Minimalist Tube Screamer

[Aleph Null]

I tried to reduce the venerable circuit down to it's essence: a mid-range focused overdrive. The graphics are also minimalist. 



I've been really enjoying single knob gain circuits because they force me to pay more attention to my playing and to work the knobs on the guitar. That said, this circuit has a little more gain and a little more treble than I'd normally use in a Tube Screamer because those can be tamed with the guitar volume and tone respectively.



This design is not as mid-focused as an original TS. The bass is rolled off below 312Hz and the treble is rolled off above 3.1kHz. Additional filtering after clipping rolls the highs off above 4.8kHz, just enough to tame some harshness.I used a linear taper pot so that the "boost" portion takes up most of the sweep. There is only a modest amount of gain on tap compared to a lot of boosts, but it's still enough to push an amp. It does what a TS does: tightens things up and adds some grit.



Lastly, here's the vero layout in case anyone else wants to play around with this.

[cooder]

One knob and Rock'n Roll! Great quintessential squeeze there!

[dawson]

Super idea!
Thanks a lot for sharing your schematic and vero layout- this is going on my "to build" list.

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Impressive downsizing! Well done.

Please... one favor though. Bend up that shorting bar on the stomp. One half millimeter twist on that stomp switch and it all gets shorted to the case 

[jimilee]

Looks good. Is that the TS9 circuit?

[G.G.]

that's very cool, would love to hear an audio demo with your rig.

Nice job!

[EBK]

Elegant!

[Aleph Null]

Please... one favor though. Bend up that shorting bar on the stomp. One half millimeter twist on that stomp switch and it all gets shorted to the case 

The angle and the lighting make it look much closer than it is. I promise it's a solid 2mm away from the enclosure! If it would make you feel better, I could stick some electrical tape between the two.

Looks good. Is that the TS9 circuit?

I didn't have a particular Tube Screamer in mind. I think all variants (Ibanez and Mazon made ones, anyway) are symmetrical soft clipping. I went for asymmetrical because it seemed to tame the highs in a way the simple tone shaping couldn't.

that's very cool, would love to hear an audio demo with your rig.

If I can get a Sound Cloud account together I'll post something here.