Dr. Boogey Mods

[MarkusVG]

Hey guys,

I'm planning on building the infamous Dr. Boogey distortion pedal, using the Gauss Markov layout. However I have a couple of questions.

1. I've heard this pedal lacks bass and has too much highs, how can I fix this? (I'd love to have the values and names of the components that need to be replaced , ex. C11, R13 etc.)
2. I've heard the tonestack isn't all that great, any useful tips here? (Though I love the sound of the Boogey).
3. What are the advantages of making it tonestackless, and what is it anyway, and most importantly how do I do this?
4. If you have any other really nice advice/tips, please feel free to share them

This is a relatively new and complex build for me, but I see that as a challenge!

Kind regards,

Mark

[rousejeremy]

The one I built sure doesn't lack bass

[arma61]

Hi

a few tips&tricks here

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=61391.0

and here

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=60453.0

Cheers

[gregwbush]

Hi Mark, I don't have a 1234 for ya but i can say i have just built one of these and you're certainly not wrong about the too much treble comment. Too much treble for a standard pedal. It is in my opinion that you need something like a cab sim after the boogey, or something to that effect, something to roll off the highs. I was messing around with my FX chain and found that putting the boogey before ROG's supreaux deux suddenly sounded good. Looking at the supreaux2 schematic it was obvious that there is a low pass filter at the end, rolling off highs.

I reckon you may be able to reduce highs with r13 and c11, but in my humble opinion, i reckon leave that alone and do it after the tonestack....

[Richard6]

I've built the Boogey, and have come to the conclusion that closed cabs sound better than open back combos. I use a Sonic Stomp clone (adds bass around 100hz) when I play it through my Marshall 1x12 combo, but don't really need for my closed back micro stack. I have really thought about taking away the tone stack all together and putting a graphic eq behind it to contour the tone the way I like.

[MarkusVG]

Thanks for all the nice and useful tips!

I'm looking at leaving the tonestack out, since I'm only going to use this pedal in combination with an amp anyhow. From there I can probably EQ it the way I want.

[ghostsauce]

If you build a gaussmarkov and want more bass, you can enlarge C11 and C12. Ideally you could socket these to play around with values, but I really like a 1uF in C11 and a 0.5uF in C12. Sounds great to my ears like this, and I play big beefy stuff so I need lots of bass.  A 10nF cap across the volume pot worked (as listed below) wonders for me in combination with what I said already. The treble can be dialed in really well now on mine. Here's some other mods I've read on this forum:


- build a standard DR boogie with gaussmarkov´s PCB..
- Replace the first coupling cap (after the fisrt fet, 22n) to 4.7nF
- replace the first stage bypass caps for two caps, 10uF for "modern", 220nF for "Raw", none of them for "vintage", switch between them with a spdt On-off-on switch
- replace the second coupling cap for 6.8nF or so
- Change the treble cap on the tonestack (6.8n) for something smaller (2,2nF or so)
- use 2 250k pots for volume A and Volume B, i only switch the output of them with one side of a dpdt, the other side controls the leds
- put a 10nF cap between lugs 1 &3 of one of the volume pots (doesn´t matter which one) to eliminate most of the harshness..

[MarkusVG]

@ghost

Wat do you mean with volume A and volume B? I only see Gain, Bass, Mid, Treble, Presence and Volume. Do you mean that the presence is also a volume pot?

Which parts are the bypass caps? C3 and C4? Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm still a noob at electronics haha!
Kind regards,

Mark

[soonerrob]

I  thought my build was too trebley as well... It was pointless to take my treble knob past 1 oclock  without nasty shrillness.. and i didnt feel that the bass knob cranked gave it enough...

not that I want to crank my treble and bass.. but I would like the knobs to be "usable" all the way around.. for max flexibility..

this one cap change fixed BOTH of these issues... my treble knob is now completely usable and bass at max is probably a bit too much for most... which is perfect for me because its now full range.

