"Clean" Overdrive

[momiel]

Hi everyone!

I started to build a tube screamer/fulldrive clone and now I've quite finished it. But now I understand that I need another sound. Yes, the screamer sound is good, but I need a sound with just a little bit of distortion only when I'm hard picking, and, most important, a sound more full, with more bass and more high than the screamer. Which overdrive can I try to build? Thanks for the help - pardon for my english.

[ninoman123]

Turn down the gain pot on the tube screamer. The tube screamer does a good job of reproducing the sound of your guitar fairly well. If you want more bass and highs you could buy an EQ, or a different guitar. What type of guitar are you using? What type of amp? All of these things affect your sound. If your sound is too thin then try adjusting bass and treble controls on your amp.

[petemoore]

  K...get yourself a CMOS chip [I used NTE4049 but unbuffered is what to look for]
  Then take just a few to build a Tube Sound Fuzz...try that out...then
  Build a booster or two to try on the front end of the TSF, or use a compressor...get some drive going before the CMOS set to a low gain amount...
  Tweek to preference.
  I did this a week ago with an LPB [2n5088] driving the CMOS set to light gain...[actually I'm thinking the TSF Gainpot could do well as a fixed resistor, maybe use that pot spot for a between stages gain adjustment pot], it is, relatively speaking, quite easy to get in the ballpark with this, the name says it all.
  I used a .0033uf cap between stages.
 

[Bernardduur]

Mod the TS / Fulldrive clone to have an intermixable clean channel (just build a mini-Bblender with gain control (Sean) and a mix control for the original sound); instant wowness. Turn the mix knob to the clean side for clean boost or mix in some "distortion" for edge distortion.

Another option: run your clone at 18V (make sure all caps are 18V+ rated). Increase in headroom so it turns more into a clean boost at the low gain settings.

I use both options on my bass overdrive unit, based on the Fulldrive II / Bassdrive with the mini-Bblender.