I need a super clean, flat response booster.

[skiraly017]

I did search but as you can imagine the words "clean" and "boost" returns several pages of threads.

Like the subject says...super clean with no grit whatsoever and no tone coloration. Just boost. AMZ Mini Boost?

Thanks.

[jrc4558]

AMZ mosfet booster! Or microamp.

[96ecss]

I built both the Mini-Booster and the Mosfet Booster and I love them both. The Mini-Booster does color your sound some, in a good way like Jack Orman says. The Mosfet-Booster is much more transparent and would get my vote.

Dave

[jlullo]

skiraly,
i was looking around for the simplist of these to use in a project i'm doing, and i stumbled across a post the other day (can't seem to find it) that said you can use Jack O's Muffer as a clean boost if you leave out the diodes and cap... that interested me, because it's super simple... i'm going to try it out!

jonathan

[Gus]

this type question needs more information to get a good answer

How much gain?

what input R is wanted?

what is it driving?

What power supply or battery voltage?

What do you mean by clean and flat?  HiFi super clean and DC to 100K? One device boost part, tube,transistor bjt fet mosfet or an opamp....

Clean what does that mean?

[Dragonfly]

If you dont want any significant coloration, I'd "generally" look to a op amp based booster...

Other than that, i'd echo what Gus said.

[Barcode80]

if the board wasn't double sided i would trace my seymour duncan pickup booster for you. that thing has enormous headroom and is very flat, and VERY loud.

[Ben N]

Opamp boost with a voltage doubler.

Ben

[R.G.]

The guys who said "opamp" and "power supply" are right.

Clean and discrete don't really go together in simple designs. Your post seems to indicate a high fidelity (not "hifi") use, so go with an opamp with a large enough power supply voltage to avoid clipping. Most opamps will only swing to within maybe 1.5V of either supply, so if you use only a 9V battery, you're limited to 6V peak to peak, 3V peak, and about 2.???RMS. Changing to +/-15V power supplies gives you +/-13.5V peak to peak, 13.5V peak, or about 9.???Vrms - a big difference.

If it is never driving into clipping, modern opamps like the TL072, LM833, and others are very, very clean; also well behaved, simple to apply and forgiving of tough loading, and a host of other things you need boards full of discrete devices to duplicate.

[skiraly017]

Thanks for all the replies. Looks like I have some homework to do.

[O]

if the board wasn't double sided i would trace my seymour duncan pickup booster for you. that thing has enormous headroom and is very flat, and VERY loud.

I attempted to fix one up, but it was all SMD components

[tonefreak]

I really like the AMZ Mosfet booster.  To me, it was very clean... boosted my signal without any intrusion to my tone... well, at least that I could tell.  I tried it with and without other pedals at the end of my signal chain.  Very impressed... so much so, I struck a licensing agreement with Jack.

[spudulike]

http://analogguru.an.funpic.de/schematics/SeymourDuncan_PickupBooster.gif

[Barcode80]

http://analogguru.an.funpic.de/schematics/SeymourDuncan_PickupBooster.gif

cool link, wish it had values, but it is certainly a good start...

[newbie builder]

+1 to the mosfet booster. I was checking it out with the scope the other day, and it is very neutral in its response across the tonal spectrum (actually adds in a few highs that sometimes don't get amplified) and doesn't appear to distort- probably the "cleanest" booster I've built.

[gaussmarkov]

http://analogguru.an.funpic.de/schematics/SeymourDuncan_PickupBooster.gif

cool link, wish it had values, but it is certainly a good start...

interesting.  it's basically a discrete version of an op amp.  joe davisson has one on his site
with the point of introducing a diode into the middle of the op amp circuit.  if you poke around
you can find values for such circuits (besides joe's).  by googling "diy op amp" i found several
in an article by Nelson Pass:  http://cygnus.ipal.org/mirror/www.passlabs.com/diyopamp.htm

i would also follow the general advice to use an IC op amp.

[petemoore]

Clean and discrete don't really go together in simple designs.
  How 'unsimple' is it actually? I'm asking because I'm picking up pieces of info..
  Your post seems to indicate a high fidelity (not "hifi") use, so go with an opamp with a large enough power supply voltage to avoid clipping.
  I wut Impression this could be done with discretes, for very large 'guitar' use signal amplitudes, a Mosfet run at say 18v would give tons of clean output...@9 volt supply the output is quite strong for many applications.
  Not to open up 'Q vs OA wormcans', but I don't understand the advantages that starting with an OA provides.
  Getting 15v split supply and wiring the oa is not necessarily simpler really than say a couple mosfets or so w/ 18v supply.
  I think I know what super clean boost sounds like when using a mixing boards pre-amp channel, so I know what that is and have it already if I wanted that.
  I waut Impression that 'Hi Fi' was derived from and means the same as high fidelity...is there a difference?
 

[MikeH]

I'll say what I always say:  They require so few parts, just build them all and see which one you like best.  You might find that what you thought you wanted, wasn't quite what you wanted.