Vulcan Build Report - Just Do It

[WGTP]

The Vulcan sounds REALLY cool.  Thick rich smooth distortion.  Easy Build/tweak

Joe Davidson is on a roll.  Thanks Joe.  

Experimenting:  I haven't messed with the diodes yet, but...

So far I made the first stage into a treble booster by using a .001uf cap between the first and second stage and then a .01uf cap to ground after the second stage so the 2nd stage got a big blast of highs and the 3rd got full range.  Also reduced the resistor between 2 and 3 stage to 1K, since the cap was draining a lot of signal.  Or added the .01 cap after the output.  Or using a smaller cap in both places for 12/db per octive roll off.

My goal is to have a higher level of distortion on the highs than the lows, but not have a bright sounding pedal, just more lush highs.

Sounds good in all configurations.  Lots of caps to play with and tune.  The bypass caps also lend themselves to tweaking.

Thanks to Gary for encouraging me to get the small RS breadboard.  I whooped this out in about 30 minutes.  Just moved the in/out jacks and battery clip from my ROG M project board.  If you don't have one or three...

[jimbob]

Thanks for the tips..im finishing my vulcan today..Built the blackfire last week.. I was suprised to find that this was so much a better distortion pedal than the dod-250 ..in my opinion..as well as many others.. Its a shame Joe dont get the same kinda cash as  DOD.

[jimbob]

Finished but not working.O well. Guess itll give me something to do. It sucks when i cant get it working 1st try, but i do learn when it dont. But..I do have time. :lol:  Lotsa time.

[WGTP]

Yes it's the pits when things don't work the first time.  This breadboard stuff is really cool.  I'm realizing I might actually get to build some of the stuff I wanted to try and thought I'd never have the time.  I may need one for a bunch of stages then I can mix and match 2 or 3 at a time.

I tweaked the Vulcan some to quiet it down a little (you know how rowdy Vulcans can get and they don't like being illogically messed with, but I made it less angry).  I changed the by-pass caps to 2.2uf for stage 1 and 10uf for stage 2 & 3.  Also removed the .002uf cap in parallel with the 220K reistor between stages 1 and 2.  A little sweeter and smoother now.  Adding a cap to ground at the end, .002uf makes it smoother still.  

I messed with the diodes and found the SI's to be my preference.  The GE's are a little softer and fuzzier sounding (no suprise there).  LED's seemed to have too high a threshold to sound good.

Hang in there jimbob, it's worth it.

Very nice job Joe.  Thanks loads and keep um coming.  

[Jered]

Hi guys,
   If you like the sound of the Vulcan don't let this one slip past you, it sounds killer.

http://analogalchemy.com/pedals/kathode.html

 Jered