BLACK FOREST High Gain Preamp - Based on the Bogner Uberschall

[pakrat]

I'd like to see your final product Miša, it sounds very cool 

[JebemMajke]

The general idea came from the fact that the place where me and my band mates play doesn;t have another guitar amp. Just one for guitar and another for bass, and we have no bass player. I've plugged my guitar in a bass amp, in a mixer and god knows where. So i've talked to the owner of the place, a night club to be precise ( he has lent us his club for rehearsals during the day, for free, which is very cool ). I've told him that i could make one 100w amp ( one of those tda based amps ) with 2 dirty channels and 1 clean, but he will have to buy box for it. And he is up for it. But first i'll have to convince him so I've made tda based 20w power amp and ever since i've been looking for cool preamps for it. E3 is great engl fireball simulation. Fantastic. I've been thinking about ether using Jim's BF 4 fet version ( if he is cool with that ), or Old Mike's krankenstein for a second dirt channel. This is a drawing of my idea. Reason for DPDT's is simple, they are really expensive in my country. 10 euros per piece ...




Ps Jim, have you tried Mike's krankenstein? Do you have a pcb layout for it?

[JebemMajke]

I @#$%in love E3!! I've played deep purple and aker%^&*e without even moving the drive knob. I did all the tweaking with vol pot on my guitar and pickup split switch.

[pakrat]

Ok, enough about the E3! This isn't fair, my parts are not here yet!! 

[JebemMajke]

2sk117 as Q1 is way better choice. For me at least. Little bit more gain, but it's not as "fuzzy" as j201.

[pakrat]

I used a 2n5457 for my BF to cut down on the "fizz" factor. I just got in a few K30A-R's I'm gonna try also... the tighter the better!

[J0K3RX]

I am not sure if we are talking about the E3 or the BF or what version of the BF?

I think Miša is talking about the E3 and pakrat is talking about the BF although, I am not sure which version of the BF??

[pakrat]

Miša is talking about the E3, I was talking about the BF 5 stage. We are both talking about the "fuzz" generated by J201's 

[JebemMajke]

Hey Jim. E3 is what I'm talking about. Have you tried Fet/Mosfet Krankenstein?

[J0K3RX]

Hey Jim. E3 is what I'm talking about. Have you tried Fet/Mosfet Krankenstein?

Yup! You want the layout and transfer?

[pakrat]

Of course he does... sheesh 

[J0K3RX]

Miša / Frank

Check yer email... 

[pakrat]

 

[JebemMajke]

Wow, man. Thanks. You are the man!!

[JebemMajke]

I have to ask, is it a monster like E3?

[J0K3RX]

I have to ask, is it a monster like E3?

look at it... very similar, so.... take a wild guess

So, I have to ask... does the E3 have a lot of TIGHT@SS high gain? How does it compare to let's say... the Dr.Boogie?

By the way, you can mod the tone stack to get more bass response...  

All of these Russian preamps with the 2N7000's are bad to the tone bone!!! Not at all happy with the Russian version of the Uberschall... 

[JebemMajke]

I must say that I've never made myself a dr boogie pedal. I was never a fan of mesa. Engl, Framus, Krank ... that's my metal
But I'll give it a go.

I did make framus cobra ( fet version/conversion ) and it was out of this world. But the noise was too unbearable. So I took it apart. 2sk117's were the fets I've used in that project.

Back to the E3

It's high gain as @#$%. Black metal, death metal, thrash ... it fits all those extreme metal genres. And with vol pot ( guitar's vol pot ) down you go to the Judas Priest, Deep Purple territory.
It doesn't like my zendrive clone ... too much noise when I try to push it with zen ...

[pakrat]

In my opinion, the Dr boogie is a great high gain pedal that does actually capture the flavor of the Rectifier but....... like Miša, I'm not a big fan of the Mesa crunch. It's too loose and spongy for me. I've never had the pleasure of playing a real Engl OR a Krank, but I did play an Uberschall and it was pretty nice. Still.... nothing can beat my good old Rg100!!

[J0K3RX]

In my opinion, the Dr boogie is a great high gain pedal that does actually capture the flavor of the Rectifier but....... like Miša, I'm not a big fan of the Mesa crunch. It's too loose and spongy for me. I've never had the pleasure of playing a real Engl OR a Krank, but I did play an Uberschall and it was pretty nice. Still.... nothing can beat my good old Rg100!!

Way back in the 80's and 90's I owned all kinds of Mesa Boogies and I didn't like any of them... I couldn't figure out why people liked them so much, like you said they has a loose attack and spongy feel to them... There weren't all of these amps and preamps available like there are today and digital really sounded digital! I went through the tube amp phase then the tube preamp phase / solid state power amp phase then back to the tube power amp then to all digital then back to the tube amp / head etc... on and on in vicious cycles in search of THE RIG with THE SOUND... The closest I have ever gotten to having a sound that I was totally happy with was 2 Hughes & Kettner Metal Shredder tube preamps running into a MosValve 500 power amp, 250 watts per channel stereo into four 4x12 cabs. I had some digital midi controlled effects in between, mostly delay, chorus, reverb and nothing else.... and of course a TS808 sitting in front of it all. You wanna talk about loud and brutal!!! Most of the time if we played clubs/bars they didn't even have to mic my guitar, at all! Was sick I tell ya To this very day I still have not been able to reproduce that sound even on a small level let alone a large rocket engine level..! Anyway, those good old days are long gone and now I just play around the house after work late at night so, the "nuclear assault bunker buster" guitar rig might not go over so well  The key to that rig was the massive power and headroom it had coupled with the H&K preamps! I think these jfet preamps would maybe sound even better in the same setup... These really weren't around much if any back then and if there were any they had not reached a level of tone that they have today. I got to where I hate power tubes! They are just so inconsistent, they start to get old, they are horribly moody depending on the room temp, humidity, where they are located, if you move your rig etc bla bla bla... They sound great one day after being warmed up for about 2 hours and then they sound totally different the next day etc... They sometimes get weird harmonic interference, squeal like a pig and the list goes on... I hate'em! Preamp tubes are a totally different story, I love them!

Now, the Dr.Boogie (to me anyway) sounds nothing like a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier.. at all! But, it does sound good and has sort of a Boogie sound to it... I like it but it needs something, can't quite put my finger on it but it lacks character and tone in a way? Somewhere in the process of fine tuning and tweaking it lost it's magic, maybe? You can get a killer sound with it if you process it and enhance it but it is missing something and it's not because it uses jfets, it's something else...? I have 3 of them right now so I ain't knocking them at all, they do have a very distinctive sound and are very well refined, no bugs etc..  just my take on it.   

[pakrat]

I agree with everything you said, except that a Dr boogey doesn't sound like a Rec at all? I have a Rec and a Dr boogie, and of course the first thing I did when I built the Dr was to A/B it with the real deal. While it does not sound exactly like a Rec, it does contain it's flavor for sure.... and it's shortcomings. Again, as we all know, or should know....  tone is in the ears of the beholder.