Sunking treble sounds a bit harsh/brittle.

[rhcp311]

So, I finally got a chance to A/B my Sunking with my real Klon tonight at band practice. The Sunking sounds great, and I'll probably end up selling my real Klon, but before I do that I want to try and fix an issue that I noticed with the Sunking. The treble on the Sunking seems more harsh and brittle, or thin, than it sounds on the real Klon. From what I remember, I don't think I had any parts substitutions. I had to have the tone knob on my Sunking around 9 or 10 o'clock though, whereas I normally keep it closer to noon on my Klon, and again, the character of the treble just was a bit less pleasing to my ears. What can I do to fix this? I used BAT41 diodes, but I socketed them, so I was thinking about swapping those out tomorrow with some 1n34a's. Any other suggestions for what to do though?

Thanks in advance!

[madbean]

Try a 6n8 in place of the 3n9 treble cap.

[rhcp311]

Try a 6n8 in place of the 3n9 treble cap.

I'll do that tomorrow. Thanks for the suggestion. I think I'll try swapping out the diodes first to see if that makes a difference since switching out socketed diodes would be a lot easier than trying to remove that cap. Haha.

[madbean]

Yeah, desoldering that type of board is a challenge. If you don't have a desoldering pump (Radio Shack has them) then use a braid. I find that actually melting a little extra solder on the joints first sometimes helps when using the braid. Once you get the component out, if there's still some solder left that you can't get out, poke a resistor lead through it gently as you heat the pad. The solder will adhere to the lead and the hole will open. As long as you go slow and don't overheat the pad it should not tear out.

[rhcp311]

Holy hell. You need to make C15 6n8 stock. That sounds WAY closer to my Klon upon first inspection. Granted, I could only play for a few minutes before I had to be quiet for the night, but I was far happier with this new cap. It's still so crazy to think such a tiny part can make all the difference in the world. Either way, thanks for the awesome advice. I can't wait to A/B these pedals all afternoon tomorrow haha.

I have a friend who wanted me to build one of these for him, and I'm probably going to strongly recommend he goes with the 6n8 cap.

Thanks again!

[Ang3lus]

tell us about the results

[madbean]

That's really cool to hear, esp. since I just pulled that value out of thin air 

[rhcp311]

Well, nice work on picking it out of thin air. It seems to work. Haha. The bass response is a bit closer to my Klon, and the treble seems less harsh with the added low end.

Before I would have said the clone was about 90-95% of the way to real Klon, but when switching out the cap I'd say it's closer to 95-99%. I really can't see myself keeping my real Klon much longer. Why would I need to when Madbean is on the case? Haha.

Thanks again for the awesome project!

[dap9]

Man I loves the interwebz!  Just finished another Sunking build and this one definitely sounded a little harsher in the highs.  And I had accidentally put a 4n7 in there.  Just put a 6n8 and, even though it's too late to crank it, I can tell it put the tone knob in a much more useable range.

So I'll be making note of this on the parts list, layout, and scheme.

[bigmufffuzzwizz]

I'm glad i read this. Gonna socket it and try some more values. You think increasing it more (8n2 or 10nf) will add even more bass?

[dap9]

I'm glad i read this. Gonna socket it and try some more values. You think increasing it more (8n2 or 10nf) will add even more bass?

I finally got to play the pedal at a louder volume.  I used a guitar w/ humbuckers and one w/ P90s.  The 6n8 definitely sounded better, but I had to have the tone knob at around 9:00 for a sound that I liked.  at 12:00 it was still a little too bright.  So I think I'm going to increase the cap again to something around the 10n range.

[bigmufffuzzwizz]

http://www.elexp.com/kit_csbk.htm

Seems like the perfect solution!

[dap9]

My ears are fried!  I just put a socket in there and I finally decided on a .1uf in there.  I'll have to check the other components b/c maybe I messed up somewhere else in the build, but I built one using madbean's v1 board and I noticed in that build the highs can be brittle and I would keep the tone at about 9:00.  With the .1uf, I can have it closer to noon.  And when dialing it down, there's a little more bass 'flexibility'.  I'm not a huge fan of Tube Screamers w/ the Fat Switch (taking out one if the caps - I'm blanking on which one), but in the Klone build, I like the pedal to have a little more 'oomph' in the higher notes.  Not too trebly, just a touch of lower frequencies.  I dunno.

[bigmufffuzzwizz]

all these sunking's getting built is making me crazy. I finally ordered the parts for about 5 madbean boards this one included! definitely going with the diode switch and changing this cap to .1uf. maybe even larger.

[dap9]

all these sunking's getting built is making me crazy. I finally ordered the parts for about 5 madbean boards this one included! definitely going with the diode switch and changing this cap to .1uf. maybe even larger.

Yeah, now that I socketed that cap, I guess I should try a much bigger value just for shits and giggles to hear how much difference there would be.  1uf after dinner perhaps.