TS

[23]

 Ive built 4 or 5 TS's, burst eternity, thinking about a single KoT but something has got me and I was wondering what caused it. Why is it that when I use one of the TS based pedals as a stand alone overdrive I get a clean overtone on the bottom notes or bar chords? Im using a Les Paul with burst buckers and a Marshall 1959 reissue. You can hear the distortion with a clean note mixed with it. IS this normal and why does it do it?


thanks sands

[jasperoosthoek]

That's what the TS is designed to do. Run Off Groove did a good analysis on it and produced a variation based on CMOS inverters. They actually had to mix the clean signal with the distortion signal after the clipping diodes. In a normal TS this occurs naturally because of how the circuit is designed.

I think you hear it so clearly because you push the TS a lot with the bar chords and loud humbuckers. Normally the clean part blends in but due to large amounts of clipping it starts to sound like two sounds altogether. Do you also hear this with the gain/drive turned down?

I could hear what you describe. I especially hear the clean treble strings in the blend. It get's worse with a clean boost before the TS.

[jkokura]

Just so you're aware, the KOT is based on the Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal as far as I know. I think it's similar to the TS, but not quite the same.

Jacob

[ayayay!]

I get a clean overtone on the bottom notes or bar chords?

2 of the major reasons:

1)  The frequency cutoff for the overdrive is 723 Hz and above.  So, to put it simply, you're not getting a lot of distortion on the low notes, clear up to about F# on the D string!

2)  The hotter the pickup, (Les Paul for example) the more the clean signal will be more notable in the blend.  In looking at the first OpAmp stage of a TS, the signal is going into the non-inverted (+) input and still spits out the output, regardless (pretty much) of what's in that's inverting loop.  It's in-and-out clean.

So the outcome is that the harder you pick (and/or, which is more noticeable, the hotter the pickup...) the more clean will burst through suddenly then just as quickly disappear.  

For lack of a better term, it's hack clean-blending.

[slacker]

It's all explained in R.G's technology of the.... article.

[ayayay!]

The frequency cutoff for the overdrive is 723 Hz and above. 

Oops, I didn't word that too well.  The distorted effect is only affecting notes above 723 Hz in a stock TS type circuit. 

[23]

got cha now............. read RG's page also. Gonna try the KoT next. one side high gain the other normal. Thanks a million tho.

sands