DIY High Gain Distortion shoot out- Suggestions please

[audioguy]

I want to compare a bunch of the high gain circuits kicking around here- just for grins... I'm a big fan of the Dr. B and the Obsidian, so this will be in. I need some suggestins on what your favorite high gain DIY distortion pedal is.

Thanks!

Audioguy

[powerplayj]

I would include a recent submission called "Crunch It" (do a search).  I have the commercial version and it does high gain Marshall tones like nobody's business.

[brett]

I liked the transistor version of the Blackfire.  Very interesting circuit, too, with creative use of high output impedance.

[burnt fingers]

High gain is subjective but here are a few of the more popular dirt boxes

Distortion +
Dr. Boogie
Shredmaster
Guv'nor
Any of joe davisons stuff

[Connoisseur of Distortion]

I'd vote for Dr. Boogie... a fine circuit, that.

[alfafalfa]

Dr Boogey , definitely !  (The Obsidian with the BS170 was way too noisy for me.)
I built it a couple of weeks ago and like it very much after changing a few things.
I completely dumped the tonestack and put in a few lowpass filters, thank you Marty,  and Mark Hammer's stupidly wonderful tonecontrol.
I am delighted with its sound but am still struggling with the volumepot's value . I tried the 500 K 100k (scaled down vs ) and a 10 k but can barely turn on the volume because it's too loud and too noisy.
Q1 I changed for a 2N5457 to tame it a bit.
I've been thinking about putting two pots in series e.g. a 5K and a 100 k  so the small value would give me bit more finetuning. Would that be right ?

Alf

[gnognofasciani]

I vote for Vulcan!

[aron]

Shaka Express!

[audioguy]

High gain is subjective but here are a few of the more popular dirt boxes

Shredmaster

Is Munkys layout of the Shredmaster verified? Its the only one I can find.

[GibsonGM]

Alfalfa, try an audio taper volume pot, that might help!!

[petemoore]

I've been thinking about putting two pots in series e.g. a 5K and a 100 k  so the small value would give me bit more finetuning. Would that be right ?
  See some of J Davissons high gain stuff for reference, use a voltage divider to 1/2 or whatever the output before the VC pot.

[markm]

One circuit that I have thought could be modded in to a full sounding ferocious beast is the ROG May Queen.
I just fired my layout up for it last night and, of course it's "trebley" but, it's supposed to be.
My thoughts are that if one did some cap changes to it, perhaps it could be KILLER as a heavy sounding circuit.
Just a thought. 

[ambulancevoice]

rog big daddy is not bad
3 legged dog to

[shredgd]

Although it is not an over-the-top-super-high gain pedal, I've always considered my BSIAB2 an high gain pedal (for example, you can play John Petrucci with it), plus it's got a wonderful sound.

I've never built a Dr.Boogie so I can't compare, but the BSIAB2 is a must build IMO.

[mydementia]

Swiss-Army Knife of Distortion Boxes: SansAmp GT2 - accept no substitutes!!!! 
http://www.tonepad.com/getFileInfo.asp?id=112

[WGTP]

That's what I'm talking about.  It's cool to get feedback a low bedroom levels.

The Sweet 16 by Doug Hammond in my gallery is the highest gain/metallic of the Dual Mu-amp distortions

The Obsidian with the BS250's is great

The Vulcan is wonderfully squishy (at this moment i'm playing thru a Distortion+ type circuit with a Vulcan output stage).

The Mark Hammers Chaos is cool if your into dual op amps (I am).

Tone Benders can have hugh gain and sound like distortions with some cap tweaking

Various ROG stuff

Of course you can always run a TS into a Dist+ or vis versa.

It's all good   

[Yun]

MY ultra Muff, or super muff anyone    ?

[Yun]

My ultra-muff is VERY High gain.  and extremely versatile.  It can sound anywhere from a maestro fuzz-tone on steroids to a creammy dreamer, to all BMP, and everything in between. 

The 3-Knob tonestack is pretty much the cause of versatility, you know?

[jonathan perez]

ANYTHING WITH A T00B!

ULTRA DISTORSHON!!!

T00BDESTRUCSHON!





just kidding...build a metal zone. oh wait, buy one.

[brett]

Hi
I built a Big Muff Pi with a few alterered values, which I think upped the gain.
From memory, I used 33k collector resistors (instead of 22k ?) and 10k input resistors (instead of 8 and 12k ?) in the gain stages.  Also, 100k resistors from base-to ground (82k standard ?).
One day I'll check the values.  It turned out really wild.
cheers