Metal Simplex Question

[Baktown]

All,

I haven't asked any newbie questions for a few days, so it's time to break the silence (wind?).

I just successfully built a Metal Simplex, and it sounds great with 2N5089's, but the gain pot will completely shut off the effect when turned all the way down.  My question is:  How can I keep the gain from shutting off completely?  I would like the sweep to go from mildly distorted to wide open metal.

All help is greatly appreciated!

Rock on!

Axl Bundy

[goodrevdoc]

Not familiar with the circuit, but you can put a 'stopping' resistor on the turned down lug of the pot. For instance, with a 100KB pot, if turning the pot just a hair brings back the sound, try a 1K resistor in series with the lug and adjust from there. Does that make any sense?
-justin

[goodrevdoc]

Just checked out the circuit. The gain pot is 100KA, so yeah try a 1K resistor before the pot and adjust to taste...
-justin

[Baktown]

This makes sense once I realized that gain is increased by increasing resistance, right?  Volume would be opposite though, correct?

Thanks,

Axl

[Baktown]

And one last question?  What can be done to increase the overall gain?  It's really more of a punk rock guitar sounding pedal (which is cool) than a metal sounding pedal.

Thanks!

Axl

[ambulancevoice]

And one last question?  What can be done to increase the overall gain?  It's really more of a punk rock guitar sounding pedal (which is cool) than a metal sounding pedal.

Thanks!

Axl

you could do one of three things
use darlingtons inplace of the bjt's
put 1k or 10k resistors on the emitters of the transistors to ground
put a clean boost in front of it

[ambulancevoice]

And one last question?  What can be done to increase the overall gain?  It's really more of a punk rock guitar sounding pedal (which is cool) than a metal sounding pedal.

Thanks!

Axl

you could do one of three things
use darlingtons inplace of the bjt's
put 1k or 10k resistors on the emitters of the transistors to ground
put a clean boost in front of it

if you do the 1k or 10k resistors, put a bypass cap from emitter to ground too
like this
http://www.diystompboxes.com/analogalchemy/sch/easydrive.html

[mars_bringer_of_war]

And one last question?  What can be done to increase the overall gain?  It's really more of a punk rock guitar sounding pedal (which is cool) than a metal sounding pedal.

Thanks!

Axl

you could do one of three things
use darlingtons inplace of the bjt's
put 1k or 10k resistors on the emitters of the transistors to ground
put a clean boost in front of it

Increasing the emitter resistor will actually decrease gain in that circuit. Try removing one or both.

[ambulancevoice]

And one last question?  What can be done to increase the overall gain?  It's really more of a punk rock guitar sounding pedal (which is cool) than a metal sounding pedal.

Thanks!

Axl

you could do one of three things
use darlingtons inplace of the bjt's
put 1k or 10k resistors on the emitters of the transistors to ground
put a clean boost in front of it

Increasing the emitter resistor will actually decrease gain in that circuit. Try removing one or both.

i think thats if you dont use a bypass electro
cause ive seen heaps of people who have replaced 1k gain pots with bypass caps with 1k emitter resistors with bypass caps so that the fuzz or gain control is set on full all the time

[mars_bringer_of_war]

And one last question?  What can be done to increase the overall gain?  It's really more of a punk rock guitar sounding pedal (which is cool) than a metal sounding pedal.

Thanks!

Axl

you could do one of three things
use darlingtons inplace of the bjt's
put 1k or 10k resistors on the emitters of the transistors to ground
put a clean boost in front of it

Increasing the emitter resistor will actually decrease gain in that circuit. Try removing one or both.

i think thats if you dont use a bypass electro
cause ive seen heaps of people who have replaced 1k gain pots with bypass caps with 1k emitter resistors with bypass caps so that the fuzz or gain control is set on full all the time

That's probably likely.