aion flare looking to mod for bass

[vulturemoon]

hey all, i am new here, i made an aion flare for a fellow, but he plays bass and is complaining that it doesnt have enough bass, what caps and to what value can i increase them to retain more of the natural bass in his signal.  i ask because the input and output and cap for the low end of the body knob are all 10uf, and i have been seeing on forums that that will already let all the bass though, but does it? am i on the right track? and if i raise the alue of the input and output caps di i have to raise the max value for the body(bass) knob with it? OR could i just change the low end cap for the body knob? i also ask because i would like to have a solid plan before hacking this thing up....Thanks !

[jimilee]

Got a schematic?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cajone5]

I believe it's C2 on the flare.  I added a switchable cap like the newer fat fuzz factory when I built mine up (as well as a Q1 Ge/Si swap). 

[vulturemoon]

sorry i meant to add that,
https://aionelectronics.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/aion-flare-fuzz-factory-documentation-v1.1.pdf
its on page 3.
and cajone, i have looked over your posts on the subject, cool work, do you use yours for bass? and what is the values that you put in c2?  (i zoomed hard to see em' but couldnt). but i think that your swtich for the fat boost made the body knob less usable because c2 blends with c8 to bring more bass into the system (c8 being the 10uf and lower bass register), i was wondering if the input and out put caps have to match the higest value of the c2/c8 blend to achieve the lowest bass register? (i/e if the input cap is lower than the body cap can does changing a the body cap make a difference?)  so i think what i mean is, if i have it correct,the C2 and C8 body control encapsulates the values of the fat fuzz factory switch, so i guess i am looking to make a FATTER Fuzz factory. i hope i am being clear, its kinda hard to articulate what i mean,but i am soooo thankful for any and all of your inputs! your time is appreciated, i would bake you a pie if i could get it to you through the internet!

[cajone5]

Good insight -- I didn't think much about it when I built it up but looking back I'm not sure how all this works mathematically.  Since the body pot is a cap blend control, I don't know what the resulting cap value works out to be when you switch things up.  I would say increasing C2 and C8 would give a new range to the body control which would help with the bass content.  Maybe that's the ticket?

I also wonder if increasing C4 or the tone cap (C6) would help some?  I'm sure some of our more knowledgeable electronics gurus here could weigh in on that.

[vulturemoon]

that would be awesome! any gurus available?!?!?

[vulturemoon]

Cajone, what was the effect of your si to ge transistor switch, how does it effect the sound? woudl you say it is a worthwhile mod?

[Netnnk]

I built the Flare with all the mods, but ended up undoing them and going for normal Fat Fuzz Factory.  The body pot mod should offer a ton of low end.  Maybe your friend is perceiving a loss of low end that isn't there because of some higher end emphasis?  Replacing that pot with a 10uf I guess would work, though the usually heaviest mod I've seen is 2.2uf on a switch.  He would probably prefer something with a clean mix.

I'm curious about the GE transistor switch too; it's much closer to original Tone Bender mkii .

[cajone5]

Different flavors when swapping Q1 is all you get.  With a Ge there, the pedal had more gain and was more unruly although I'm sure that's dependent on the gain and leakage of the transistors you choose.  My recommendation and my plan on my next Flare build (someone contacted me after seeing this and purchased it) is to socket Q1 and just find one I really like there.  I know people think that the wide range of control over the fuzz factory (especially this one with 8 knobs) would mean any almost transistors are fine.  And they are, technically speaking.  However, I've found you can get some really good sounds if you get the right combination of transistors.  Especially in the odd settings (ex: the degrading bit-crusher style fade out in some settings is highly dependent on the transistors in my experience).  I have some lower gain spam can Ge NPN's that I plan to try in Q1 on my next build and I'm hoping for good results.

[vulturemoon]

yeah, i made one with lower gain (100-130hfe) mullard oc42 in q1 and q2, and she is tight as hell, so smooth for this noise monster, i soldered em' in they are so sweet sounding.  so a follow up on the project, i was having trouble desoldering any of my caps (bad desolder braid, and very little room to work with) so i did not solder in any new caps but i tried (by just touching to the pins in parallel with the existing caps) an 100u as well as 22u and 47u in the input position and c4 and c8 and found there to be no difference in tone, and if there was my ears are too blasted to hear it.  most of the stuff i see on the internet about it (there is very little) makes it seem like 10uf for those positions are going to get as much bass out of the circuit that you possibly can (considering the fat fuss face uses 2.2uf for its fat switch like netnnk said). i am going to try to work up a mastotron with a blend control for this fellow and see if that suits him, as that circuit was designed with bass in mind (i think). anyone have experience with that one/ care to share the voice or character of it with me?  thanks for your input, and BTW i am not a quitter, i just know when i am about to open a can of hell worms, and sometimes, it aint worth it. happy building!

[Netnnk]

I was going to recommend the Woolly Mammoth, which is basically the Mastotron without bass cut switch or pre gain knob.

[cajone5]

I was going to recommend the Woolly Mammoth, which is basically the Mastotron without bass cut switch or pre gain knob.

This.  I wonder if there's a schematic out there for the 7 knob version?  Or you could see if you could incorporate some of the extra controls in the aion flare in the woolly mammoth.

[Netnnk]

That would be a cool build.  It should be easy enough based on the product description. The tone knob is replaced with 4 controls: a 3 knob Marshall tone stack, and volume knob (recovery stage maybe?).  The second footswitch engages the EQ.