What is the Klon power supply all about?

[Asymmetric]

I was looking at schematics last night and came across the klon. It is a crazy psu section! What's it all about? Could it be taken and used on another pedal?

[Kipper4]

You mean the bipolar power supply?
+9v 0v -9v

Schematic
http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/pdf/ggg_kc_sc.pdf

What did you want to use it in?

[Mark Hammer]

The "crazy" supply is simply used to provide greater headroom.  The pedal is intended to push an amp in a certain way, and NOT to produce any sort of signature overdrive of its own.  Having greater headroom allows for pick attack to push an amp at the edge of breakup.

This is why Bill would have a conversation with prospective customers to determine whether the Klon would be suitable to their particular scenario/rig.

[Asymmetric]

The "crazy" supply is simply used to provide greater headroom.  The pedal is intended to push an amp in a certain way, and NOT to produce any sort of signature overdrive of its own.  Having greater headroom allows for pick attack to push an amp at the edge of breakup.

This is why Bill would have a conversation with prospective customers to determine whether the Klon would be suitable to their particular scenario/rig.

So what does it do exactly to provide this extra headroom? Could you attach it to another circuit like a TS?

[Mark Hammer]

The headroom in a TS is determined by the clipping diodes in the feedback path, and much less by the power supply.  Most of the highly-prized TS derivatives use multiples of diodes to raise the available headroom, rather than  monkey around with the power supply.  So the Boss SD-1 uses 9V but a 2+1 diode complement.  The Timmy pedal also uses 9v but a 2+2 diode complement.  Same for the Bluesbreaker and King of Tone.

In the case of the Klon, the added headroom is really for the buffer, and not for any clipping portions.

[aion]

There's also a +18v in there as well (labeled V2 in the GGG schematic). The last op-amp section runs on +18/-9v with a 4.5v bias point.

I wouldn't try adapting this to anything else - it's very precision-suited for this circuit and its different stages. But certainly a charge pump for +18 w/ 9v bias or +9/-9 with 0v bias is much more common as well as portable.

[Kipper4]

Well spotted I hadnt seen that and assumed it was just a common or garden bipolar.

[Groovenut]

The headroom in a TS is determined by the clipping diodes in the feedback path, and much less by the power supply.  Most of the highly-prized TS derivatives use multiples of diodes to raise the available headroom, rather than  monkey around with the power supply.  So the Boss SD-1 uses 9V but a 2+1 diode complement.  The Timmy pedal also uses 9v but a 2+2 diode complement.  Same for the Bluesbreaker and King of Tone.

In the case of the Klon, the added headroom is really for the buffer, and not for any clipping portions.

IMO the added headroom is for the mixer stage and tone control to keep them from clipping the rails. The input buffer has only 9V supply and 4.5V bias. Given the gain of the mixer stage it would be very easy to clip the rails if not for the added headroom. The 4.5V bias on those stages still almost center biases the stages, given the 18V+ -9V- (not really, more like +16 -8.5) for a total of 27V (24.5). Half of 27=13.5, voltage total from -9 to 4.5 is 13.5, or conversely 18-4.5=13.5.

[vigilante397]

Simplified answer = op-amp overdrive is produced when your amplified signal goes higher than the rail voltage, which in most pedals is 9v. Higher rail voltage means you can amplify more without clipping.

[Asymmetric]

So guess just using a 18v dc power supply would get similar results?

[Groovenut]

So guess just using a 18v dc power supply would get similar results?

Yes just make sure the caps are rated for more than 18V