Tripple build report (pics)

[bwanasonic]

I had some boards made a while back, including a layout for Tim Escobedo's *Tripple*. I never breadboarded or otherwise tested the circuit, so I was just hoping my layout was OK when I finally got around to building it the other night. I went with the *spec* value for all parts.



Still a much higher *spaghetti factor* in my builds than I would like:



The really pleasant suprise for me was how well this pedal does *edge of breakup* tones. People often describe the lower gain spectrum of this pedal as "tube screamer-ish*, but I think it's more like the Boss BD2 in the way it goes from *clean boost* into *edge of breakup* into *fuzz* ( no nasal mid-hump). Of course the fun thing is then you have the *sick fuzz* thing on tap as well. I managed to wire the gain pot backwards, but I plan on leaving it that way and labeling it *sanity*, going from zero to *edge of*. Eventually I'll see what effect swapping transistors has, but I like it fine the way it is for now. I've only tried it with my practice setup so far, but I expect it to be a usefull addition with *the big amp* as well.

Kerry M

Gratuitous gear photos:

http://home.earthlink.net/~bwanasonic/images/tripple_board01.jpg

http://home.earthlink.net/~bwanasonic/images/tripple_rig02.jpg

http://home.earthlink.net/~bwanasonic/images/tripple_rig01.jpg

[bwanasonic]

Never being one to leave well enough alone, I toyed with transistor swaps today and found it didn't make any life-changing differences by swapping out the 2N2904/2N2906 with a 2N5087/2N5089. Since the PCB I used is double-sided thru hole, I don't think I'll be swapping out anything not socketed if I can help it  :wink: Wondering if anyone else has noticed a kind of strange behavior of the gain control? It does a weird kind of glitchy sound if you quickly change the gain setting, almost like it lags for a split second then tries to catch up with the pot. If you use low output single coils and light strings, the tripple works nicely as a slight thickening agent at lower gain settings. With humbuckers and heavy strings, it will breakup even at the lowest gain settings. You can see the equipment I'm testing with in the above links, as well as my new pride and joy from a down under forum member

It's raining cats and gongs...

Kerry M

[MartyMart]

Nice build Kerry !
I don't think thats very "spaghetti western" myself .... !
I like your description of the sound of its "edge of breakup" area, thats one feature I like a lot, "Full on" hi-gain sounds are easy, but nice good quality "edge of" areas are harder to come by ..

Good work man,
Regards,
Marty.

[octafish]

I built mine and socketed the diodes. It made no difference to the sound at all when they were removed. Anyone else find that? My q1 had a Hfe of about 700 and I reduced the 5M resistor to a 2M2 to compensate, maybe too much? Nice work by the way, I'm still using bits of gaffa tape to tame my wires.

[Ge_Whiz]

I get the gain-control 'glitch' thing too - I think it's fairly typical of circuits where the gain is set by the emitter resistance to ground. Certainly I have a fuzz-face build that behaves similarly. In my case, the sound briefly cuts out completely before recovering. No big deal.

[manson]

I realy like to build this one, who has a pcb layout for the tripple fuzz?

[tiges_ tendres]

my gain control is funky too.  all the way down, it sounds like an over drive/booster, then in the middle, well, it kind of changes before the middle, almost like it's out of sequence with the drive.  sounds good though.  Glad I'm not the only person that has a weird gain problem.

[jmusser]

I built this one quite awhile back, and raved on about it quite a bit. It's a greatest sounding circuits ever designed in my opinion. It's very versitile. I believe in my review I said something like "this may be the ultimate gig fuzz". It's an Escobedo circuit, so what else would you expect!

[MartyB]

http://aronnelson.com/gallery/MartyBs/trplyout

[John Lyons]

Bwanasonic

Looks nice! Not too haywire I don't think...

Off topic for sure,  but the thing I noticed is the lighting in your photos. The flash or light source is very small it seems, close up and even the mid field shots. Was this straight from the camera or did you manipulate the lighting afterwards? Vignette lighting... Seems like a really narrow flash if they are straight shots.

John

[manson]

I've made the following pcb myself, please can anyone confirm if it's correct 

The 100pF and 1N4007 are for filtering and reverse polarity protection. Are they placed correctly?
Is the 5M resistor for anti-popping a true bypass switch? I've also placed it before the 0.01uF cap.



It's derrived from this layout:



Please have a look a tell me what you think.

[Kondor]

I had some boards made a while back, including a layout for Tim Escobedo's *Tripple*. I never breadboarded or otherwise tested the circuit, so I was just hoping my layout was OK when I finally got around to building it the other night. I went with the *spec* value for all parts.



Still a much higher *spaghetti factor* in my builds than I would like:



The really pleasant suprise for me was how well this pedal does *edge of breakup* tones. People often describe the lower gain spectrum of this pedal as "tube screamer-ish*, but I think it's more like the Boss BD2 in the way it goes from *clean boost* into *edge of breakup* into *fuzz* ( no nasal mid-hump). Of course the fun thing is then you have the *sick fuzz* thing on tap as well. I managed to wire the gain pot backwards, but I plan on leaving it that way and labeling it *sanity*, going from zero to *edge of*. Eventually I'll see what effect swapping transistors has, but I like it fine the way it is for now. I've only tried it with my practice setup so far, but I expect it to be a usefull addition with *the big amp* as well.

Kerry M

Gratuitous gear photos:

http://home.earthlink.net/~bwanasonic/images/tripple_board01.jpg

http://home.earthlink.net/~bwanasonic/images/tripple_rig02.jpg

http://home.earthlink.net/~bwanasonic/images/tripple_rig01.jpg

I just started building a few months back and I'm no pro at it yet but that's a nice looking build you have there! Very Impressive!
I noticed that no matter how careful I am when I try to place the components on the board in the best possible place, have the wiring coming from the board nice and neat, and solder the joints perfectly each time I'm always trying to make them as professional looking as possible and I always find something in the way I built it that I could have done better. The perfectionist in me I guess.
  Have you ever tried using an audio taper pot with detents?