Bass Balls Mods

[RickL]

I just finished this this weekend and thought I would report on the success of the mods I did (mostly suggested by Mark Hammer).

Attack - replace the 100 ohm resistor after the diode in the envelope detector circuit with 33 ohm and 1k pot. Works as advertized, noticable change in the attack.

Decay - add 10uF cap in parallel with the 4.7uF cap using spst switch. Also works, noticable lengthening of decay. I might use a spdt centre-off switch to also add another 4.7uF cap for one more decay choice.

Fuzz - replace 47k resistor with back-to-back Ge diodes. This works too, but I added to the mod by replacing the 100k/47k divider with a 47k resistor for the 100k resistor and a 100k pot for the 47k resistor (wired as a divider). A switch lets me choose between Mark's diode mod and what amounts to a volume control for the standard fuzz configuration.

Two more filters - Now it has four filters, each connected to the circuit with half of a spst switch. I can choose any or all of the filters. All four together sound pretty cool. I used 0.047uF and 0.0022uF caps for the extra filters. The other half of each switch will be used to direct each filter to one of two outputs. Filter trim pots are, of course, moved to panel mounts.

This one is worth revisiting if you haven't played around with it for a while.