My Ginormous Tubescreamer [pics]

[ambulancevoice]

MMMMIIISSSERRRYYY!!!!!

[MikeH]

Thanks for the kind words guys.  The different clipping options are definitely the most useful mod; there's a ton of sounds in there.  One of the main reasons I built this pedal was so that when my friends ask "Hey dude, can you mod my TS?" and I say "Sure, what mods do you want" and they say "Uhhhh... I don't know" I can have them actually listen to what diff mods sound like. 

The Helium symbol is just a little logo I put on the pedals I build.  My last name ends with "Hoff" so I go by the moniker "Hoff Electronics" or 'HE" hence the helium symbol.

And no, that dog loves lobster.

[Auke Haarsma]

I can't see the pics either. Got the links from the sourcecode. Seems Imageshack has a little hosting prob. Chances are this is only temporarily, I'll try again in a couple of hours. I'm really curious t see this little beasty

[Khas Evets]

Great build. Could you provide a few more details about the Hot, Smooth and Fat mods. Here's my guess:

Hot - Reducing the 4.7K resistor. Value? Does this make the sound darker as you reduce the value?
Smooth - Not sure if it's a parallel cap to the diodes or a resistor in series with the diodes. Values?
Fat - Adjustment to the .047uf cap. Value?

You've done a good job targeting the most useful mods (except maybe for the output buffer mod :-). Boost, clipping and bass response.

[MikeH]

Great build. Could you provide a few more details about the Hot, Smooth and Fat mods. Here's my guess:

Hot - Reducing the 4.7K resistor. Value? Does this make the sound darker as you reduce the value?
Smooth - Not sure if it's a parallel cap to the diodes or a resistor in series with the diodes. Values?
Fat - Adjustment to the .047uf cap. Value?

You've done a good job targeting the most useful mods (except maybe for the output buffer mod :-). Boost, clipping and bass response.

Hmmm... let me think.  I did most of the work a while back (it sat in pieces on my bench for about 6 months), and I don't have my notes in front of me, so my memory is a little fuzzy on it.  You're right about the hot mod, there's info on this mod everywhere.  I probably went down to 1k or so.  And it wasn't noticably darker to me, so I'd say no.  Or at least not enough to really stand out.

The smooth I believe has to do with increasing the 51pf cap (and I think I went as high as 330-470pf or something like that); although that's a best guess don't quote me.  Really I think this mod would work best if you worked up a pot to blend between 2 values.   It's really more of a thing that should be dialed in.  On some settings the mod is too smooth, on others not enough.

And you're correct about the fat mod too.  I forget the value, and if it went up or down, but there's info on this mod everywhere too.  All the mods I did were pretty common, nothing too hard to track down.

[Freddy205]

what type of mosfets and shottky's did you use?

[Fp-www.Tonepad.com]

Cool!

Fp

[bass_econo]

I mainly lurk these days but WOW that is a thing of beauty.

[MikeH]

For MOSFETS I used BS170s (or possibly the NTE equivalent; I had a few of those kicking around in my stash) and the Schottkys I believe are 1n5818s.  I think it's the clipping that's used in one of Arons projects (I forget which one). It's loud with a lot of punch like LED clipping, but it's a little softer and fuzzier.  Really sounds great.

[Electric_Death]

WOW, that's the Ferrari of tube screamers.
After seeing this, I vow to never buy a pedal ever again....ever!

[newbie builder]

Awesome monster you created there. You should be really proud of that.