Doug_H Hwy89 build

oldrocker · September 01, 2006, 02:33:18 PM

I emailed Doug and as he said he would sent me the Highway 89 schematic. I perf boarded it last night and finished it this morning. Yay, it worked the first time. I had two pots wired backwards which always seems to be a hit and miss with me. Anyway the effect sounds great. I used 3904's in place of the 5089's cause it's all I had. This actually kills two birds with one stone for me since I was considering build a Blackfire and a Brian May boost. They're mix together in a nice packages in one enclosure and give this distortion a very unique sound. They say it's not a high gain effect but mine is. With the gain set to max and the tone set for treble you can hear the hi gain hiss. Nice build, works great and I'm glad I took the time to put this one together. Thanks Doug.

Doug_H · September 01, 2006, 05:13:07 PM

Cool!

I'm glad you like it.

I leave mine on most of the time and just control the distortion with my guitar volume.

Thanks for the report!

O · September 01, 2006, 05:51:46 PM

What's the parts count on this? I have some free time this labor day weekend and if it's a low parts count, chances are I'll probably have the components...

(please don't post the schem, or get too detailed about what parts... I don't think Doug would like that).

Thanks!

oldrocker · September 01, 2006, 06:11:00 PM

The parts count isn't bad at all. Email Doug and see if he'll send you a schem. I thought the ProCo Rat was harder to build. The Hwy89 sounds much better IMHO. This thing is a volume monster. Talk about loud. Some say it's got too much treble. I disagree. It's has all kinds of different tones in it. This pedal may replace all the other distortion pedals I've built as a permanent place in my rig. I love this crazy thing.

MartyMart · September 01, 2006, 08:15:24 PM

Hwy89 is a beast

Doug : The 89 is all over the album that I've been working on ( almost done! )
As is the BSIAB II LHX2 and Crank , you boy's will be geting a credit

If you'd like to hear some snippets go here :

www.myspace.com/thedecodersband ( "Crash and Burn" BSIAB II)
or
www.martinlister.com downloads section ("Changing" HWY89)

Cheers,

Marty.

oldrocker · September 01, 2006, 09:23:42 PM

Hey Martymart, the tracks sound good. Crash and Burn has me looking into getting parts together for a BSIAB II.

Doug_H · September 01, 2006, 11:46:32 PM

The tracks sound great Marty! I like your voice too.

I just finished mixing down some quick & dirty 'rehearsal recordings' my band did for a demo. Here's a couple samples of solos with the Hwy89:

http://home.cfl.rr.com/dbhammond/hd_solo.mp3

On this one I included the end of the previous chorus so you can hear the "rhythm sound" with the guitar on 5. For the solo I just turned it up:

http://home.cfl.rr.com/dbhammond/pm_solo.mp3

Both were done with my squier "bullet" strat - first one on the neck pup and the 2nd on the "quack" setting between the bridge/middle pups. The amp is the Octal Fatness set up clean.

oldrocker · September 02, 2006, 12:02:14 AM

Hey Doug cool sounding tracks there. There's really a nice bite to some of your licks and you play guitar great too. Really sounding good guys.

MartyMart · September 02, 2006, 05:28:51 AM

Quote from: Doug_H on September 01, 2006, 11:46:32 PM
The tracks sound great Marty! I like your voice too.

"Harmonies only" from me !
All done with either Matamp C7/Sm57 or JMP-1 valve preamp, some later tracks also use
the Peavey TG Raxx that I recently picked up, that's a great preamp and can be found cheap.
It has "proper" B+ voltage and HUGE PT / Mallory caps etc etc ....

Nice sounding guitars Doug

.... I would expect nothing less from you !

Thanks for the positive vibe .... wish us luck !

MM

O · September 02, 2006, 12:09:18 PM

I wanted to thank Doug for sending me the schem; I can't wait to start working on it.

Antero · September 02, 2006, 11:11:07 PM

Hmm. My Hwy 89 is kind of noisy... is it just single-coils-and-a-high-gain-pedal, or is it more likely I messed up somewhere with the grounding?

oldrocker · September 02, 2006, 11:17:32 PM

Mine is sooo quiet. When I'm not playing considering how loud this thing is it's super quiet. Where is your master out volume knob set on the pedal? To get unity I barely need to have the volume knob at 10 O'clock. My volume pot is a 1M not a 500k. If your volume knob is too high this may be why. Turn the Hwy89 down and turn your amp up. Otherwise some thing is wrong in your build.

Antero · September 02, 2006, 11:46:04 PM

Quote from: oldrocker on September 02, 2006, 11:17:32 PM
Mine is sooo quiet. When I'm not playing considering how loud this thing is it's super quiet. Where is your master out volume knob set on the pedal? To get unity I barely need to have the volume knob at 10 O'clock. My volume pot is a 1M not a 500k. If your volume knob is too high this may be why. Turn the Hwy89 down and turn your amp up. Otherwise some thing is wrong in your build.

Hmm, that could be possible. Unity gain about 9 o'clock on mine (500k). I'll try it out some more tomorrow, and see what happens.

Antero · September 03, 2006, 02:45:25 AM

Okay, something is definitely off... there's just far too much hum coming through.

Possible culprits? Ground loop, maybe, but I don't know where I could have one... I used RunOffGroove's layout, with the bit marked "Ground" going to the appropriate tab on the input jack. Was this a hideous error? It might have been, 'cause I have NO IDEA WHAT I'M ACTUALLY DOING!

On top of that, I think there's something in the area which is kicking out a lot of 60hz hum, because I can HEAR it, and both of my guitars and both of my amps are noisier... that certainly doesn't help.

If anyone can help me, it would be excellent. This thing sounds too cool, I want to solve the ground problem so I can use it on... basically everything.

alfafalfa · September 03, 2006, 05:03:32 AM

Antero,

Just took a look at that layout and noticed that the connections for the Volume pot V1 and V2 have not been drawn ! I don't want to be sound blunt but did you connect these ?

Alfalfa

Antero · September 03, 2006, 05:19:41 AM

Quote from: alfafalfa on September 03, 2006, 05:03:32 AM
Antero,

Just took a look at that layout and noticed that the connections for the Volume pot V1 and V2 have not been drawn ! I don't want to be sound blunt but did you connect these ?

Alfalfa

I did, though it took a little thought. There was the great moment where I was staring at it like, "Durrrr something's missing here..."

oldrocker · September 03, 2006, 10:06:07 AM

Yes V2 should go to the tip of the output jack. And V1 should go to ground. But I doubt that not connecting these would cause a hum unless they were totally hooked up wrong.

blues123 · September 03, 2006, 12:08:38 PM

Hi,
Just wanted to thank Doug for posting the schem to me. I did a nice little layout on vero and it worked first time.
This really is an excellent sounding pedal, a sort of "blues on steroids" sound. There is a lot more gain available than I was expecting and it definitely isn't a one trick pony.
You're right Doug, dime the gain and control it from the guitar, as it cleans up real good. I may play with the tone section and have some fun with this, though I doubt I can improve what is already a fantastic pedal. You should sell these things....

Thanks again Doug!!

oldrocker · September 03, 2006, 08:16:44 PM

I used a tin from a craft store and put the Hwy89 effect in it.

http://www.logmonster.com/images/full/?pic=Allpedals1new_1157317783-422-13551.jpg

Antero · September 05, 2006, 01:50:56 AM

Better now! Yay!

Boy, that was embarassingly stupid.

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