[Lonely Star] An adaption of the Mesa Boogie Lonestar amp. Seeking comments!

[Auke Haarsma]

I can do that.

But what are that resistor and cap for? Some kind of filter?

[kurtlives]

Ya just a filter. Another form of coupling.

Personally I would remove C17 and jumper it. Then you dont have the "extra" coupling.

[Auke Haarsma]

Ok thanks. I will experiment some more with different values. I'll report back

[Auke Haarsma]

I replaced C17, C18 and R18 with sockets. I tried some different values. If I remove C17, and use the 'marshall'-values, I loose the bias on Q4 completely. The 100k trim can't get it to ~5V. So it seems I have to keep C17.

I tried some different values from C17. To me 0,1uF sounded best. So that's double the original value.

[Auke Haarsma]

André will etch me a new pcb for version 1.1.

And, I also corrected an error on the schematic (and thus the V1 pcb). The 'Thick' setting should lead between C7 and R13. Not as on the v0.6 schematic to before C7.

Hope to share the full project in the coming days!

[brunocbicalho]

that's great! keep it up!

[Auke Haarsma]

that's great! keep it up!

Thanks!

I received the version 1.1 PCB today. The size is quite perfect now, it can even fit a Hammond B-size enclosure. Ideal for the 3-knob version or a Zvex-BoR style enclosure layout.

Populating the board:

[Auke Haarsma]

and a picture showing the size of the pcb (and the v1.1 pcb traces) in a 'zvex'-style layout with 1 bypass switch and 1 lead/normal channel switch.

[axemurderforhire]

WOW this really looks tempting ha ha 
I cant wait to see how it will turn out

Keep me posted


Dave

[aziltz]

are you gonna be making boards to sell or putting in a group order somewhere?  me-likey

[Auke Haarsma]

are you gonna be making boards to sell or putting in a group order somewhere?  me-likey

yeah, pcb's will be available. Most likely I will not make them myself, but I am sure André (who has made the pcb's shown on the pics in this thread) or some of the other great pcb makers here (John Lyons springs to my mind) can provide high quality PCB's at a fair price.

As of now, I have populated the V1.1 PCB, all pots wired and have been playing with it for the last couple of hours.

I am trying some different values here and there, and the results are good. I have changed the values around the 'thick, thicker' switch. It now allows for a lot more gain. I wrote somewhere above that this beasty has a lot less gain than the Dr Boogey. Well, it has less gain, but it gets really close with the mods. And the cool thing is, if you flip the hot-switch to normal or flip the Thick-switch to another position, you can change the gain on tap easily. It is a really adjustable pedal!

I'll continue testing and will probably put it in an enclosure to check on the 'noise' it picks up. Release of the project file (in a new thread) is still on track for this weekend

Here is a pic with all seven pots and three switches. The blue switch at the top would normally be a footswitch. It is used to switch from normal to lead channel:

Stay tuned!

[aziltz]

looks wonderfundle!   i must build this, eventually.

[Andre]

are you gonna be making boards to sell or putting in a group order somewhere?  me-likey

As Auke already mentioned, I can make boards for this project.
The price for green ones will be €11.- excl. shipping.
The blue ones will be €12.40 excl. shipping.

For shipping I will charge the same price TNT charges me.

[anti-idiot]

looks good, but how does it sound? i'm dying to hear some clips...

cheers buddy

[Auke Haarsma]

If all goes well I hope to have at least some basic soundclips up when the project is released.

[anti-idiot]

If all goes well I hope to have at least some basic soundclips up when the project is released.

Cool! Your projects looks like it might sounds good. The PCB etching is flawless, and i really hope it sounds killer. I love this F4T projects (I'm doin' the same with the Marshall JCM900SL-X)

[Auke Haarsma]

I just cannabalized an old enclosure to quickly box up the Lonely Star. Funny coincidence... the enclosure used to house an OmniDrive. The first effect I ever build! And now that same enclosure gets the honour of housing, well temoporarily housing my first ever own 'designed' effect. Here's a pic of this historic moment

But man, I do like how this pedal sounds. It has such a wide range of sounds. From clean all the way into high gain territory! And a lot of steps in between. The controls work really nice. The tone-controls are highly interactive (you have to get used to it), but together with the presence control you can shape the sound to suit your style.

While it was still outside of the enclosure I got some squeeling at the highest gain settings (Hot, Thicker, Lead and max gain and drive). But inside the enclosure there is no squeeling at all!

I need to finetune the Thick/Thicker switch a little more. But I have a feeling I am getting close to finishing the design.

[Auke Haarsma]

Finetuning of the Thick(er)-switch is finished. I am pretty pleased with it.

Gonna let is rest for a night (gotta get some sleep) and check how it sounds in the morning (you know what beer does to your ears). If it still sounds good I'll write up the project file, make some soundclips and post it in a new thread here at diystomp!

[axemurderforhire]

yeay cant wait. im new to this but this project has me on the edge of my seat.

[Auke Haarsma]

I hope I am not asking too much of your patience, dear viewer! I was already working on the project file... But, the project will take a couple more days.

Why is that?

Well, after finetuning some more (changed the tonestack a little, to reduce some of the bass. Still plenty of bass available), I tried the circuit at a higher supply voltage. 16V to be precise. And, not really to my surprise, this circuit really benefits from the added headroom. It sounds great at 9V (imho) and it sounds even better at 16V (or 18V).

So, what did I do? I decided to add a charge pump to the PCB. Ofcourse, it is optional, you can still runs this effect at 9V. And, it does NOT require a special adapter or power supply. Just the normal 9V 'we' often use. The charge pump takes care of getting the 9V to18V. But since I want a single PCB for the different versions of the project, I recreated the PCB. No fancy colours this time, just a PCB layout image straight out of Eagle:

It is getting more and more crowded, but I still think the PCB can keep its 'easy-to-solder'-ness. To make place for the Charge pump I dropped the onboard LED_resistor, but I do not think anyone will mind.

I also stuck the trimpots much closer together. Still more than enough space for each trimpot, just look at some of the pics of my builds. I use pretty small trimpots which do not require a lot of space.

Any comments regarding the charge pump or the new pcb?