Tonepad Corral Chorus ticking

[blester]

Just finished the Tonepad Corral Chorus and need help.  I have a background clicking at the rate of the effect.  I have tried two different TL072s and that hasn't helped.
Will an LM358 be a quieter chip and eliminate the clicking?
I have rather long wires to the pots, Will shielding the wires help?
Thanks,

[audioguy]

Keep your input wire (jack to switch) as short as possible, and FAR FAR FAR from the 2 MN ICs and you should clean right up.

[Mark Hammer]

Will an LM358 be a quieter chip and eliminate the clicking?

If you stick it in the LFO slot, and not the audio slot, yes.  Eliminate?  maybe.  reduce?  Yes.

[mike_a]

I've had good results with TL062 as the LFO opamp.

If changing IC's (to this one or the one Mark suggested) doesn't help, try using shielded wire for the input-to-switch wire.

Did you use the tonepad PCB? 
Maybe if you perf'ed it or used a different layout you ran the input too close to the LFO.

I used the tonepad PCB with TL062 as the LFO and shielded wire and had absolutely no ticking.

Cheers,
Mike.

[blester]

Yes I used the Tonepad PCB.  It is a dual effect, I also have and EA Tremolo clone in the box and it is closest to the input jack.  With the Jacks up front and two foot switches in the back of the box, I have a lot of input wire length.  I hear the ticking with the Chorus effect switched on or off so I'm thinking that shielding the input wire may stop it from being an antenna.

Thanks for all the responses,

bl

[audioguy]

The Tonepad layout ticks even with the LM358. I've tried using shielded cable, and that cleans it up, but the only true killer is to keep the I/O wires to as short as possible, have the I/O jacks down at the bottom of your box with the MN chips at the opposite end.
This is one of those instances where box layout is just as important as circuit layout.

[chi_boy]

I used the lm358 in mine with no shielded wires.  I also did some mods so there are 2 switches with signal running through.  The finished box has no ticking at all and the effect is silky smooth.  I liked the Tonepad board and plan to buy more from him.

Good luck,
George

[lowstar]

if you hear ticking or not also depends on how you listen to the fx - with a guitar amp, the ticking will often go unnoticed, but once you try the fx in a studio situation with headphones, the ticking will be noticeable. i used shielded wire for certain connections (i think the rate pot, don´t quite remember), and yeah, keeping everthing short and tidyhelps too. just for the record, i used tl022 just like the original.
btw, fantastic pedal, i made mine switchable guitar/bass (=blue/brown), and it´s one of the most useable fx that i ever built !

cheers,
lowstar

[Fp-www.Tonepad.com]

blester, i think your problem might be around that EA tremolo. Wiring is more important with pedals that include LFOs in them, and you have 2 in the same box.

[mnordbye]

I just finished a CE2-B, and i had some ticking too, not much though. I erased with shielded wire on the in and out connections from the jacks to the 3PDT bypass.

Magnus Nordbye

[blester]

Great news.  I rewired the Corral Chorus / E.A. Tremolo box and shielded the cable from the input jack to the first foot switch, between the first and second footswitches, and from the second foot switch to the output jack.  Ticking is gone even with my Deluxe cranked to max.  I ended up using the TL022 chip in the IC 2 slot. 

I also built the CE-2 clone with the Monte Allums mod kit for the Boss CE-2.   It doubles the rate when turned up but is the same with the rate down.  It seems to have a much fuller sound, the chorus effect seems to be enhanced on lower notes.  I have modded several Boss CE-2s with this upgrade and everyone loves the change in tone.

I can't say enough about the Tonepad PC board, well laid out,  square pads for all polarity sensitive components and components labeled on the top side of the board.

Thanks to all who responded to the original post, you all were a tremendous help,

bl

[mike_a]

Hi,

Glad it turned out OK in the end.
Would you mind sharing these mods you did? (monte allums you called them?)

Thanks,
Mike.

[blester]

Monte sells upgrade kits for a lot of Boss, DOD and Ibanez pedals.  His web site is http://www.monteallums.com/.  He sells a kit for the Boss CE-2 that I have used in two Boss pedals and two Tonepad Corral Chorus pedals.

On the Boss CE-2 the instructions were real good but he does not identify the parts by the schematic designations, instead he uses a photo of the stock Boss PC board and identifies the parts that need to be changed. 

On the Tonepad board I used his kit for the changed parts and ordered the rest of the parts from Mouser and Small Bear. 

The Monte Allums Kit replaces C1, C2, C5, C9, C10, C14, C17, C19, and C20.  The kit uses a Burr Brown OPA2134PA instead of the JRC4558.  The kit eliminates D5 and R53, which are not used on the Tonepad board, and replaces R51 and D6 to get a brighter blue LED on the stock Boss CE-2. 

The Monte Allums kit uses good Quality caps, I don't believe that I can legally share what the values are that he uses.  I feel it's worth the $21.00 to source the parts from him in order to take advantage of the mods.  The only error I found in the instructions was around the value of C2, his instructions say that it is a 1uF cap.  The schematic and the two Boss Black Label MIJ CE-2s that I modded had .47uF caps in C2.  It is possible that Boss changed the value some time during the production run and that the CE-2s I modded were very early runs.  Monte's kit comes with three Tantalum capacitors and the Tonepad board has square pads for the polarity sensitive caps so it was ease to get them mounted correctly.


Some of the changes allow the use of a standard 9V wall wart in the old CE-2s.

The sound is awesome when complete,  The speed mod isn't necessary for me as I don't like a real fast Chorus.  I have an Ibanez SC-10 and the CE-2 speed/rate is almost identical to the Ibanez after the mod so it's not over the top.

The tone and clarity are what will impress you the most, it sounds like much lower frequencies get the vibrato affect applied than on the stock design. 

I had one of the Boss CE-2s and one of the Tonepad Corral Chorus pedals side by side and they sounded identical after using the Monte Allums parts.  The CE-2s I worked on were both late 70s pedals and some of the caps were near end of life.  The two Boss CE-2s sounded a little different before the mods bu sounded identical afterwards.

I am going to be modding a Boss compressor and an Ibanez TS-9 for a friend with the Monte Allums kits in the next week or so.  If the difference is anthing like the change on the CE-2s it will be well worth the money.

bl

[mike_a]

Thanks for the answer.

The caps you referred to - are the numbers according to the tonepad schem or the original boss schem?

Thanks again.

[blester]

The cap designations are the same for both schematics.  If you look at the Tonepad parts list there are component numbers that are skipped.  Most of the omitted parts are part of the FET switching circuit.  Because the Tonepad circuit is true bypass those components are not necessary.

bl