New BOOSTER for ya !!!!

[Paul Marossy]

Dragonfly-

You've got high standards, I've seen the insides of some of those Hiwatt amps.  :wink:

[Mark Hammer]

On boosters like this, with a high input impedance, it is not unreasonable to leave it in the signal path all the time.

But what to do about the boost and indicator led?  Simple.  If the gain setting rheostat yields full gain at zero ohms, then one can use half a DPDT switch to select between full tilt, and whatever the value of the rheostat is, and the other half to turn the indicator LED on.  That's what I did to my AMZ-MosFet boost.  Works great.  

If you want to get finicky, you can use two drive presets and select between them so that you have some basic drive level, and then another drive level on top of that.  Wire up two 5k pots as variable resistors, but in series (max series resistance of 10k, in principal, but pots beiong pots it will likely be around 9k).  Connect the common of one set of footswitch contacts to the junction between the pots, and use a second switch contact to shunt one of the pots.  The unshunted one becomes max boost, and the shunted one becomes an additional resistance that sets default boost amount.  Naturally, the two controls will interact, but you'll get some flexibility.  You may not even have to use a "level" pot.

[Alpha579]

wow, dragonfly, that enclosure looks awesome! how did u do that?

[Peter Snowberg]

i put the input cap in there more out of "habit" than anything else....its nice to know that theres a good reason for it to be there

i  thought it sounded great, so i left the pedal exactly as i built it...

Cool.

Good design "habit".

DC blocking is a good thing.

Nice build and excellent standards to aspire to Dragonfly!

Thanks for posting your booster.

[Dragonfly]

Dragonfly-

You've got high standards, I've seen the insides of some of those Hiwatt amps.  :wink:

theyre pretty much a "work of art", arent they !

[Dragonfly]

On boosters like this, with a high input impedance, it is not unreasonable to leave it in the signal path all the time.

But what to do about the boost and indicator led?  Simple.  If the gain setting rheostat yields full gain at zero ohms, then one can use half a DPDT switch to select between full tilt, and whatever the value of the rheostat is, and the other half to turn the indicator LED on.  That's what I did to my AMZ-MosFet boost.  Works great.  

If you want to get finicky, you can use two drive presets and select between them so that you have some basic drive level, and then another drive level on top of that.  Wire up two 5k pots as variable resistors, but in series (max series resistance of 10k, in principal, but pots beiong pots it will likely be around 9k).  Connect the common of one set of footswitch contacts to the junction between the pots, and use a second switch contact to shunt one of the pots.  The unshunted one becomes max boost, and the shunted one becomes an additional resistance that sets default boost amount.  Naturally, the two controls will interact, but you'll get some flexibility.  You may not even have to use a "level" pot.

see, i just throw stuff together till it works...Mark actually "knows" what he's doing


GREAT post Mark, and lots of great info, as usual !

[Dragonfly]

i put the input cap in there more out of "habit" than anything else....its nice to know that theres a good reason for it to be there

i  thought it sounded great, so i left the pedal exactly as i built it...

Cool.

Good design "habit".

DC blocking is a good thing.

Nice build and excellent standards to aspire to Dragonfly!

Thanks for posting your booster.

posting it is the least i can do...i get so much great info from you guys, and have learned SO much from this forum.

i'm really excited about this booster...for me, and my rig, its the best booster ive heard...and im a bit of a pedal geek !

those old Hiwatts were made by off-duty military EE's, and everything is at right angles, and cut to perfect lenghts...theyre amazing amps to look at, and they sound pretty amazing as well

[Dragonfly]

wow, dragonfly, that enclosure looks awesome! how did u do that?

pretty simple, really...its just a vinyl decal...

ive tried shooting clear over it, and have been fairly successful...its durable, looks cool, and its easy to work with....

just order yourself some printable vinyl decal sheets and youre in business !!!

[Karmasound]

Thanks for sharing. i'm going to give it a try when I get some parts in.

[macula56]

excellent design. i'm gonna order the parts now. where do you find vero board? i've never seen that before. is this something new? also, do you have any soundclips yet? jmac

[Dragonfly]

excellent design. i'm gonna order the parts now. where do you find vero board? i've never seen that before. is this something new? also, do you have any soundclips yet? jmac

iirc, www.futurlec.com has veroboard....

its an EASY build, regardless of whether you perf it or use the vero....

enjoy, and let me know how it turns out !

