Fat, loose drive

[MikeM]

Hey guys

Can anyone recommend a madbean project that acts as a really fat, thick, smooth and loose overdrive? Something that takes the edge off of pick attack, and isn't grainy.

I was thinking of starting off with a quasar / RC boost, but then using ge diodes, a big input cap (And 2nd cap most likely, and a small output cap to even things out.

Looking for something like this..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=GSlL-lr5Mcg#t=208s


Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks folks

[jkokura]

You could also look at something like a Fuzz Face to get close to that.

I imagine playing with any number of overdrive clipping sections would get you that sort of sound as well. The key is trying different clipping setups out, generally in the feedback section of the first gain stage, probably assymetrical, but likely some Shotky or Ge Diodes would help.

Jacob

[MikeM]

Thanks Jacob

I've been trying to get a tone similar to that with my muff, which is just not cutting it.

I think I'm also looking for an excuse not to buy a Lovepedal Kalamazoo which also does the smooth drive thing very nicely.

[ckim715]

Maybe a Cosmopolitan? Thing is so damn versatile. That thing has kicked everything but my Fat Pants boost off my board, I just don't need anything else. One side of it gives me a nice OD, the other side of the pedal gives me fat fuzzy goodness, and everything in between.

[jkokura]

Thanks Jacob

I've been trying to get a tone similar to that with my muff, which is just not cutting it.

I think I'm also looking for an excuse not to buy a Lovepedal Kalamazoo which also does the smooth drive thing very nicely.

A muff is not going to get there. Too many gain stages with clipping. It will always be distorted.

A supa-bender might. Essentially you'd remove the clipping stage from the 3rd(?) gain stage...

jacob

[MikeM]

Think I'm going to try the RC Booster setup and see how far I can get with that 

Ordered a good few 1N34As now.

[sgmezei]

The RC is great! and if you do the right layout you can socket parts to make An RC or an AC! Check out the projects gallery and look at older versions of the Quasar.

I am wish Jacob in saying you should try out a fuzz face. If only because they are so inexpensive part wise and you can try lots of different stuff out on the breadboard.

The cosmo is also awesome and versatile as well. And as far as smooth, I like the Serendipity as well. And I am sure you could just build a Kalamazoo anyways.

[MikeM]

Bumping this almost ancient topic.

Working on a FF now.. Besides the input cap, and popping in a bunch of ge diodes, how else can I get this baby to sound more round?

On this note, I am also a little confused on the whole more diode headroom with the gain turned up vs less diode headroom with the gain low down. Can anyone clear this up for me?


Thanks folks!!!

[midwayfair]

Bumping this almost ancient topic.

Working on a FF now.. Besides the input cap, and popping in a bunch of ge diodes, how else can I get this baby to sound more round?

On this note, I am also a little confused on the whole more diode headroom with the gain turned up vs less diode headroom with the gain low down. Can anyone clear this up for me?


Thanks folks!!!

You linked to a Zen Drive clone... Why not build a Zen Drive instead of making a Fuzz Face do something it isn't good at?

Diode headroom = their Fv threshold. You don't get more headroom from them by lowering the gain, but lowering the gain might make your signal small enough that it doesn't get clipped by the diodes. Unlikely with Ge diodes, though, since they can clip a single coil ...

[MikeM]

For the exact reasons stated earlier in this thread.

Perhaps you did not understand my question. The forward voltage is increased when you put more diodes in series. Reducing the gain would send a smaller voltage signal through the diodes. What would the difference between putting a 1v signal through diodes that clip at 0.5v and a 2v signal through diodes that clip at 1v? I'm sure there will be secondary effects in the circuit?

[bmcash]

Perhaps a red lhama clone?

[micromegas]

my Quasar and Zendrive work really well stacked together...
but if you look for that exact pedal, the schematic is on FSB and, as it has many similarities with the zendrive, I think you can adapt the Serendipity board to build one.

And also, NOC3 is selling boards on ebay for his Firefly pedal (I already ordered mine) at a fair price, and it is similar to the Jetter/ZD in topology (although it uses mosfets for hard clipping and a BMP tone control)

[pryde]

Throwing something different out there, check out the Black 65 project. Can be setup mellow and fat with a loose bottom end.

[midwayfair]

For the exact reasons stated earlier in this thread.

I'm not seeing any reasons you discounted the Zen Drive or any reference to drawbacks in the clone you linked to. In fact, no one even mention the Zen Drive at any point, so it wasn't even clear whether you realized that the pedal you linked to was a Zen Drive clone.

As for your other question:

Perhaps you did not understand my question. The forward voltage is increased when you put more diodes in series. Reducing the gain would send a smaller voltage signal through the diodes. What would the difference between putting a 1v signal through diodes that clip at 0.5v and a 2v signal through diodes that clip at 1v? I'm sure there will be secondary effects in the circuit?

It depends on what the waveform looks like to begin with and some other factors. You're not actually talking about a very big signal in your example, but let's say that we're talking about two identically clean, perfect signals that are both exactly twice the size of the diode that clips them. There is likely to be no audible difference except the minimal difference in the sound/behavior of the diode material (germanium diodes have a different knee than silicon, even when clipping the same amount, and they leak, too).

The real world isn't that tidy. For one thing, a guitar signal isn't a perfect sine wave, either -- it has lots of sharp little edges and overtones, and those are of varying sizes. Distortion circuits create signals that produce gain that well exceeds the power rails of the amplification device, so the diodes aren't the only thing clipping. Small (usually pF range) bypass caps in gain loops can alter what is allowed to be gained up by just letting the high frequencies pass unamplified. Some gain circuits are designed to push certain frequencies as AC gain (like the gain in the Fat Pants). The diodes themselves won't care what the gain is doing, but the circuit might sound different if the gain does more than just make everything louder. If you're going to use diode clipping in a circuit, you need to match them to the circuit in a way that sounds good to you, and the only way to do that is with some sockets and your ears.

As far as answering your actual question about making the circuit "rounder": What do you mean by round? Are you asking about filtering? Do you want more ____ and less ____? Be specific about what sound you are trying to make or what isn't working for you so we can make suggestions about the things to change in the circuit.