Black Forest Overdrive?

[pryde]

Anyone have the scoop on this circuit from Black Arts Toneworks? At heart it is a Colorsound Overdriver but not sure what mods were done. Searching around on the interwebs doesn't reveal much about it.

I know there is a 6-way input cap switch but not sure what else is going on. Wouldn't mind building one up.

[Cortexturizer]

Well by the number of knobs I'd say it's an overdriver + volume pot + input cap rotary switch.
Any gutshots anywhere on the interweb?

[pryde]

Well by the number of knobs I'd say it's an overdriver + volume pot + input cap rotary switch.
Any gutshots anywhere on the interweb?

Here is one of a prototype it appears

[Cortexturizer]

looks like bc109, which is a common tranny for the overdriver. so that pretty much settles it for me, there's three of them trannies, the number of resistors, caps, electros, all look veeeeeeeeeeery similar to the overdriver. someone will reveal more, someone that's not colorblind and has a soft spot for the overdriver maybe?

[raulduke]

I'm sure Black Arts are the guys Culture Jam does PCB layouts for.

He may (or may not) be allowed to drop you some hints 

[Cortexturizer]

Hm, that's an interesting development 

[electricb]

I've been curious about this one too - but looking at the PCB, there seems to be too few caps. The standard CSOD has about 6 film caps. There are less than that on the Black Arts proto board and that's not even accounting for the different input caps. Is there something else going on here?

[pryde]

Yes I think the Cherrybomb with a couple caps on an input switch would be good and close but would like to know if there was anything else major done to the circuit that could be modded on the cherrybomber.

[Tremster]

I happen to have an original.
Shall I take pictures for you guys?

[pryde]

I happen to have an original.
Shall I take pictures for you guys?

Don't want to overstep any boundaries but as long as others are cool with that sure.

Also, what do you think of it? Have you played it against a cherrybomb or other CSO pedal?

[Tremster]

I love it! Got it used for a got deal on ebay and it's been on the board ever since.
I like it a lot more than the Cherrybomb I built, that was one of the early builds for me.
I was suprised at how little gain it has by itself, it needs a dirt pedal after (that's how I use mine) or an overdriven amp. That way it can add massive crunch but retain a certain clarity at that, if that makes sense. Also, it can be dialed in to have a lot more low and/or high end. And at the very end of the gain taper, at max, it suddenly adds way more sweet treble, almost like a treble booster.
Will take pictures later and post them here.

[Tremster]

Opened the pedal up and - nice - all the values of the components are printed on the PCB. I can't read the numbers of any of the resistors though, except two, and not all the capacitors.
Here's what I can read:

Gain B10K
Bass B100K
Treb B100K (?)
Vol A100K

D1 4001
Q1-Q3 BC109

C1A "2A822KT" (Greenie)
C1B 10nF
C1C 22nF
C1D 47nF
C1E 220nF
C1F 470nF
C2 10uF
C3 470pF
C4 4u7
C6 10nF
C8 10nF
C9 4u7
C10 (?) 220nF
C11 22uF
two remaining electrolytics (can't read the numbers): 22uF and 100uF
one remaining film cap: 100nF

R11 4k7
R16 4k7











If anyone will make a PCB: I'll take one.

[electricb]

Interesting...it does look like you could just take a Cherrybomb PCB and change the gain pot to a 10KB and wire the different input caps on a rotary switch. It might not even be worth making up a PCB for since it's so close to the original Coloursound.

[Tremster]

Can someone make a detailed explanation for that?
And can this fit in a 1590B? .......

[culturejam]

Interesting. I didn't know the boards were coming out with the values on them. Mark must have done that after I finished with the layout. Should be pretty simple to just turn on the TValues layer.

I don't recall the exact details as it was quite some time ago that I worked on it, but the main differentiator is the rotary switch for the input caps.