Cool Overdrive build wanted !!

[HOTTUBES]

Built the Son of Screamer , Tube Reamer , Eternity clone , Electra Distortion , AMZ boost , SHO clone .....



But looking for another rocking Overdrive , what do you recommend !



Thanks for any tips !

[iq01221]

I did the OCD, hyper pak and cruch box( see my avatar). The first one is a good choice .

[Earthscum]

MPF102 "gain" stage, volume pot, j201 gain stages (x2), followed by a tone stack, and a diode compression BJT recovery gain stage. The other gain stage I've tried is j201 gain stage with 100k to ground, diode to gate, 1-10M to the drain. The diode still compresses, even though it changes bias because of the added .6V. The large resistor (greater than 10x the gate bias resistor) does 2 forms of shaping. The diode compresses, as well as the drain pulling up on the gate, keeps it from going into saturation, and makes it even more 'tube sounding'. The resistor to drain also forward biases the diode, so you'll want to crank the input volume (saturation, gain, sustain, etc) to max and fiddle with the value of it and the gate bias resistor until you get the sounds you want. It will break up at full gain, but I found some values to sound REALLY sweet (and didn't write notes... never on the good stuff, I get too involved to take a minute, lol).

ETA:

*Gain stages are: MPF102, 560R on Source, 1M pulldown, =>10k trimmer on drain
*(100k pot, whatever volume setup you want)
*J201 #1, 6.8k on Source, pulldown is through the volume pot, 100k trimmer on drain.
*(Cap, 1k)
*J201 #2, 1.2k-2.2k on Source, 100k pulldown, 100k trim on drain. Use a source bypass cap on this one, according to what you want boosted. 2.2k+1u=72Hz for full out, 1.5k and 1.5k+.047u=2.3kHz for a good presence boost.
*Choose your tone stack. I recommend a James style stack, it sounded the best to me, and the resistance to ground acts as the pulldown for the gate.
*Last stage I already explained. I liked both, they both had their sounds. The first (BJT) was AC coupled Darlington MPSA13 with, I think, 10k on the collector, 680R on the Emitter, and self-biased with a 470k and 100k. Really, I may be way off, but I think without the diode it used a 33k to ground (from the base), and with the diode it used the 100k (maybe 120k?). Again, no notes, and I don't quite know the math to check my correctness. Also tried BC109 in there, biased off a bit I think, but still sounded good... like a BC.
*The Jfet version gets no coupling cap, just straight from the stack to the diode's cathode. Anode to gate, the pulldown and pullup resistor stuff, 680R to ground, 100k trimmer.
*Output volume.

One thing I tried was a BMP stack with a volume out, like (I think) Jumbo Tone Bender, into the final gain stage. It changed how the thing sounded, for sure. I liked the volume interaction, having a high impedance afterwards, and no tone sucking at the output, etc. Fun stuff, if ya try it out, let me know. I gotta slap one together for a buddy, so I may end up doing a thread with a PCB eventually... and a schem, lol. Really thick and meaty, hard crunch when you want it, nice drive characteristics. Pretty dynamic. The funky impedance between the 2 J201 gain stages sucks a bit of the tone out. It gave me a much nicer range of clean to heavy drive. Lower gain lets a good amount of the whole signal through, and higher gain cuts enough of the highs out to not overwhelm the second J201 with higher order harmonics. Could try a tone cap on the volume pot.

[Yorick]

Just go for a version of the Electra Distortion. Most of them are overdrives.
Nice and easy build with a great sound!

[HOTTUBES]

MPF102 "gain" stage, volume pot, j201 gain stages (x2), followed by a tone stack, and a diode compression BJT recovery gain stage. The other gain stage I've tried is j201 gain stage with 100k to ground, diode to gate, 1-10M to the drain. The diode still compresses, even though it changes bias because of the added .6V. The large resistor (greater than 10x the gate bias resistor) does 2 forms of shaping. The diode compresses, as well as the drain pulling up on the gate, keeps it from going into saturation, and makes it even more 'tube sounding'. The resistor to drain also forward biases the diode, so you'll want to crank the input volume (saturation, gain, sustain, etc) to max and fiddle with the value of it and the gate bias resistor until you get the sounds you want. It will break up at full gain, but I found some values to sound REALLY sweet (and didn't write notes... never on the good stuff, I get too involved to take a minute, lol).

