Question about R.G.'s Softness or Clipping Threshold Mod from Wiki

[afrogoose]

Hello,

I am planning out my second build which will be a TS type OD, and I was thinking about adding an extra pot/hole for this mod.  I was wondering if anyone feels strongly either way about it?  I'm also curious if a linear or audio taper pot would be best?  Also, I'm wondering if this isn't similar to either the "note shape" control on some Barber pedals, or the "bias" on the Emma Reezafratziz (sp?)?  Surely this idea must have been "appropriated" by one of the boutiquers?

[Mark Hammer]

Resistance placed in series with clipping diodes DOES work.  The problem is that since likelihood of clipping will depend on pick attack and a host of other things that keep changing, clearcut changes to tone as a function of setting the pot here...or here...or there, will be difficult to identify for all but the most golden of ears, and even then I imagine that only 40% of what they think they hear will be veridical with reality.  Quite frankly, it's a slippery bugger.

All of which is to say that I imagine pot taper will make little audible difference, unless the pot has/poses a huge range of possible resistances.  You may well be equally well-off with a 3-position toggle that inserts, whether by series addition or by parallel combination, several different resistances.

You should pop over the www.muzique.com and take a look at the assorted articles on "warp" circuits, if you have not already done so.  They're far more instructive than this little post could ever be.

[afrogoose]

Mark, as usual, thanks for the input!  And I checked out the Jack's info on "saturation" controls and "warp" circuits and you were right.  Holy crap!  There is a treasure chest of info there.  I'm not sure how I missed that before.  In case any one is interested in these tweaks, here are some links.

For the "Warp Control"
http://www.muzique.com/lab/warp.htm

And for "Saturation Control"
http://www.muzique.com/lab/sat.htm

[jayp5150]

Keep in mind, that the saturation control examples shown are for diode-to-ground clipping setups. As Mark pointed out, though, adding series resistance will have some effect, though.

There were a few in the Warp controls that are designed for feedback loop clippers, though. I like the one that uses the pot as a splitter, if you will, between two diodes. I've done this on a Bazz Fuss based circuit, and it's a cool knob to have. Depending on diode selection, you may end up with a drastic volume difference from one end of the pot to the other, though.

I just thought I'd point that out, I know when I was still trying to grasp all of this (well, I'm still trying now...), I pored over the saturation control article for hours, the realized it wouldn't really apply to the circuit I was working on lol.

Have fun experimenting.

[joegagan]

I've done this on a Bazz Fuss based circuit, and it's a cool knob to have. Depending on diode selection, you may end up with a drastic volume difference from one end of the pot to the other, though.

i understand. i may be guilty of overusing dualgang pots, but i have had great results with duals- one side adds diode clipping, the other side compensates the volume of the circuit to compensate.
takes a fair amount of experimenting to get a proper balance, but the result is definitely worth it.

[R.G.]

It's nice, itsn't it?   

[afrogoose]

Jay

Thanks for the heads up.  At some point I realized that some of this wouldn't work with a TS like circuit, but it's okay, because I think your right and the blend pot between two sets of clippers is very cool and I'm going to try and run with that.  I am building this off of the GGG ITS8 board, and with the "very expensive" mod you can actually choose via on-off-on switch between two sets of clippers.  I was hoping I could find a way to sub the switch for a pot and voila!
     

[jayp5150]

No problem. What little I do know was learned here foremost. I think you could easily use a blend pot instead of the switch on the ITS8 board. Let us know how that turns out.