'Blue Magic' build report

[Steben]

Never forget that JFET's are prone to offer a wide range of characteristics. In other words: of 10 J201's maybe 3 or 4 will sounds just great in the circuit, the others won't. I swapped 3 times before I had a good sound.

[HellStorme]

Hi, I don't what it was but i get my blue magic working (magic?!), now I 'm in the process of tunning it so i can achieve it's best sounn,
Wich mods would you recommend me?

[dominatrix_volleyball]

Speaking of mods...

Is the tail end of this circuit be a candidate for Mark Hammer's Stupidly Wonderful Tone Control??

[AL]

if the caps (C13) are bumped up from 530pF to the range I was mentioning (700-800pF), you get a really nice to pronounced boost

That's exactly what I did and it is more noticeable. I was getting a very subtle change with the stock circuit - with the higer value cap the boost is more pronounced and much easier for my old, tired ears to hear.  :lol:

I've been using the Blue Magic for about a month and I LOVE IT. It's very transparent and has a smooth, (dare I say it) natural break-up. Works very well with my Quad Reverb and cuts through nicely in a live setting. The Tube Screamer is officially gone.

Thank you Jake Nagy.

AL

[sevenisthenumber]

Would you guys say this is a "Blues Breaker" or Tube Screamer" type tone?

[danielzink]

I built one of these last summer.

IMO -more TS than Bluesbreaker. This being said - I've only listened to Bluesbreakers on Youtube etc. - I haven't actually built one yet - but I have built a few TS (derivatives).


and there's this:



AMZ Mini Booster vs Tube Screamer vs Bluesbreaker vs Blue Magic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bKJM5HA-XI

Dan

[DougH]

The Blue Magic is a great sounding overdrive. It has a flatter and more open sounding frequency response than a TS. It's not a mid-humpy sound.