Barber Small Fry question

[afrogoose]

I'm not sure if anyone here is familiar with this pedal, but it's an overdrive with four knobs.  It has the typical volume, tone, and drive but it also has a knob called "dynamics" which is intriguing to me.  I am building an ITS8, and I've already drilled the enclosure for four knob in hopes of finding something cool to add to it, and I would love to try something like this "dynamics" thing out.  I've been pondering it and I haven't come up with much.  My pondering skills are pretty feeble as I am also a total noob.  I know that on the Small Fry, turning the 'dynamics' knob increases the distorted sound without effecting the volume, so it seems to me that it is not controlling/amplifying the signal through the clipping diodes.  But maybe it does kinda like a Full Drive 2 where the "dynamics" pot is just another pot in the feedback off the opamp?  I would guess that its maybe blending in an additional clipping diode in the signal, but I'm not sure how that would work with a TS.  I know that the more clippers you add in the feedback loop, the less distorted, and more volume you get.   

I know Dave posts here, and I'm not interested in stepping on his toes, but if anyone could point me in the right direction or drop me a hint I would be really, really, grateful. 

Thanks!

[Dragonfly]

You might email Dave for some advice. He's a GREAT guy, very "DIY friendly", and might be willing to point you in the right direction. I doubt that he'd see it as "stepping on his toes", judging from his past posts.

[iaresee]

I don't know the Small Fry's circuit topology but I did own one and I can say that little knob felt a heckuva lot like a compression knob. I'm sure there's more to it, but that's as good a place as any to start playing around. Fully counter-clockwise there was a lot of depth and the dynamics of the pedal were huge. All the other way around and it squashed everything down into that very focused, very edge-of-stability overdriven sound some people like to call Dumble-esque. I'd say it was post-gain compression as well.

[afrogoose]

Dragonfly, thanks for the suggestion.  I'm going to try sending Dave an Email. 

Iaresee, do you remember if turning the dynamics knob effected the volume at all?

[iamspartacus]

yes, turning the "dynamics" knob affected the volume of the pedal, but not to a ridiculous amount