Rick Tone Tremo-Drive

[Mike6158]

Here's a little project that stalled out a few months ago. I always seem to get hung up on how to "box it up".

It's a fairly simple tremolo circuit that uses a single 12AX7.

Pic of the prototype

[lapsteelman]

Very Nice!!!  Have you tried it? How does it sound?

[Mike6158]

Not yet. That's why it's still a prototype. If it works I'll put the Eagle files up here. When I built it I was missing input / output jacks and one pot. I have them now but I got sidetracked by work and some other projects. I "found" the board yesterday when I was looking for some other parts. "Found" means it was on the bench but under some schematics

[Mike6158]

Not yet. That's why it's still a prototype. If it works I'll put the Eagle files up here. When I built it I was missing input / output jacks and one pot. I have them now but I got sidetracked by work and some other projects. I "found" the board yesterday when I was looking for some other parts. "Found" means it was on the bench but under some schematics

I kludged it together on the bench. It's actually a volume boost / tremolo effects pedal btw. The volume boosts enough to cause my little 15W Marshall to break up. I've got some bigger amps to try it on but it'll probably be next weekend before I get to try it out

Someone pointed out to me that the transformer cores were tied to ground. I didn't have them grounded with my test setup. The volume boost worked. The tremolo had a kind of popping sound at what I think are the peaks. I need to put it in a box and see if I can find the source. I'm amazed that it wasn't worse than that considering how I didn't have anything mounted or shielded.

[Mike6158]

Here's a short video of the scope on the output, a popping noise, and plucking a few strings (I am not a guitarist by any means)

https://vimeo.com/190812646

[TejfolvonDanone]

I think the popping noise the control signal feed through. If you add a highpass filter to the output with a corner frequency around 10-20Hz this should be gone or at least decreased. However the tremolo modulates the input noise when you don't play and this can be heard but not like a popping as in your build.
It sounds nice to say the least.

[Mike6158]

I think the popping noise the control signal feed through. If you add a highpass filter to the output with a corner frequency around 10-20Hz this should be gone or at least decreased. However the tremolo modulates the input noise when you don't play and this can be heard but not like a popping as in your build.
It sounds nice to say the least.

I appreciate the feedback. I think that the circuit is viable. The original design was for point to point wiring. I suppose that it's possible that my board layout is contributing to the popping sound.

I've put the Eagle files, some photos, and the combined PDF files for building this project on Github. At least I think I did. It was my first post to Github. Maybe someone that is better at laying out this kind of circuit will come up with a better idea. One thing I've considered doing is mounting the tube off of the board, on a socket mounted on standoffs inside the enclosure. That might reduced the size of the board (night not) or at least allow a little greater separation between the DC power supply section and oscillator. Plus it solves the problem of the tube sticking up through the enclosure or having to use a "cube shaped" enclosure.

Link:  https://github.com/Mike6158/Rick-Tone-Trem-O-Drive