Tame the Bearhug

[jubal81]

Built Jon's compressor on vero and it sounds really great. However, even on the lowest settings it's still really intense and is taking out a bit too much high end.

I did it as a 'bin build' (what I had on hand) so there are two substitutions. A 2n5089 in place of the MPSA18 and 1n50s in place of the 1n60 diodes. So there's that ...

Any tips for taming this guy?

[midwayfair]

Intense as in compressing really hard? Or just that it sounds dark?

I have a couple suggestions if everything is indeed working correctly.

-You can remove R12 and it will provide lower threshold settings. However, this shouldn't be necessary unless you have extremely high output pickups or are running the compressor after a boost.

-You can reduce or remove C4 and it will bump up the treble.

-This is untested, but if you don't mind going outside the pads on the PCB, you could put a 10nF (I think that's a good value for this) bypass cap across R7. This would provide a permanent treble boost by having treble frequencies always at max gain, regardless of the compression level of the frequencies below that.

-As a last resort, you could use a 2N7000 and it will be brighter than the BS170. 2N7000s aren't as reliable for noise, though, and they don't have their own natural compression like the BS170. It changes how the pedal feels.

I just want to make sure that there isn't something odd going on in the compression section: Can you probe for voltage at the anode of D3 when you play a loud chord? Let me know what the voltage change is.

The substitutions should not be an issue, but you could also try a 2N3904 in place of Q2 if it turns out to be that the 2N5089 just has too much gain. I wouldn't go that far yet, though.

[jubal81]

Lifting off R12 put it right in the sweet spot. Sounding really, really sweet; just like you said you were going for - can be subtle like an optical, but has some of the charm of an Orange Squeezer.

Pretty sure it's going to go into a multi build I'm going to finish off tomorrow to consolidate the beginning of my chain. Klon buffer -> Bloviator -> Bearhug -> TBA booster.

Thanks a bunch!

[midwayfair]

Lifting off R12 put it right in the sweet spot. Sounding really, really sweet; just like you said you were going for - can be subtle like an optical, but has some of the charm of an Orange Squeezer.

Pretty sure it's going to go into a multi build I'm going to finish off tomorrow to consolidate the beginning of my chain. Klon buffer -> Bloviator -> Bearhug -> TBA booster.

Thanks a bunch!

So glad it worked out! Can't wait to see the multipedal -- sounds like it would be a great base clean tone.