Trotsky (Overdrive) Lives (Again)

[jafo]

Second build. Nice little circuit; not exactly flexible, but works great with chugs on the heavier strings. Frankensteined with a 2N2222 and red/yellow LED combo (Rat Shack doesn't seem to carry germanium diodes any more, and I couldn't find my silicons), so it has higher output but much less clipping (I'll prolly replace the yellow LED with a silicon diode later). Good starter project!

It seemed to work fine with leads twisted, but when soldered, it only worked when there was no power. Scratched my head, checked my joints, and noticed that I'd used the wrong resistor between the collector and base: instead of 2M2, I'd used a 3K3 (which, to be fair, is also used in the circuit) -- oops. A quick clip and twist, and I'm making some noise!

Moral: If you're a pro, double-check your components. If you're not, double-check your double-checking.

btw, if I were to raise the collector-base resistor, would it give me more gain to clip? I assume so, since it looks like a feedback thingy. Bit late at night to experiment (but not too late to theorize).

[paulyy]

The Trotsky is a neat little but like you said, Not that flexible. I tried replacing ever resistor at one time just to see what changes I would get but the stock resistors were the ones I stuck with. If you want more gain, try a high gain npn transistor. I used a 2N5088 or 89. I also lowered the input cap to get more of an overdrive tone instead of the low fuzzy overdrive tone you get from the circuit.