ETA:

*Gain stages are: MPF102, 560R on Source, 1M pulldown, =>10k trimmer on drain
*(100k pot, whatever volume setup you want)
*J201 #1, 6.8k on Source, pulldown is through the volume pot, 100k trimmer on drain.
*(Cap, 1k)
*J201 #2, 1.2k-2.2k on Source, 100k pulldown, 100k trim on drain. Use a source bypass cap on this one, according to what you want boosted. 2.2k+1u=72Hz for full out, 1.5k and 1.5k+.047u=2.3kHz for a good presence boost.
*Choose your tone stack. I recommend a James style stack, it sounded the best to me, and the resistance to ground acts as the pulldown for the gate.
*Last stage I already explained. I liked both, they both had their sounds. The first (BJT) was AC coupled Darlington MPSA13 with, I think, 10k on the collector, 680R on the Emitter, and self-biased with a 470k and 100k. Really, I may be way off, but I think without the diode it used a 33k to ground (from the base), and with the diode it used the 100k (maybe 120k?). Again, no notes, and I don't quite know the math to check my correctness. Also tried BC109 in there, biased off a bit I think, but still sounded good... like a BC.
*The Jfet version gets no coupling cap, just straight from the stack to the diode's cathode. Anode to gate, the pulldown and pullup resistor stuff, 680R to ground, 100k trimmer.
*Output volume.

One thing I tried was a BMP stack with a volume out, like (I think) Jumbo Tone Bender, into the final gain stage. It changed how the thing sounded, for sure. I liked the volume interaction, having a high impedance afterwards, and no tone sucking at the output, etc. Fun stuff, if ya try it out, let me know. I gotta slap one together for a buddy, so I may end up doing a thread with a PCB eventually... and a schem, lol. Really thick and meaty, hard crunch when you want it, nice drive characteristics. Pretty dynamic. The funky impedance between the 2 J201 gain stages sucks a bit of the tone out. It gave me a much nicer range of clean to heavy drive. Lower gain lets a good amount of the whole signal through, and higher gain cuts enough of the highs out to not overwhelm the second J201 with higher order harmonics. Could try a tone cap on the volume pot.

What is all this ?   
I'm just looking for another Overdrive to build that is popular around the Forum .

[WGTP]

http://www.diystompboxes.com/analogalchemy/sch/vulcan.html

Very cool, different and sounds great. 

[deadastronaut]

your best off breadboarding something,

one mans really good sound is probably not to someone else...adjust to taste...style...guitar...amp...etc.

[lopsided]

my latest overdirve / distortion was runoffgroove's Professor Tweed. http://www.runoffgroove.com/professor.html
I really like it, check the samples if it is something for you.

[EATyourGuitar]

complete sentences

What is all this ?   
I'm just looking for another Overdrive to build that is popular around the Forum .

if he said it, then its on the forum. if its on the forum, people will build it, therefor its popular.

[markeebee]

complete sentences

What is all this ?   
I'm just looking for another Overdrive to build that is popular around the Forum .

Wow. Have you tried googling for the "Ungracious Response" pedal?

[HOTTUBES]

MPF102 "gain" stage, volume pot, j201 gain stages (x2), followed by a tone stack, and a diode compression BJT recovery gain stage. The other gain stage I've tried is j201 gain stage with 100k to ground, diode to gate, 1-10M to the drain. The diode still compresses, even though it changes bias because of the added .6V. The large resistor (greater than 10x the gate bias resistor) does 2 forms of shaping. The diode compresses, as well as the drain pulling up on the gate, keeps it from going into saturation, and makes it even more 'tube sounding'. The resistor to drain also forward biases the diode, so you'll want to crank the input volume (saturation, gain, sustain, etc) to max and fiddle with the value of it and the gate bias resistor until you get the sounds you want. It will break up at full gain, but I found some values to sound REALLY sweet (and didn't write notes... never on the good stuff, I get too involved to take a minute, lol).

