Slow Gear build report

[LOTUS]

The slow gear does not respond too well to fast passages. You have to adapt your playing Style to it.I can say that my original  sounds great, slightly grungy, like a pedal steal. 

[oldrocker]

I just finished building this pedal on perf board.  It works.  What is the 10k trim pot for?  Mine doesn't seem to do much.  I put a DOD 280 compressor in front of it and got a better respose but it works good without it also. 
I used a 5.1 volt zener and a 5952 for the Jfet and 4401's for the other transistors.  The single opamp is a 741.  I'm not sure if it makes a difference but I ended up using a 50k pot for the attack.  It's a little touchy but I can dial it in.  I'm getting 4.7 volts from the divider so I don't know for sure if that's an issue.  Cool effect all in all.

[mdh]

I just finished building this pedal on perf board.  It works.  What is the 10k trim pot for?  Mine doesn't seem to do much.

It sets the, er, quiescent, if that's the right word, voltage on the gate of the FET, which keeps the FET closed when there's no input. If you measure the voltage on the gate while you play, you'll see that it drops considerably when you bang on the strings. As I understand it, as that voltage drops, current flows between the drain and the source, and your note fades in. Mine works best when the wiper is shorted to ground.

The only compressor that I've tried in front of it was an Orange Squeezer I made awhile back, and it didn't seem to make any difference. Of course, it never seems to make any difference... seems to be to be so "transparent" that I can't tell it's in the chain. I have a Flatline that I haven't yet boxed up, so maybe I'll try that in front of the Slow Gear when I get around to it.

[oldrocker]

Thanks for the info mdh.  I'll keep messing with it and see what the best setting is for the trim pot. 
I tried the OS comp too but it didn't do much for it.  You need a more obvious squashing type compressor to make a difference I think.  I didn't try my Flatline with it yet but it might work.

[oldrocker]

OK I set the trim pot to it all the way off I think.  It works pretty good now.  If you have a delay pedal like a Rebote 2.5 try putting it after the SG for that tape in reverse type effect.  Sounds nice and spacey.