Introducing the "Cream Pie" !

[Dragonfly]

AC, Yes I'm getting use from the full range of the pot. It goes from around unity to a little hotter then stock.

I think the Cream Pie will make a great building block. It has responded very well to all the tweaks and mods I've tried. I reminds me of the mini-booster with its versatility. I also tried driving it with some other boosters and I sounded great.

Thanks again, this thing has kept me grinning' for the last couple of days.

jaydawg

any chance you've tried 2 Cream Pies in series, one driving the other ?   

(could be fuzzy, overdrivey, germanium goodness ? )
AC

[hairyandy]

any chance you've tried 2 Cream Pies in series, one driving the other ?   

(could be fuzzy, overdrivey, germanium goodness ? )
AC

That was the first thing I thought of when I saw your initial post.  I've got first dibs on the name though...the "HEAVY CREAM"!!!



Here's a vero layout for the Cream Pie:

http://aronnelson.com/gallery/album26/cream_pie

Andy

[Dragonfly]

That was the first thing I thought of when I saw your initial post.  I've got first dibs on the name though...the "HEAVY CREAM"!!!

[MartyMart]

OK, I've registered " DOUBLE CREAM "   !!!   

MM

[jaydawg]

Cascading Creampies is the next logical step, but unfortunately I only have one GE on hand. I used a minibooster and then a rangmaster to drive it. They both sounded good although I liked the mini --> the creampie best.

Maybe the next thing to try would be a variable gain CP w/ a pot off of the emittor into a fixed gain CP with a 100K volume pot at the end. A little tone  shaping and it could be magic.

[jimmy54]

I'm enjoying the Cream Pie more and more.  I've been using it after my thunderchief or red llama it makes both pedals thicker sounding and carms some of the highs. 

[8mileshigh]

I agree with Jimmy, the Cream Pie thickens everything up very nicely, it does almost the opposite of the Rangemaster.  What I like to do is dime the volume control on the Pie and play with the volume on my guitar.  It makes my old 50W Bass Master sound like it being pushed to the max.  This is a very pleasing overdrive, great for 60's rock and blues. 

Has anybody tried a PNP version yet ?  I've got about 150 PNP germs looking for a good application and I think this circuit will really do the trick.  Has any tried low gain transistors ?

Chris

[Dragonfly]

I agree with Jimmy, the Cream Pie thickens everything up very nicely, it does almost the opposite of the Rangemaster.  What I like to do is dime the volume control on the Pie and play with the volume on my guitar.  It makes my old 50W Bass Master sound like it being pushed to the max.  This is a very pleasing overdrive, great for 60's rock and blues. 

Has anybody tried a PNP version yet ?  I've got about 150 PNP germs looking for a good application and I think this circuit will really do the trick.  Has any tried low gain transistors ?

Chris

i think pete built a PNP version...you should be able to reference the thread....

i',m REALLY thinking about building some of these to sell....its such a cool little circuit...even if i decide to market the Cream Pie, i'll keep the schematic, layouts, etc here on the forum...my way of saying "thanks" to everyone here....

i've got a few more ideas "down the pipe"...

AC

[Dragonfly]

Has anybody tried a PNP version yet ?  I've got about 150 PNP germs looking for a good application and I think this circuit will really do the trick.  Has any tried low gain transistors ?

Chris

BTW...i'm not sure if Pete built his this way, but theres a very good possibility that this could be built as a PNP NEGATIVE GROUND effect without some of the issues of things like FF's and TB's...

you might breadboard it and see...

anyone tried a AC188 in it yet ?

AC

[jaydawg]

Has anyone else tried replacing the 1K off the emitter with a pot for variable gain yet? I works well.

jaydawg

p.s. I built mine with a PNP GE

[petemoore]

  I built it PNP Pos Gnd.
  If I wanted neg. gnd. I would use an NPN Ge.
  Powered by battery.
  If I was wanting to use PS I'd first convert to NPN Ge Neg Gnd. and put a BFCapacitor across the v+/v_ rails.
 

[hairyandy]

I just breadboarded two cascading Cream Pies (the "Heavy Cream" as it will be called).  Whoooooeee, does it ever get nice and gainy!  With my Tele through my brown '62 Deluxe it can get a great crunchy, almost AC/DC kinda vibe.  When both volumes are cranked it has tons of gain and gets all nice and squishy like good germanium trannys should.

