Messages

Just to follow up:

On the thinning sound, replaced all five J201's (purchased from PedalParts Plus) with 5 from Mammoth and wow night and day difference.  The new J201's on about 50-60% of the gain pot are what it sounded like on max with the other J201's, and the new max is full on thick fat death metal.  Almost too much, so I'll investigate a 2n5457 in Q5.  But the gain pot now has way more usability, prior it was almost only useable at about 60% onward.

So that problem is pretty much solved.

On  my fit issue I rewired the darn thing three times, went through a ton of wire, even tried making the faux board mounted pots out of short wire, that shorted everything every time.

So I scrapped that, rewired it back to how I had it originally (only a little shorter) and will hit home depot tomorrow and just invest in a few nuts as spacers.  It won't be pretty but that's fine by me.

If anyone comes across this and is looking for an enclosure, I think my downfall was the Mammoth pre-drilled enclosure, awesome quality and will definitely order again, the problem was the jacks were drilled a little too on center which hit my board when plugged in, if they were drilled the same as the template on the bottom half of the enclosure I probably would have been fine.  Or if I got a 1590BBM instead of BB.

Thanks, I think I am going to strip it back down, remove the pots and wiring and re-attempt it with board mounted pots.  I originally thought they wouldn't work with my enclosure but now I think I can re-arrange it to fit.

My problem with the shorting, which hasn't happened yet since I haven't put the lid on the enclosure, is if I were to use the lid, due to the wiring below the pcb connecting the pots creating a cushion the pcb won't sit down far enough to close the lid. Couple that with the placement of the jacks and it creates the problem.

I've gone over the components and still believe them to be correct but will do that again when I get the pcb out.

So I have two small issues:

Built the Chunk Chunk and it worked right off, great.
Problem 1, it doesn't fit in my 1590BB, or rather, it fits but not with the bottom on.  I got the 1590 from Mammoth and with the spacing and input jacks the PCB will short out one or the other if pushed in.  So other than the obvious, getting a 1590BBM, honestly only short a few mm here, any creative ideas?

I was thinking of hitting home depot and getting either washers or some other type of spacer to give me the clearance.  It won't be the prettiest, but its just for my home board use so it doesn't have to look good.

2nd question is on the gain, full on it is a flamethrower, but I found as I turn the gain pot down it thins out, to an almost AM radio quality, I can reduce the presence and treble and increase the bass, which helps some, but then cranking the gain up it is a wall of bass.

Not really having any problems biasing it but for reference if biased this way:
Q1: 2.2
Q2: 2.5
Q3: 4.5
Q4: 5.3
Q5: 8.8

It is reduced some but a little too wooly when cranked.

If biased this way:
Q1: 4.3
Q2: 4.5
Q3: 4.5
Q4: 5.3
Q5: 8.8

(I know each jfet can vary, but I see a ton of people biasing at greater than 7.0, anything over 6 and I get no output)

The woolyness is decreased but it turns terribly thin as the gain is reduced.

Definitely interested in the ROG Fetzer valve bias method but no IC to build it at the moment.

Does this sound like a bias problem or something else?  The youtube demo's I have watched don't seem to have this issue and the gain seems to increase fairly evenly up the dial.

I have tried about 10 different J201's in all the positions as well and they all react the same way.

I will say I believe the pedal to be in perfect working order, no squeals, no oscillation, and pretty much quiet (dead silent in comparison to my BSIAB which is also perplexing as this has 10x the gain).

Thanks.