Ring Fuzz?

[thomasthebuzzard]

I wanted to make as simple of an active ring mod pedal as possible. I failed but I came up with a great faux ringer! It makes i nice dirty fuzzy gated ringing and some good bell sounds. (It isn't very responsive when i play harmonics on my bass though so beware!)
Here it is. To the veterans: PLEASE DON'T BE FORGIVING! I am learning alot. I haven't made that many schematics. It is sloppy as heck. Also I kept all the values pretty basic. 1uf cap, .1uf cap, 2n3904 tran, 100k and 1 meg pots and Zener diodes from radshack. I've built this circuit a few times and it has worked everytime so i think it is fairly solid. The diodes from the emitter to base of Q3 and the ring intensity control are what cause the gating. Adding diodes add more gate, removing diodes makes for less gating. Most of the values of the resistors and caps can be changed to suit your taste. The connection between c2 and c6 can be cut or put on a switch for a more droney type of ringing. BIG IMPORTANT NOTE: THIS CIRCUIT KILLS VOLUME SO ADD YOUR FAVORITE BOOSTER AT THE END! FUN!

[slacker]

Crazy, I likes it  Thanks for sharing it.

[jrod]

Interesting, TBuzz! Thanks for sharing!!!

[thomasthebuzzard]

I think the volume kill is happening during the Q3 stage. It is running passively and there are alot of diodes in the circuit. I think that maybe there is a pretty good volume drop where C3 splits into two different stages.

[amptramp]

Umm...  Should there be a collector load resistor for Q3?  Maybe this is why you are losing volume.

[thomasthebuzzard]

I know that part of the volume is because Q3 is wired bassackwards for the most part but that is the most important part of the whole circuit. I really think that a nice clean boost at the end will make this loud enough. I use my linear power boost and it works fine.