I found that distortion went up as the bias got lower.  I left the collector on both at around 3-3.5v.  Between 4-5 it sounds great but it also cleans up a bit more.  This is cool behavior because you could voice each channel a little different.  I had all of the parts except the 3M resistor so I just used a 2M and it seems to work fine.  I think I'll try putting Mark Hammer's "Stupidly Wonderful Tone Control" after the circuit because it could stand to have the high-end tamed a little.

All in all I think this thing is a great candidate for the main overdrive component on a pedal board and has lots of potential for tweaking and as a building block in other circuits.  It sounds killer after a Rangemaster as well!

Good on ya Dragonfly!

...the other Andy

BTW, I used 2 NPN CV7112 trannys (military OC140s)

[Dragonfly]

I just breadboarded two cascading Cream Pies (the "Heavy Cream" as it will be called).  Whoooooeee, does it ever get nice and gainy!  With my Tele through my brown '62 Deluxe it can get a great crunchy, almost AC/DC kinda vibe.  When both volumes are cranked it has tons of gain and gets all nice and squishy like good germanium trannys should.

I found that distortion went up as the bias got lower.  I left the collector on both at around 3-3.5v.  Between 4-5 it sounds great but it also cleans up a bit more.  This is cool behavior because you could voice each channel a little different.  I had all of the parts except the 3M resistor so I just used a 2M and it seems to work fine.  I think I'll try putting Mark Hammer's "Stupidly Wonderful Tone Control" after the circuit because it could stand to have the high-end tamed a little.

All in all I think this thing is a great candidate for the main overdrive component on a pedal board and has lots of potential for tweaking and as a building block in other circuits.  It sounds killer after a Rangemaster as well!

Good on ya Dragonfly!

...the other Andy

BTW, I used 2 NPN CV7112 trannys (military OC140s)

very cool brotha !  i KNEW you'd like this circuit...just a gut feeling....

thanks for the "report !

---the other Andy....
AC

[Dragonfly]

  I think I'll try putting Mark Hammer's "Stupidly Wonderful Tone Control" after the circuit because it could stand to have the high-end tamed a little.

for those not wanting a tone control, you sould just run a small (probably between 470pF and .0022uF ) cap to ground at the end of the circuit to tame any high end artifacts...

AC

[JHS]

I breadboarded a similar circuit (w current FB) a month ago to compare the reaction to the a classic RM/LPB-1-type circuit.
The current FB circuit was a bit quiter, but the classic RM-circuit had way better reaction to guitar-vol. and picking changes.
All in all not a big difference, both delivered the same sound.

BTW:
I've done a recursive calculation to determine the optimal hfe for Dragonfly's Booster using the values in the schem and it should work best with hfe app. 400-500 (f. ex. BC559C or 2N1588). If you use a Ge-Trannie, the R-values must be re-calculated and adapted to the lower hfe of the Ge-trannie.

JHS

[slacker]

Just bread boarded this up and it's another Dragonfly classic 

I tried it with some AC127s that I've got that are a bit leaky, I bought them off ebay and they'd obviously been picked through. They biased up no problem and sound really good, not much to add about the sound that other people haven't already said.
I also tried some 2N3053s which are low gain silicons and they sound great as well.

[MetalGod]

OK, I've registered " DOUBLE CREAM "   !!!   

MM

heh, great minds think alike - that was my initial reaction too 

[markm]

OK, I've registered " DOUBLE CREAM "   !!!   

MM

heh, great minds think alike - that was my initial reaction too 

Same here!

[petemoore]

  OT...sorta
  The CP has led me to make mods to 'better' Rangemaster for comparison.
  Using a .0068 [down from .01uf] also for the Rangmaster input, also adding a cap/pot LP filter on the end of the Rangemaster, late last night, it's still early here in the morning, looking foreward to further testing the CP/RM/DIST+.
 The only mod I have in mind for the CP is a switchable input cap, I have those 100kl pots on it's input/output....BC they were available..
 Gain control 'under' the transistor instead of 'before' the transistor'd be cool...I generally try for no more than 2 regular pots per transistor.
    I also revoiced the DIST+ with .0068 /sw/ .01 input cap.

[Gus]

looks a little like the first stage of this

http://www.geofex.com/FX_images/beebaa.gif

but with a less stable bias than the Roland