Tube Reamer similar to Direct Drive SS?

[Xavier]

After four succesful builds, I still have a 1590B sized box left. Too small for the Colorsound overdriver, so.......

I do have a Direct Drive SS in my pedalboard, but it's currently my only non DIY pedal on it, so I'd like to build a close sounding pedal. The DDSS is kind of a gainy SD1. It's somewhere halfway between an SD1 and a RAT. Capable of heavy overdrive and kind of dark sounding. It has the usual (socketed) 4558 and 2+2 1n4148 diodes in the feedback loop, as long as some trimpots for tweaking.

I was wondering if the Tube Reamer could deliver a similar sound, using the same array of diodes. Looks like a simple and nice circuit.

[David Barber]

I looked up the Tube Reamer on the search function, I have a feeling you would need a add on board to get the recovery section of the DDSS happening, the initial drive and presence circuit would be fine on the Reamer style board, but you need a place to add some trims or you will need to use a larger enclosure and put all the controls on top. The DDSS is not a tube screamer style drive, the only thing similar is clippers in the feedback loop, but they are really there to shape the signal before it goes to the shunt to ground clippers that follow the output of the first gain stage.

Think along these lines for s DDSS style circuit, first stage uses a standard feedback clipper with a second adjustable RC network tuned to a higher freq for presence, then the output goes to a tunable secondary shunt to ground clipper, then the recovery stage uses a classic “vinyl style”  dual adjustable RIAA circuit…this should get you in the area, with a little creativity you could make something with your own twist!


Enjoy! 



David

[MartyMart]

The tube reamer is a GREAT little circuit, try this :
Change the gain pot to a 50k log and reduce the feedback resistor to about 120-150k
You'll have more of a gain range then and still have it "thin out" as gain is increased.
I like the sound of a 1N4148 and a 1N4001 in mine .... choose your weapons !
Perhaps make the output cap switchable ( you just have enough room) for different
tones.

MM.

[Stevo]

I built mine stock but added a little more resistor to the feedback loop 820K is was a little light on the gain side, the 5K pot does not really function for me except as a slight body or tone control... so I added  a minibooster J201,s to the end of it with all .1uf caps and a 1K resistor to the source to ground, of the bottom fet.. and the thing just jumped out at me ...It is my only pedal on one board as it adds really good gain with slight distortion to it!!

[BDuguay]

I've always thought the Direct Drive SS was a sort of low gain pedal, not really capable of heavy overdrive. Now, I'm only going by what I've read and heard on David's site.
BTW, at the risk of sounding like a little arse kisser David, I must tell you your gear looks great and very road worthy. I'm very keen to try some them in person someday.
Keep up the good work!
B.

[David Barber]

I've always thought the Direct Drive SS was a sort of low gain pedal, not really capable of heavy overdrive. Now, I'm only going by what I've read and heard on David's site.

Check out the file on the link below, that pretty much sums up the gain range of the DDSS into a dead clean amp. Pickups are Duncan Seth Lovers mounted on a slab of mahogany.

http://barberelectronics.com/SShamer.mp3

[wampcat1]

I've always thought the Direct Drive SS was a sort of low gain pedal, not really capable of heavy overdrive. Now, I'm only going by what I've read and heard on David's site.
BTW, at the risk of sounding like a little arse kisser David, I must tell you your gear looks great and very road worthy. I'm very keen to try some them in person someday.
Keep up the good work!
B.

having owned one of the ddss pedals myself, it really is a GREAT sounding pedal, and definately more than low gain. It isn't a metal type pedal at all, but it is very flexible - sounds good both as a low gain pedal, and a near-distortion pedal.

Honestly, I don't hear the tube reamer type sound in it at all, the ddss is more dynamic and much better with the gain low. Also, for lack of a better description, the clipping sounds more complex than the tube reamer (probably due to the multiple clipping stages). Very cool of you David to point us DIY'ers in the general direction of what you are doing with the DDSS   .

