Best single knob tone control for marshall crunch style distortion? BMP?

[chumbox]

Just building a crunch box style pedal, red LED crunch sound but really not keen on the crunch box tone control. Is there a better single knob tone control that would suit the tone range?

[GibsonGM]

Hey Chum...how about an EQ pedal?  If you want to get serious deep mid scoop while retaining control over low and high, that's what I'd do.   It IS what I do, lol.

If you REALLY have to have ONE knob, yes, a modified BMP tonestack, IMO.    Have you downloaded "Duncan's Tone Stack Calculator"?  It's free, you can model different BMP tone stack values with it.  Personally, I don't like 'tilt controls', tho.  You lose control of the bass & treble, which I really want to tweak...so 3 knobs is my minimum.

[chumbox]

   Have you downloaded "Duncan's Tone Stack Calculator"?  It's free, you can model different BMP tone stack values with it.  Personally, I don't like 'tilt controls', tho.  You lose control of the bass & treble, which I really want to tweak...so 3 knobs is my minimum.

Thanks for the advice Gibson. I'm after one knob as a space saving thing. Loving this tone stack calculator. Thanks for the heads up!

[anotherjim]

I find this page very useful...
http://chasingtone.com/yourguitaramp/guide-to-single-knob-tone-controls/
The BMP is best after the distortion circuit. Turning to the treble side loses bass and the bass is the part of the sound that pushes the distortion most,

[chumbox]

I find this page very useful...
http://chasingtone.com/yourguitaramp/guide-to-single-knob-tone-controls/
The BMP is best after the distortion circuit. Turning to the treble side loses bass and the bass is the part of the sound that pushes the distortion most,

What a great one knob summary! Thanks heaps!

[EBK]

The world needs more active one-knob tone controls, I think.
Here's a nice start (Warning: the linked site will throw annoying pop-ups at you if you let it): http://roymal.tripod.com/ReverbTone.htm

[EBK]

If you scroll way down to Figure 20 on this page, you can read Rod Elliott's very negative take on the circuit I linked to earlier:

http://sound.whsites.net/articles/eq.htm

I still think I'll give it a try someday.   

The math  :
http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4368935/Implement-an-audio-frequency-tilt-equalizer-filter

Edit: The circuit is generally known as the "Quad tilt control", and it has been discussed before on this and many other forums.

[anotherjim]

Where space is limited, we could consider choosing to make one control switched. An spdt on-off-on gives 3 choices which can be enough, especially for bass control.
I'm not much of a fan of either 1 knob tilt or 2 knob stacks at the moment. Where only bass & treble controls are possible, I'm liking separate, simple, low-loss RC for these, preferably separated by a gain stage.

[GibsonGM]

Where space is limited, we could consider choosing to make one control switched. An spdt on-off-on gives 3 choices which can be enough, especially for bass control.
I'm not much of a fan of either 1 knob tilt or 2 knob stacks at the moment. Where only bass & treble controls are possible, I'm liking separate, simple, low-loss RC for these, preferably separated by a gain stage.

+1   they are really quite limited (tilt controls).   Better IMO to have a well-placed bass cut somewhere, if you only have one knob.

A TMB is needed, or an EQ, to get the most out of much of what we build. But that's just my opinion.

[EBK]

Where space is limited, we could consider choosing to make one control switched. An spdt on-off-on gives 3 choices which can be enough, especially for bass control.
I'm not much of a fan of either 1 knob tilt or 2 knob stacks at the moment. Where only bass & treble controls are possible, I'm liking separate, simple, low-loss RC for these, preferably separated by a gain stage.

+1   they are really quite limited (tilt controls).   Better IMO to have a well-placed bass cut somewhere, if you only have one knob.

A TMB is needed, or an EQ, to get the most out of much of what we build. But that's just my opinion.

I'm actually pondering building a tilt with a mids cut/flat/boost switch.  No idea if it will be useful, but it will be fun. 

[anotherjim]

A straight short switched across the BMP (that has the mid scoop) does work much as you'd expect - flat & louder. The BMP knob still has some, albeit reduced effect, depending on source & load impedance interaction.

[Mark Hammer]

What gets called a "Contour" control on various Marshall products is pretty clever.  At one extreme it yields a scoop, and at the other, it yields a more vocal and "rounder" tone.  I used a variant of it in the "Chaos" distortion, that you can see here:  http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.ca/2013/01/chaos-distortion.html  The person demonstrating their build starts varying the Tone settings around the 1:20 mark, to give you an idea of what it does.

While it is a versatile control, I find the BMP type doesn't let me get the tones I want.  One has to sacrifice bite for bottom at one end, and meat for mids at the other.  Although see Jack Orman's various mods for the basic BMP circuit at his AMZ site.  You may be able to tailor the BMP circuit to your tastes.

[GibsonGM]

Did we look at this already? http://www.muzique.com/lab/tone3.htm   Some useful ideas for 1 knob BMP control on that one.

I actually LIKE the "Contour" control, Mark.  Not as easy to find as one may think - do you have an example kicking around as used in a TMB setup by any chance?   My silly 5w practice amp has this, and I've actually recorded with it due to it, LOL.   I think of it as an expanded mid control, in a way.