ALSO: I biased by transistors @ 5v.. this seems to clean up the pedal and take the fuzziness and fizziness out.. which probably also contributes to some of the low end going away.

http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=3632.msg38580#msg38580

"hey guys, I just wanna add my .02 to this.

I just finished my chunk chunk, and with the stock build I felt that I also wanted a bit more low end. I noticed that when engaged, my build seemed to really strip out alot of lows that had to be put back in with the amp because my bass pot didnt give me quite enough... I also noticed that my treble knob seemed to get aggressively bright once past 3 oclock... I have my fets biased more towards 5v rather than 4.5 because it seems to tighten up my sound a bit and does away with a bit of fizz... probably also could be making it a bit thinner also which could be contributing to my low end issue.

anyway...

I saw this thread and decided to socket my C12... i replaced the stock value with a 47n. and it really made a nice difference...

I now have a full range of lows which adds all the versatility that i want..

However, this swap also made my treble knob become usuable all the way to max with no harsh unusable sound... i dont know if this is even possible from the swap or its just my mind tricking me.. but my treble is much more usable now all the way around.

very very happy with this build and the small edit.  killer pedal. 

thank you."

[Richard6]

I think the big problem lies in how good metal distortion is made. You have to cut the bass in the gain stages to avoid the sound being "flabby" and then boost it back up after the distortion to keep it from being too "tinny". The Diefet project uses an active bass booster (I think) to do this. No matter how I work this tone stack in the Duncan's amp calc I always get some bass attenuation.

[ghostsauce]

^Eh, maybe the tone stack is really not salvageable then.. Somebody should draw up a pcb layout of a derivative of the gaussmarkov but with a tone stack better suited to it.. I wouldn't even know what to try using off-hand, though I've seen a bunch used.

[J0K3RX]

I have built quite a few Dr.Boogey's and never really had a problem with the tone stack, too much highs, not enough lows etc..? How are you running it? Also, you might want to check out the Mark IV emulator or at least the tone stack on it. The stack is at the front of the circuit before the gain...

[MarkusVG]

Is it in someway possible to add the tone stack from the Mark IV? Like, instead of the original Dr. Boogey schematic, add the tone stack from the Mark IV in front of the gain stage of the Boogey? That would be so nice, since you can control the EQ much better from there, instead of an already distorted EQ...

[J0K3RX]

Is it in someway possible to add the tone stack from the Mark IV? Like, instead of the original Dr. Boogey schematic, add the tone stack from the Mark IV in front of the gain stage of the Boogey? That would be so nice, since you can control the EQ much better from there, instead of an already distorted EQ...

Sure... why not!?

[MarkusVG]

I think I have it figured out the way I would like it to be. I'm going with the stackless version.

- It's going to have double volume and gain controls, wich I can switch between via 3PDT footswitch (On-On).
- LED indicator added to the 3PDT switch.
- It's also going to have a SWTC2 tone control added to it.
- I'm changing some of the values of C11 and C12, and probably some other small things as well
- Changing Q1 and Q2 to MPF102's (better gain control, else the gain would be almost uncontrollable.

Am I right if the PCB is 64mm x 40mm? At least it is, here on screen and print.

Any further ideas are well appreciated,

Mark

[deadastronaut]

http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/chickpea/pedal+builds/P240511_12_54.jpg.html

[MarkusVG]

Yep something like it, but no tonestack in my version.. just a tone control.

[deadastronaut]

@markus:

i would breadboard it minus the stack, then experiment with adding different tone controls/switching caps etc......tweakable...



do you have the tsc...tone calculator

http://www.duncanamps.com/tsc/

[MarkusVG]

Yep thinking of that

Need to order one quickly. Thanks for all the help everybody, again! This project wouldn't be possible without your knowledge.

[MarkusVG]

Does anybody know the correct size for the Gaussmarkov PCB?

I'm planning on getting it etched today, but I can't figure out the true size. I've tried to measure it using software, but they only display pixels..

Also mounting holes, yes or no, if yes, how many? I'm planning on putting it inside a 1590BB enclosure.
Kind regards,

Mark