ETA:

*Gain stages are: MPF102, 560R on Source, 1M pulldown, =>10k trimmer on drain
*(100k pot, whatever volume setup you want)
*J201 #1, 6.8k on Source, pulldown is through the volume pot, 100k trimmer on drain.
*(Cap, 1k)
*J201 #2, 1.2k-2.2k on Source, 100k pulldown, 100k trim on drain. Use a source bypass cap on this one, according to what you want boosted. 2.2k+1u=72Hz for full out, 1.5k and 1.5k+.047u=2.3kHz for a good presence boost.
*Choose your tone stack. I recommend a James style stack, it sounded the best to me, and the resistance to ground acts as the pulldown for the gate.
*Last stage I already explained. I liked both, they both had their sounds. The first (BJT) was AC coupled Darlington MPSA13 with, I think, 10k on the collector, 680R on the Emitter, and self-biased with a 470k and 100k. Really, I may be way off, but I think without the diode it used a 33k to ground (from the base), and with the diode it used the 100k (maybe 120k?). Again, no notes, and I don't quite know the math to check my correctness. Also tried BC109 in there, biased off a bit I think, but still sounded good... like a BC.
*The Jfet version gets no coupling cap, just straight from the stack to the diode's cathode. Anode to gate, the pulldown and pullup resistor stuff, 680R to ground, 100k trimmer.
*Output volume.

One thing I tried was a BMP stack with a volume out, like (I think) Jumbo Tone Bender, into the final gain stage. It changed how the thing sounded, for sure. I liked the volume interaction, having a high impedance afterwards, and no tone sucking at the output, etc. Fun stuff, if ya try it out, let me know. I gotta slap one together for a buddy, so I may end up doing a thread with a PCB eventually... and a schem, lol. Really thick and meaty, hard crunch when you want it, nice drive characteristics. Pretty dynamic. The funky impedance between the 2 J201 gain stages sucks a bit of the tone out. It gave me a much nicer range of clean to heavy drive. Lower gain lets a good amount of the whole signal through, and higher gain cuts enough of the highs out to not overwhelm the second J201 with higher order harmonics. Could try a tone cap on the volume pot.

What is all this ?   
I'm just looking for another Overdrive to build that is popular around the Forum .

My last response to this paragraph may have been " misconstrued" some what !!

I most certainly was in now way trying to be : ungracious " in any way , if it was taken
that way by any on the forum , it was not meant that way at all ,and after reading my
reply i could see how it might be taken that way .

I'm pretty new at this stuff , i just did not understand what Earthscum was saying with his
detailed reply etc .


Sorry for any confusion !!!



HT 

[petemoore]

  Drive the speaker, and the tone changes, increasing distortion and compression can be the result, very nice.
   Use a tube output to drive the speakers, cranking these two is the 'classic' definition of an overdrive, especially if somehow...
  The source input is made hot, hot enough so the tube output is really 'bending' the peaks into a distorted version of what the input was.
    Often it's just a 9vdc booster or distorto-booster that helps the tube Output/Speaker exhibit increasing disortion effects.
   Once the amp is 'cranked', all it takes is a booster to crank it more, to make the effect stronger, adding some clipped signal peaks is often the next step toward heavy harmonic content type distortion.
    That's the hard way. Another way that'd works quite well but of course can't include tube output disto, is clipping type distortions. DIST+ is a real good example, but BMP and TS all use clipping diodes in different ways to clip the signal peaks.
   Once some of those are sampled built or better understood, for 'really cool' OD...more than one stage doing a little bit [no more] of clipping seems to make for 'cool' sound, and is generally speaking, softer sounding than what'd be somewhat equal distortion 'amount derived by a single stage doing all the distorting work.
    A bit like a single cylinder motorcycle, fast, light, powerful...but vibrates hard when pressed. Four cylinder distributes/ divides the vibrations and makes for a smoother, yet still fast/powerful ride.
   Consider Fetzer Valve article, CMOS [tube sound type  distorter chip/builds] for smooth-clip stage active options.

[petemoore]

  Try mosfet body diodes [IIRC the configuration is shown in Shaka and other circuits, as used in the Zendrive].
   In the TR, SOS, or a new feedback clipping circuit [ie ~tubescreamer type clipping].
  Boost that, or use that to Boost another distortion stage [different or similar].
   Just a little here and there, not too hard clipping anywhere, then the voicing and attenuation/settings options, if well chosen, will give 'cool overdrive', even colder or hotter are still options of course.
   By the time the definition of cool overdrive could be translated into words, a cool overdrive example could be built/tweeked/perfected and will demonstrate more about sound than definitions of terms  and words could ever possibly follow.