GGG Bluesbreaker

[Traintrack]

First off, I have to "Bragg", I built a BSIAB and finished last night. I plugged  into a Boogie and it Worked! First shot. That was my second build, and I built it faster than the BB and it worked the first time. Nice sound also with a '60 Historic Special woke the town up. what a good feeling to have it blast from the start.

I have the BB completed  but not boxed. I plug it in to my pedal Amp, Carr Rambler, and with buckers it sounds like a warm 7/10 overdrive. With S/C's it is weak. the only way to get action is to pin the distortion.I thought I might have smoked the chip, so I bought another and installed a socket and it reads the same with my meter. I know that this is not a HO box and I do like the sound. But it's got one trick and that is when I boost it all the way. I never heard a "real" one to compare it to.

If anyone has ever built this box here are my questions. Do you get a good rip out of this box, or is it warm and medium crunch. I have to admit, it sounds very much like a Marshall with that Amp. But I wish I could get 20% more if I wanted to. I feel like I am getting 1/2 of want I should.

http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/instructions/bluesbr_inst.htm

Has a pin read-out of voltages on the bottom of the page. I am wondering first, Is only pin 8 getting that voltage or is all the pins suppose to have the 8.8? I have 8 and change on that pin, but the rest of the board is reading in 4.3-4.6 volts including to pods. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

[Roobin]

Yeah ive built this one, on perf. I know people say 'Sound samples arent 100% true' but when listening to tonefrenzy's sample, I noticed I had a lot less gain, even if I turn the gain to 3 o'clock. Also, is yours really bright? Or is that just my strat? And hows the noise?
Other than that, you happy with it?

[Traintrack]

Hey Roobin,

The noise is acceptable, it has not been an issue. My tone control works really well. I have it at 11 o'clock and it gives it a very warm sound. I used a strat with the pedal last night and the sound was so weak that I wrote this post. Humbuckers are a better companion.

I still think that there is a way to give me more headroom on this circut, but I won't be able to figure that out. This is not a very popular pedal. I think I am going to buy one on ebay today and compare it. I have a LOT of time invested in this first build not to get it right. I bet someone could burn this box in 1 1/2 hours, I bet I spent 13-15 hours on it so far with changing parts and testing and such.

[Roobin]

Btw, the recommended voltages on the IC, I think theyre just for the power. I use a Strat, and I use the BB as a treble booster when playing with Distortion. Howveer, when I turn the gain up, like past 3 or 4 oclock, it gets fuzzy, like when a hi-fi speaker distorts and goes raspy. Do you get this?

I'm thinking of changing the input cap to add some more lows, maybe experiment with LEDS or Ge diodes. Interestingly, the gain pot controls the gain of both circuits. Also, just to check something, is the signal 180o out of phase at the output, because it goes through thte second opamp section into the inverting input?

When you say more headroom, do you mean is stays cleaner when you turn the drive knob up? Or do you want it to distort earlier? Did you do yours on PCB?

[brett]

Hi.
My BB is fairly similar to my tubescreamer.  ie it isn't a screaming pedal, but can give a solid overdrive sound.  My guitar has humbuckers and medium output.
your drive pot should be a linear, not a log, and check that its actual resistance (read with a multimeter) isn't less that its nominal value by more than 10%.  Also, if you've used a polarised cap to ground the feedback loop, make sure that the polarisation is OK.
cheers

[DLH]

Mine is also very bright, but I play a Strat also. I do like the sound I get out of though.  I use if for more of a "crunchy" clean tone, so I don't really need to have to much drive.

[Traintrack]

After playing it a bit more, I like this pedal. I just had a Kl*n dropped off last week, in a way, the BB does a Kl*n like job, you can use it to shape an overdriven amp pretty well, and I do get more miles with it HB than SC. I just have a wish that it did break up earlier and I could get a bit more rip.

I do have a problem with "more" though, I always want it.