.  I only used the speaker/cab simulator section.  It's supposed to be an emulation of a 4X12 with 30W speakers.  From there, directly to the soundcard.  I recorded with Audacity 1.1.  I added a little reverb with the Freeverb plug-in.

Even with all the A/D/A conversion going on, it still sounded very much the same on the little SS amp I originally tried the pedal with.  The sustain of the lead sound is looonnnggg.  When I read your description of the Highway 89, I thought of overdrive along the lines of a TS or maybe the Blues Driver.  There's a good bit more horsepower in the '89 than that.  You can make it scream at high gain.  I say again, nice work on the circuit!  This and the Meteor are two very nice circuits.  I think they can compete with the top builders' work.  Protect your ideas now, Doug.  Next year, you'll be seeing these circuits in commercial boxes!  Same for Mr. Davisson, too for his Blackfire circuit.

[Doug H]

Even with all the A/D/A conversion going on, it still sounded very much the same on the little SS amp I originally tried the pedal with.  The sustain of the lead sound is looonnnggg.  When I read your description of the Highway 89, I thought of overdrive along the lines of a TS or maybe the Blues Driver.  There's a good bit more horsepower in the '89 than that.  You can make it scream at high gain.  

Yes, the treble control acts as a gain control. I usually run it at 75% which is probably more along the lines of a TS or something. Dimed, it gets a nice cutting gainier sound. It is fun to cut the treble back even more and boost the bass for some thick as mud gainy blues sounds (I hear that a lot in the Route 66 clips on the web). I was kind of surprised by the amt of gain in your lead track, but I don't usually run the treble that high. But even with the treble cut back it is surprising how "gainy" it can sound, esp in a live gigging situation. The fatness and sustain come in real handy and really put your solos out there in front.

I say again, nice work on the circuit!  This and the Meteor are two very nice circuits.  I think they can compete with the top builders' work.  Protect your ideas now, Doug.  Next year, you'll be seeing these circuits in commercial boxes!  Same for Mr. Davisson, too for his Blackfire circuit.

Thanks, this one was kind of a communal effort. Without Joe's Blackfire, the BMBoost, or the RT66 tone stack (and topology) we wouldn't be talking. We can have endless semantic discussions about what constitutes "ownership" I suppose. But I consider this a synthesis of a lot of good ideas.

Doug

[Doug H]

Two! Two! Two posts in one!

[Ed Rembold]

Gary,
My oh, My!
I thought the lead tone was Very impressive!
Great job.

Doug,
I'm really having to exercise self control now-
to keep from asking for a look at the schem.
Wow.
O.K.
I give in- emsas@gte.net

Ed R.

[Samuel]

Any chance I could take a peek too?

samgutterman@hotmail.com

[Marcos - Munky]

Just want to say Beautyful!!!!

[Gary]

Thanks for the compliments, y'all.  Doug's cooked up another killer.  Congrats all go to him.

Doug,
I noted the treble control effect you mention.  It does two things.  It increases the gain, and it also focuses the highs into that "sing-y" tone on the clip.  The bass control feels non-conventional, too.  It really does act more like a "looseness" control.  It's an interesting tone stack, for sure.  As I said before, I've really come to like the Treble Boost into an OD/Dist combo.  It really brings out the "classic" rock sounds I always heard and tried to get to no avail.

If you feel like I do about ownership, it doesn't matter.  I'd just as soon give it all away.  You really have something here.  So does Joe.  I wouldn't be shocked to see some of these circuits end up in mass production sometime soon.

[Ansil]

so gary if we email you can we get a perfboard layout from runoff. :twisted:

[b_rogers]

im having trouble fitting it all on the 3x3 piece of perf i have left over..how small of a piece can in fit on you think? i am a newbie so i think im spreading it out too far..

[petemoore]

I've U shaped the path of a ckt before when all I have is square perf and it's a tight fit/
 If you put your resistors and such going north south instead of east west you can squeeze some width in.
 Standing resistors [instead of laying them flat on the board] saves alot of board real-estate.
 Runoff Groove has a bland Perf template [Small RS Size and another I think] print that a few times and draw up your parts on the print] doing a second draft layout you might be able to save a row of holes here and there/
 I recommend not doing cramped perf ckt's because debugging gets confusing.

[Gary]

Perfboarders:

Hang loose.  B Tremblay has a spiffy layout made.  We've gotta do the right thing and maybe it will be available soon after.  We want to make sure everything is OK first.