High gain distortion volume knob issue

[Scribe]

Hey all,
Im currently breadboarding a high gain distortion pedal similar to the Guv'nor, but with clipping 4148 diodes instead of LED and a non-inverting op amp gain recovery stage At the end.

When the volume is at about half or below, the pedal sounds great, but as I turn the volume up higher, it starts to sound.... bad. It gets a sort of splattery/unfocused, and it loses a lot of treble content. The issue is much more prominent at higher gain settings.

I know the gain of this pedal is quite high, however the output of the pedal is relatively tame even with the added gain recovery stage since I'm using 4148s as clipping diodes. Does this have something to do with crosstalk between the output/input, or is there something else I should consider?

Thanks for the help!

[Scribe]

on further examination, it looks like i deviated a bit further from the Guv'nor than I remembered. Here's a quick sketch of my current schematic.. please forgive my handwriting!

[thermionix]

What are you plugging it into?

[antonis]

it looks like i deviated a bit further from the Guv'nor

If you only substitute "lot" for "bit".. 
(first 2 amps topology only recalls for Guv'nor-alike without clipping diodes inside NFB loop; they're placed between second op-amp out and GND for hard clipping in original Guv'nor..)

I know the gain of this pedal is quite high, however the output of the pedal is relatively tame even with the added gain recovery stage since I'm using 4148s as clipping diodes

You actually recover tonestack loading rather than clipping threashold - like Big Muff Π last stage gain style..
I shouldn't say that a tonestack gain recovery of about 15dB should be considered >high<..

Although I don't like your specific Treble placement (many op-amps don't behave well when driving capacitive loads), try to make 1k & 47nF respective item values..

[Scribe]

Well, I feel silly.

I decided to A/B the pedal with another overdrive and figured out that the output was clipping the front end of my solid state practice amp, however the low amp volume made me think my pedal output was low. Oh, the wonders of testing pedals in an apartment

Thank you all for the help.. Definitely need to get into the habit of using reference pedals when breadboarding new designs!

[iainpunk]

Haha, had something similar happen to me once. I had the gain of the practice amp at 10, and i was wondering why my overdrive didn't have any nuances in its distortion.

Also, welcome to the forum

[marcelomd]

Well, I feel silly.

I decided to A/B the pedal with another overdrive and figured out that the output was clipping the front end of my solid state practice amp, however the low amp volume made me think my pedal output was low. Oh, the wonders of testing pedals in an apartment

Thank you all for the help.. Definitely need to get into the habit of using reference pedals when breadboarding new designs!

Well, i spent a day tailoring the overdrive voicing of a new project and thinking it was too harsh. Turns out most of the overdrive was the input of the tonestack clipping...