DISTORTION PEDAL DESIGN...

[tsaf]

HELLO,THIS IS MY FIRST POST IN THE FORUM!
I WOULD LIKE TO ASK IF ANYONE COULD GIVE ME SOME INFO AND LINKS ,ABOUT HOW TO DESIGN A DISTORTION PEDAL?

[R.G.]

Read http://www.geofex.com.

All of it. Including the parts that are not obviously related to distortion pedals. When all that is really well understood, then ask any remaining questions here.

[caspercody]

http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/richardo/distortion/index.html

This is a great article.

[Mark Hammer]

No offense, but why design one when there are several thousand to choose from already?  MOD one, yes, that I understand.  Every pedal can require a little bit of fine tuning to do exactly what you want.  But designing one from scratch is a rather pointless task.  Even if a person comes up with a new "design" it ends up sounding and behaving exactly the same as one or more of the thousands already i existence.

[therecordingart]

No offense, but why design one when there are several thousand to choose from already?  MOD one, yes, that I understand.  Every pedal can require a little bit of fine tuning to do exactly what you want.  But designing one from scratch is a rather pointless task.  Even if a person comes up with a new "design" it ends up sounding and behaving exactly the same as one or more of the thousands already i existence.

I agree. I'm working on an EE degree right now, and I'm at the point in my studying that I feel compelled to start designing stuff. The problem is that everything has already been done in the world of stompboxes. I end up looking at circuits I like then adding things to them. One of the first pedals I built was the Blue Clipper on the Tonepad site. I love the sound of that and have added a tonestack, added clipping diodes in the feedback circuit, and played with values until it become something pretty far from the original. It's now probably just like something else, but who cares.

[aron]

One of my most favorite pages:

http://www.gmarts.org/index.php?go=217

[tsaf]

thanks ,for the replies!i understand that it may be pointless designing one...but understanding some things may lead me to a personal design,instead of just "copying''...

[Mark Hammer]

Most "designs" ARE copies...but they're "copies" in which the builder thought "I wonder what would happen if I changed that?".

So copy away, but THINK while you're doing it.

[deadastronaut]

+1:   breadboard a distortion circuit that works.....and tweak bits around to your taste.....and learn why it now has that taste.......

i can't recommend breadboarding enough!...

[tsaf]

the article from geofex was very informative....is there anything else about jfets and their use in distortion pedals?

[petemoore]

  Understand the designs and how they work, then find something that hasn't been tried.
   There's a darn long line though, of those who've been down this path many times before, reading their notes is also good for design adventures...know that most of this has been mapped long ago though.

[timd]

Try this:

http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/mr_adambeck/vero/bazzlayout2.jpg.html

I know many of us have messed around with this circuit and it can easily be built on a breadboard and modified heavily if need be. Try upping or lowering the capacitor values, and do the same for the other components. I'm working on a modified version of this with my bass player and we nailed that Queens of the Stone Age type of sound he was going for.