Highway 89 vero. Crazy gain.

[j.d.roost]

I am building a Vero 89 (Ulysses layout) and it sounds great for what it is.
The problem is that it's pretty much a distortion/metal pedal with the amount of gain on tap.
I was looking for a Llama style od with this thing and it's just a bit too over the top for what I need it for (anywhere 1/4 inch off of zero on the gain knob yields ripping distortion).
I used 5088's in my build but thought that would decrease the gain not increase it.

Did I maybe miss a value here or does this pedal have more on tap as to what was in it's description?
Anything I can switch around to pull out some gain without messing with the pedals voice?

I looked for sounds clips but could not find any.

Thanks.

[PRR]

Unsolder C10.

[B Tremblay]

http://home-wrecker.com/salvo.html#hwy89

[kurtlives]

Unsolder C10.

Or partially bypass C5 and C10.

But yes ton of gain on tap and gain knob is really an off or extreme switch.

[DougH]

You guys who are finding this circuit ultra-gainy are building it wrong. Mine never sounded like that.

[Mark Hammer]

I like the sound on mine, and can get a nice smooth overdrive (one of the nicest blues overdrives I've ever used), but I find the gain pot is a little twitchy.  I haven't spent enough time looking at it to tell whether it is a matter of the taper of the Gain pot (don't know that I've ever seen that specified anywhere), or whether it might simply be better to replace that 10k pot with something like a 5k1 fixed off one lug of a 5k pot to "expand the space" on the control.

Once I get back to it, I think I might also swap R6 (15k) and R7 (10k) around, making each the value of the other, to get a little more bass boost and a little less bass cut.

[j.d.roost]

So an option would be to sub in a 5k gain pot attached the same was as the 10k to get a bit less overall gain (and make it a bit smoother)?
Could I also toss the 22uf (c5 or c10) on a toggle and just connect/disconnect it for high/low gain use?

I did cut c5 today and it cut the gain a bunch.
Did not mess with c10 yet (it's a bit harder to get to).

[DougH]

Mark, yes from what I recall the gain pot needed a little work as far as getting the smooth travel right. I tried a couple things that didn't work and never went back to it. I used a log taper pot IIRC.

edit: Oh yeah, that was a Rangemaster-style gain control. I might suggest trying a reverse-log pot there. I think that's what I ended up liking better in my Rangemaster (actually wired a log pot backwards so you turn it counter-clockwise to increase gain).

[Paul Marossy]

You guys who are finding this circuit ultra-gainy are building it wrong. Mine never sounded like that.

Mine isn't real high gain either.

[Mark Hammer]

You guys who are finding this circuit ultra-gainy are building it wrong. Mine never sounded like that.

Mine isn't real high gain either.

So are we looking at individual differences in 2N5089 hfe?

[Paul Marossy]

You guys who are finding this circuit ultra-gainy are building it wrong. Mine never sounded like that.

Mine isn't real high gain either.

So are we looking at individual differences in 2N5089 hfe?

Could be...

[DougH]

Doubtful.

Variations in hfe for 2n5089 in this circuit shouldn't account for a dramatic variation in gain, from what I recall. Driving more current may increase high frequency content, but it's not going to turn the highway 89 into a "metal pedal".

[Paul Marossy]

Variations in hfe for 2n5089 in this circuit shouldn't account for a dramatic variation in gain, from what I recall.

Yeah, I thought about that too. I kinda have to agree. My Hwy 89 is far from a high gain monster. If people are making a mistake when building them, they must all be making the same mistake! 

[j.d.roost]

Did all of you with "spec" distortion levels build off the vero layout (I did)?
I got to post up a sound clip.It's got killer gain.
Sounds great for what it is.
I put a cutout switch on c5 and absolutely halfs the gain available.
Guess I will go over it for a 5th time and see if I missed a resistor value.

I am new so please don't fry me for asking dumb questions....but would using a larger resistor on r5 and r14 (E-to ground resistors) help to decrease gain?

[Paul Marossy]

Mine was made with someone's perfboard layout made shortly after Doug debuted the circuit, it's not from a vero layout.

[DougH]

Did all of you with "spec" distortion levels build off the vero layout (I did)?
I got to post up a sound clip.It's got killer gain.
Sounds great for what it is.
I put a cutout switch on c5 and absolutely halfs the gain available.
Guess I will go over it for a 5th time and see if I missed a resistor value.

I am new so please don't fry me for asking dumb questions....but would using a larger resistor on r5 and r14 (E-to ground resistors) help to decrease gain?

I would suggest verifying that the vero layout is actually correct and that you have all the correct component values. Resistor color codes can be tricky sometimes. Try breadboarding it according to the schematic and see how it sounds.