Booster in front of TS or integrated boost in TS circuit?

[gutsofgold]

Would sound more natural? Throwing a Mosfet or JFET boost in front of regular Tube Screamer or pulling off a boost channel within the Tube Screamer a la Full Drive 2. I want quite a bit of gain from this circuit and I am trying to minimize noise here.

[Sofl]

I'm not sure what you mean by "in the middle". Where would that be?

http://www.freeinfosociety.com/electronics/schemview.php?id=1136
http://www.pisotones.com/TubeScreamer/MBC/TS-MBC.htm

The TS only has one clipping stage, so either you put it before that to saturate it and get a thicker, rounder sound, or you put it after it as a level/solo boost. Not really any other options.... whichever way you go, its easier to have it in a separate box in front or after the TS, unless you're already in the middle of building one or a clone, that is.


You might want to read up a little, this is one of the best articles I've ever read about the tubescreamer.

http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/TStech/tsxtech.htm



Sofl

[Mark Hammer]

If you want more output from a stock unit, but with the same general tone, then you will need to raise the clipping threshold.  The simplest way to do this is to use a 2+2 or other more-than-1+1 diode arrangement, in tandem with a 1M gain pot instead of the stock 500k.  Such a strategy is frequently used in boutique versions of the basic TS.  You could use a quartet of 1N4148 or 1N914 diodes, or perhaps even a 1N4148+1N34a pair going in each direction.

Note that use of a larger overall feedback resistance (1meg + 51k) will make the impact of the 51pf cap greater at max gain, with a rolloff at just under 3khz, rather than 5.6khz.   You may find that this is something you like, something you can easily compensate for with the tone control, something you never really notice (e.g., if you never dime the gain control), or something that is problematic.  If the latter, then simply reduce the value of that cap to 39pf or so.