May Queen (awesome)

[stopstopsmile]

The may queen is a vox booster with some mods.  Its too bright and not very voxy sounding.  It steps into the arena but comes up short.  It has potential.  I haven't figured anything better so its definitly good work. 

[rogeryu_ph]

Alternatively, you could replace the 2k2 source resistor with a 2k-B pot, with the cap between wiper and ground (like a Fuzz Face).  I'd personally try this.

Mr. Tremblay and Valoosj
The cap between wiper and ground value is 22uf ?
Thanks,
Roger

[Valoosj]

The may queen is a vox booster with some mods.  Its too bright and not very voxy sounding.  It steps into the arena but comes up short.  It has potential.  I haven't figured anything better so its definitly good work. 

Maybe if you add a tonemender circuit set at the vox settings it sounds more 'voxy' ?

The cap between wiper and ground for the gain pot is 2,2uF

[DougH]

Here's an idea to try on the May Queen:

Sub the 10k JFET drain trimmer with a fixed 100k.
Put a 100k (maybe 50k)  trimmer from source to ground. Adjust for desired drain voltage.
Put a 22u-47u cap from source to the 2.2k/2.2u.

[DougH]

Scratch that...

I neglected the 220k feedback resistor that sets the bias for Q2. This scenario throw that off and will require reworking Q2 as well.

I've got another idea I'm working on with this...

[rogeryu_ph]

Way to go Dough.... I'm waiting for your result
Sure i'm going to box mine too.

Roger

[DougH]

These are matters of taste but IMO the MQ has too much gain. So the first thing I would do would be to convert stage 2 from a voltage feedback amp to a common source JFET amplifier with decent gain. I.E., dump Q2 and its associated biasing network and set up the JFET as I outlined above. Make sure you include a shunt resistor (1M?) from gate to ground. Note that once you have added that resistor, it's a prime candidate to be subbed with a pot for a gain control. I've tried this on the breadboard and it works and IMO makes it more useable. There are other things you can do too but this will get you going in the right direction. YMMV, as always.

[Valoosj]

I'm making a pcb design of this one with the gain mod, but I can't remember how I wired the pot itself. What should I do with the 3 lugs? one goes to the 220K resistor, another to ground, but what about the third? And if I were to wire the cap onto the pot, how would I go about this?  (Should have left it on the breadbord  )

Ok, so here is what I got. Just need to know how to hook that second pot.
remember : Cap must be between wiper and ground.

[Valoosj]

I screwed up a little on my previous attempt, I think this is the correct way, although I am still not certain about how I hooked up the gain pot.

[miqbal]

I screwed up a little on my previous attempt, I think this is the correct way, although I am still not certain about how I hooked up the gain pot.

According to your numbering: The positive (plus) leg of C5 to the wiper (leg no.2) of the 2k2 pot, and the negative (minus) leg of C5 is to ground.
Leg no. 1 of the 2k2 pot is correct.
Leg no.3 is to ground.

I really want to build this, just need to finish my current project. Btw, I saw 2 project that has been named "May" on GGG: May Queen and Brian May Treble Booster. How do those 2 differ from each other? Or are they just 2 different schematic but same in the tone/sound?

[Barcode80]

may queen is an actual distortion box, treble booster speaks for itself.

[miqbal]

Thanks for clearing up, Barcode.
I read on this thread that May Queen is only an effort to emulate the sound of Brian May. Any info on what gear did Brian may actuallly use at that time?

[Valoosj]

I screwed up a little on my previous attempt, I think this is the correct way, although I am still not certain about how I hooked up the gain pot.

According to your numbering: The positive (plus) leg of C5 to the wiper (leg no.2) of the 2k2 pot, and the negative (minus) leg of C5 is to ground.
Leg no. 1 of the 2k2 pot is correct.
Leg no.3 is to ground.

Like this then?

[oldrocker]

Brian May - A treble boost into a stack of Vox AC30's I believe.

[Valoosj]

I screwed up a little on my previous attempt, I think this is the correct way, although I am still not certain about how I hooked up the gain pot.

According to your numbering: The positive (plus) leg of C5 to the wiper (leg no.2) of the 2k2 pot, and the negative (minus) leg of C5 is to ground.
Leg no. 1 of the 2k2 pot is correct.
Leg no.3 is to ground.

Like this then?

I forgot to connect R6 to lug 1 of the gain pot. Other than that it should be correct now

[miqbal]

Like this then?

Yup, all looks good...