Caline CP-51 Rumble Strip Tremolo mods help

A forum devoted to mod, tips and suggestions for upgrading and rehousing your VERY CHEAP commercial stompbox to near boutique excellence.
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ilb3lva
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Posts: 2
Joined: 06 Mar 2019, 11:18
my favorite amplifier: Vox AC30
Location: Italy

Post by ilb3lva »

Hi guys, first post here!
Short intro: I've got a long experience as musician, but no solid engeneering background. I know how to solder and desolder and I've built and designed some passive guitar circuits. I have got some pedal projects in mind and I want to enter the DIY pedal world!

To enter the DIY world I want to start from some mods on some cheap clone pedals: I've just ordered a Caline Tremolo, which I'm almost sure that's a Joyo Trem rebrand (that's supposedly a clone of the Diaz Tremodillo) http://www.calinemusic.com/products/eff ... l/188.html

I'm thinking about adding two external pots to pilot the two internal trims (width and volume). Regarding the first mod (trim) I've found some guides on the net (e.g. ). But regarding the volume I could only find a post on another forum (http://www.tdpri.com/threads/npd-joyo-t ... od.315886/), reading that post it looks like I could just simply substitute the trimmer with a 100k pot. After those mods the pedal should be a more versatile trem and also a mild clean boost in case of need.

Thanks,

User avatar
ilb3lva
Information
Posts: 2
Joined: 06 Mar 2019, 11:18
my favorite amplifier: Vox AC30
Location: Italy

Post by ilb3lva »

Hi guys,
after a loooong time the pedal finally arrived from China. I confirmo that's a rebrand of the joyo trem with a different pcb with smaller components.
Gut pics:
P_20190407_115542_LL.jpg
P_20190407_115439_LL.jpg
P_20190407_115405_LL.jpg
P_20190407_115308_LL.jpg
I've got to admit that the "vanilla" version is not awesome in my opinion:
- The rate pot is a 1M log one, that's pretty lame, it's almost impossible to call short times
- The volume is set with a trimmer, that means that's not balanced (at perceived level) when changing the intensity of the trem
- The LFO shape is fixed and too rounded for my tastes when used in front of an overdriven amp

So I proceeded with the mods:
- Substituted the 103 trimmer with a 100KOhm lin pot
- Removed the R11 and substituted with 10kOhm lin pot
- Substituted the gain pot with 1MOhm Lin pot
P_20190407_165809.jpg
The results are very good, but still not ideal: the volume/boost knob is OK, but unity volume is around 8:30/9:00 o'clock, better a log one. The pot to control the LFO is working as expected. The gain pot has a better usability but still far from what I'd like.

The next steps will be those:
- Changing the volume pot with a 250k log one (with a resistor in parallel to lower the max value).
- Changing the rate pot with a 500 kOhm rev-log one
- Finding a way to send all the signal to the ground with a switch, a slicer option (I still haven't looked into it yet).

And finally I'll try some other things I found on the net, that supposedly take the pedal closer to a Tremulator:
http://dantonewac.blogspot.com/2015/03/ ... meter.html:
MOD LIST:
C5 - Change to 4.7 uF **non-polar**
R16 - change to 33K
C6 - remove 220pF cap
I still haven't looked into those last mods, ATM I don't know what they are supposed to do.

bye,

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