Boss T-Bone Distortio/Octave/Trumpeter

[m4j0rbumm3r]

smaller version

this would probably fit in damn near anything!! the switch is bigger. 

Thanks for posting those layouts, very helpful

[pinkjimiphoton]

my pleasure. should have the tiny one verified by tonite.

[m4j0rbumm3r]

The Attack and Bender pots are audio/log taper in Alex's schematic though, right? Did you change those on purpose?

[pinkjimiphoton]

didn't really notice, my bad. generally i don't care too much about the taper, i probably should. i generally use whatever i have kicking around.

sorry bro! use what alex specified for best results.

[reverberation66]

Man, that trumpet sound rules! nice work, you capture the sound of a trumpet so well, sounds way better than the "trumpet" on my casio, good playing too!   

[pinkjimiphoton]

almost done building now, just gotta find the right transistors...everything's wired up except for that. i went for the tiny layout.

had to make a couple parts substitutions, but nothing crazy, everything is within a couple points of what's specified except the starve pot...running out of small 100k pots, so making that one 50k, should do the trick still.

will post to say how it turns out.

[pinkjimiphoton]

here ya go. this one is right, and working, and verified...there were a couple minor, but fatal, flaws on the earlier version.

this one is up and running, and sounds great....i did find that trumpet like tone despite the mods...it's very contingent on the bender control's setting and the attack setting as well.

the values i used are in parenthesis...i used all linear pots...for transistors i tried everything, my favorite is actually the combo of 3904 and 3906 so far. played with the lower gain transistors i had, and didn't like it as much...
may be because i am running slightly different voltages  because of resistor subs...

but it's working, sounds great, look for a stupid pedal tricks episode coming soon!

[Puguglybonehead]

Nice demo Jimi! Especially liked the "trumpeting" sample. Hmmm... sounds strange to say that. "There goes that guitarist 'trumpeting' again!"

[pinkjimiphoton]

that's alex frias' demo bro, not me!! i just embedded it in the thread.

he sounds great!

i built this last nite, boxed it today...tried many transistors, and settled on 3904 and 3906. sounds great.

if you turn the gain down to about 6 and a half, and brown it out with the treble pickup on, you'll find the trumpet tone. a LOT of it is in your
fingers and phrasing i think. pretty nice fuzz.

i'd reccomend up to a 1k resistor for the emitter on q1, so when you short it with the switch you get more of a boost.

nice fuzz...sweet, kinda clear...will up a demo one of these days!!

[deadastronaut]

nice one jimi...

heres a weird brassy fuzz i messed around with a while back...

alex frias got in touch with me about it!...kind of brassy /synthy fuzziness...

i think IIRC it was a fuzz face type circuit, but i had trims in for the collectors....no final schemo though...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04vrAGfQSv8

[pinkjimiphoton]

that sounds cool rob!! as always, nice chops, too!!

sounds more like a synth than a horn...very brassy and cool. too bad ya never kept a schematic!!

[m4j0rbumm3r]

Sweet, can't wait to hear your demo Jimi!

I just ordered all the parts; this will be my first complete build. So far I've only been doing mods and repairs.

[pinkjimiphoton]

hey major,

i'll try and shoot a stupid pedal tricks tonite or tomorrow when my girl's at work.

it's a cool sounding pedal, to get the trumpet tones like the video in this thread, you may need to really play with the trannys.. i found i could get that sound fairly well, really dependent on phrasing tho.

attack about 6, volume where ever, and brown it out til it sputters, then juice it just a little bit.

for transistors, i went for a more everyday fuzztone, cuz i rarely really need a trumpet (if i do, i will call my sister, a world-renowned trumpet player jeanne g. pocius)

what i found worked best for ME, was to turn the warp control all the way down...then sub transistors until you find a set that gives you a half way decent fuzz tone...then when ya crank up the voltage, the pedal will bloom and sound really good.

i CAN get a touch of octave up, and octave down is a little dicey...you'll probably want a bigger warp pot than i used, at 50k, the sweet spot for the trumpet sound is pretty narrow...100 or even 250 k will probably spread it out some. it gets a pretty decent "sax" kinda sound, too...it's synthy and brassy and very cool, and makes a great fuzz for fuzz's sake, too.

again tho, some of it could come down to me using different transistors, and not having the exact resistors on hand...15k instead of 18k probably increased the gain there a little bit...680k instead of 560 probably decreased the gain a little. subbing a 560r for the 470 r probably made the gain boost more noticeable. if i build this again, i'll make that emitter a 1k for a BIG boost when the resistor's bypassed.

i hope you have fun with this, congrats on taking the plunge to build your first circuit!!

beware...it's addicting as hell. i've built about 40 some odd functional pedals now, maybe more...and have about 10 on the bench in various stages of me staring at them.

rock on!

[m4j0rbumm3r]

Thanks for the build report Jimi. I'm quite anxious to get my parts package delivered and start working on it. I don't have a trumpet playing sister, let alone a world renowned one, but I did start a funk band recently and wrote some original tunes full of brass parts. It would be so cool if I could make some of those parts sound good on guitar, or team up with a real brass player to do harmonies in horn section bits 

Anyway, forced by my obsession-of-the-week, I have been researching Paul Trombetta's fuzz pedals. He offers his 'bone machine' with an optional switch that changes between Si and Ge transistors. So now I'm considering adding that in as well, while I'm at it...
Given my lack of experience however, it might be a stupid idea to make this build any more complex than necessary. Oh, the dilemma, the dilemma! [drama queen alert]

Well, I guess I'll first build it using the schematics in this thread, using tranny sockets so I can try different types. If, and only if, it turns out I can't decide on a winner and the contenders have very different sounds, I might add the extra switch...

Now, how about some stupid pedal trick clips?? 

[pinkjimiphoton]

soon, bro.

i didn't care for germanium in this pedal so much. too soft, and much weaker fuzz.
they sputter out about half way down on the warp control.

[m4j0rbumm3r]

So, my parts just got delivered. Time for some soldering!

Being the ultranoob that I am, I would be very thankful if someone could verify my footswitch addition to Jimi's stripboard layout. In particular, does my labeling of where the switch connections should go make sense? I figured anything from the attack pot up to and including the volume pot is 'the effect' to be bypassed.

Thanks for your patience with beginners 

[pinkjimiphoton]

this is how i always do it... it grounds the input of the board when in bypass to minimize noise leakage

[pinkjimiphoton]

[m4j0rbumm3r]

Some nice sounds you showed there!

Mine is sort of done, but there's still a fault in it somewhere. Apparently, I managed to screw up quite a few things, including getting the the 9V dc socket lugs 2 and 3 mixed up, as well as getting lugs 1 and 3 of all the pots mixed up. Although pretty epic failures, I managed to figure those faults out soon enough. Now I need to find out why mine sounds like a slightly driven low pass filter, and hardly responds to the controls.

But right now I'm tired, hungry, sleepy, and I've got a flight to catch in the morning. I'll have to check everything later.

[pinkjimiphoton]

i wouldn't call that epic failure!


i ALWAYS expect them lugs to be backwards on EVERYTHING...happens all the time!!!!!

check your voltages, or try some higher gain transistors. there's a real sweet spot where the trumpet happens, and even then, most of it's in the phrasing of the player.

you'll get it my friend! no worries!