(BTW...you can use a J201, NTE458, or MPF102 in it...just watch the pinouts....but IMO, the NTE458 sounds best in it...which makes sense, as i designed the circuit around the NTE458...)

enjoy !



andy
dragonfly fx

[Dragonfly]

Thanks for sharing. i'm going to give it a try when I get some parts in.

let me know how ya like it !!!!

rawk on!

[Dragonfly]

Not hijacking this thread, but I just put this together and sounds _really_ good with my Tele and Tramp. Low gain settings are cool, but there's a fair bit of kick as you wind it up. Thought others might like a tiny veroboard layout for it ...



I used a 47nF input cap as marked.

THANKS DRAGONFLY  

i just wanted to mention that Torchy's layout appears to be for the J201 fet version...it has the DSG setup...the NTE458 would need to have the legs twisted to work in this layout, as it's DGS

i thought this info might save some headaches

[Torchy]

crp

[bwanasonic]

If anyone might find it useful, I did a PCB layout of Dragonfly's *Sparkle Boost* for my own use. It's designed to work with the parts I use, so YMMV. Note that I call it *sparkster*, after a character in one of my favorite video games (Rocket Knight Adventures for the Genesis). Hopefully it's free of any embarrasing errors. The tranny is DSG.



Thanks Dragonfly! I hope to get mine off the breadboard and into a box soon.

Kerry M

[Dragonfly]

If anyone might find it useful, I did a PCB layout of Dragonfly's *Sparkle Boost* for my own use. It's designed to work with the parts I use, so YMMV. Note that I call it *sparkster*, after a character in one of my favorite video games (Rocket Knight Adventures for the Genesis). Hopefully it's free of any embarrasing errors. The tranny is DSG.



Thanks Dragonfly! I hope to get mine off the breadboard and into a box soon.

Kerry M

glad you like it...im really impressed with its tone...im making one for Kyle Cook (Matchbox 20) tonight, and then tomorrow i have to make one for Matt Boyer (Sun Kil Moon) ....its a smokin' booster..

looks like its time to talk to the powdercoaters and get production started

[jmusser]

Man, you're stuff looks great even on the inside! I've built my stuff in a two circuit fixture that works great for building, but leaves my leads too long. I end up with a rat's nest in there because of it. I guess one of these day's I'll slow up and actually have an enclosure sitting there to build the circuit and dress the wires into like I used to, but it hasn't worked out that way. I have several unpainted housings full of rat's nest circuits. I plan to go back and dress them in sometime though. Since I don't have any warm place to paint these boxes, it'll have to wait until spring, but once I do, you'll have some competition on your enclosures. Not so much from great paint jobs, but from the styling. They're all very unique, and I've spent a lot of time in fabrication.

[Hailstorm350]

can anyone make sound-clips of this baby?
it wouldbe appreciated,
Thanks

[Dragonfly]

Man, you're stuff looks great even on the inside! I've built my stuff in a two circuit fixture that works great for building, but leaves my leads too long. I end up with a rat's nest in there because of it. I guess one of these day's I'll slow up and actually have an enclosure sitting there to build the circuit and dress the wires into like I used to, but it hasn't worked out that way. I have several unpainted housings full of rat's nest circuits. I plan to go back and dress them in sometime though. Since I don't have any warm place to paint these boxes, it'll have to wait until spring, but once I do, you'll have some competition on your enclosures. Not so much from great paint jobs, but from the styling. They're all very unique, and I've spent a lot of time in fabrication.

thanks !!! it just takes a little patience...like i said, im not real happy with the inside appearance of the booster...i like this one (below) a bit better, but theres still room for improvement...of course, if youre just building for yourself, it doesnt make nearly as much difference


im looking forward to your pics once you get the fx "dressed"... !!!

[bwanasonic]

can anyone make sound-clips of this baby?
it wouldbe appreciated,
Thanks

Keep in mind that boosters in general are very amp dependent, so it makes it hard to have a meaningful clip. It's also the beauty of them, because they form a symbiotic relationship with your amp (or the next effect in the chain). They also work well for both clean and dirty tones. The *Sparkle-Drive* is a very close relative of the Fetzer, with the ability to crank up the *grit-factor* some more. If you have a *vintage-style* tube amp and passive pickups, you should try a bunch of these type circuits to find the one that works best with your setup (and your ears). Not to say they won't work with active pickups and *triple-rectum-fryers*. As a matter of fact I'd be curious to hear reports of how this family of circuits (single-stage discrete boosters) work with a so-called *modern* setup (multi-channel cascaded gain stage amp, active pickups, multiple facial piercings, etc).

Kerry M