Take care and Merry Christmas,
Brian

[bwanasonic]

Think along these lines for s DDSS style circuit, first stage uses a standard feedback clipper with a second adjustable RC network tuned to a higher freq for presence, then the output goes to a tunable secondary shunt to ground clipper, then the recovery stage uses a classic “vinyl style”  dual adjustable RIAA circuit…this should get you in the area, with a little creativity you could make something with your own twist!

David - thanks for the tips on OD architecture. Right now I use a Nobels ODR1 as my main OD pedal, and the *block diagram* you describe seems familiar from looking at the ODR1 schematic in general terms. Descriptions of the DDSS sound like it is *right up my alley* in OD taste, but I have never tried one. The tunability of the stages sounds very useful.

Kerry M

[Xavier]

Thanks for chiming in David !!! . I have been using the DDSS for one year and I'm very happy with it. All the pedals in my board have been changing constantly, except for the DDSS.

Diodes to ground? . Really, I thought the DDSS was a turbocharged TS type OD. It doesn't sound like a diodes to ground pedal to me, it's amazing. Probably it's the most effective stand alone OD pedal I've tried, for medium to medium.high gain applications.

Kerry, I'm curious about the ODR1. I haven't had the chance to try one with my setup, but sounds interesting...

Marty, thanks for the suggestions, as always

[MartyMart]

The Nobels ODR-1 is a sleeper, I have not taken a good look at a schem, to see
what's happening, but it sounds like a "better" TS808 to me, with a bit more of
a gain range and a tone control that " does something"  !!
Has a bit more low end too, but not "mushy" at all.
ODRS, is even better, with bass/treble eq ....

MM.

[WGTP]

By "vinyl style" riaa type circuit, do you mean bass boost up 500Hz???

[David Barber]

By "vinyl style" riaa type circuit, do you mean bass boost up 500Hz???

The frequency is not important, I tune that to work with the overdrive stage that precedes the recovery stage. The phono preamps looks something like this pic, that is the basic idea, you can get more complex as well.

[WGTP]

I didn't write that very well.  What I meant was your using bass boost after the clipping stages and reducing it thru the clipping stages for the variety of reasons discussed here on the forum.  Cool approach

[David Barber]

You got it, the basic concept came about while I was building some tube hi fi preamps about 10 years ago, I thought about how much nicer the "texture" of a distorted signal was when bass was limited before the clipping, and using the same basic concept from phono pres I started developing overdrives (for me!) that only carried enough bass to make it recoverable in a later stage...it was natural to make a souped adjustable up version of a phono preamp to rebuild the signal after creating the sustain, harmonics and texture.

[troubledtom]

thats really cool dave
        thanx for chime'n in.
                 peace,
                  - tom

[David Barber]

I was asked by Ed G in a pm about values for the riaa circuit for overdrive, I thought it would help this thread to have a starting point so I will post my response here as well.


The values are going to depend on the rest of your circuits tuning, I use .01-.015 for the mid bands, and .056-.15 for deeper bass freq, yet this is still changed on different models. the resistance is usually between 1k-50k (pretty wide range) you still have limits of the power supply and op-amp, but there is a lot less color and shift than you would expect from standard EQ.

Here is an FET version I drew, tubes can adapt very easily as well to this same design.

[WGTP]

Good info Dave.  Thanks.  For the TS type circuit, I think this is a better use of the 2nd op amp than a treble control that can be effected thru other means.   

[CS Jones]

One of the reasons I don't use velcro anymore on the bottom of pedals to hold them to the board is because several years ago, in between sets while I was hanging outside by the dumpster with the rest of the band, someone was inside helping themselves to my velcroed Barber Burn Unit. Unplugged it and took it right off the board.  I came back for the 3rd set and there's an empty spot on my board where it was.

That must have been a serious tone "jones".
Everything I use now is screwed down.


Barber pedals... tone to beg, borrow or steal for.