Ruby Doobie Bench Amp.... ROG Ruby with some COJONES  [documentation]

Original effects with schematics, layouts and instructions, freely contributed by members or found in publications. Cannot be used for commercial purposes without the consent of the owners of the copyright.
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pinkjimiphoton
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Post by pinkjimiphoton »

i gave my venerable ruby away recently... well, traded it, believe it or not, for a 100 watt kustom head. the guy didn't want it, and i wanted to
give him something for it. he really seemed to diggit.

so i was toiling in the dungeon earlier, dicking around and decided i'd build another.
sounded just like the first, but i was like... man... this thing just ain't loud enough, and needs some balls.

so i decided to try a cheezy little overdriver i'd worked up as a front end. wouldn't ya know it, it actually sounded pretty good!!
much louder, definitely marshally in a fuzzy kinda way... cleans up nice from the guitar. i like it pegged best, of course.
tested it with a bunch of transistors, it's sweetest with a lower gain, hfe somewhere around 175 (2n4401). i tried a bunch of transistors,
including of course some NPN ge's, but to my ear it sounded best with an mpsa6515 with a hfe around 415. you can go higher or lower of course, but that's what sockets are for.

also experimented with various diode clipping including led's, 914's 1n34/60's and finally settled on back to back 1n4001's. gave it more volume, and just the right amount of breakup. ge's sounded REALLY sweet, but ya lost a lot of balls. led's were louder, but ya kinda lose some of the distortion. combos were good, asym/sym etc etc. ge's and led's sounded really nice too.

there's a couple parts that could probably be lost from this, i'm presenting it as it was built... two separate boards, but this is the circuit that's between them.

if ya take a line from the node at volume 1 and the 47n blocking cap after the jfet, you can use it as a line out to drive another ruby ;)

i tested it with an old 2x12 checkmate cab i had, 4 ohms. loud enough to piss off the girlfriend easily.

i used a 386N for the ic, i am probably wrong but if memory serves you can get almost a watt out of this particular 386.

i'd say socket and experiment with Q1 and d3-d6

i'd imagine a 500r gain pot may be better, but haven't played with it yet.

i'd reccomend making the 10r off the output a half watt resistor, maybe 1 watt. but that's probably just me.
should probably tie balls 1&2 together, but it seemed to sound better when pin 1 is left unconnected.

anyways, enough of my blather. this is presently built on two boards frankensteined together with my breadboard.
it's an easy build, not a lot of parts, and if ya always thought rubys were great little amps, but needed more balls, check it out.

first the obligatory horrible hand drawn schematic:

Image

and a really rough pcb/perf kinda layout which could use some reworking and should definitely be smaller!!!

Image

stupid pedal trick to come sometime soon... there's a backlog of them. be afraid....

anyways, check it out, if a brave soul ventures here have fun and let me know whatcha think!
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace."
Slava Ukraini!

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pinkjimiphoton
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Post by pinkjimiphoton »

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace."
Slava Ukraini!

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pinkjimiphoton
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Post by pinkjimiphoton »

and of course, the obligatory shitty vero layout ;)

i'm'a'gonna build this up tomorrow morning as a gift for my bassist, it's his birthday. definitely something he can use in his studio.
so until then, it is not verified, but it should be tomorrow... i will report back. it matches what i had drawn up and what's on the two boards and my breadboard.

if you want a tone control, i'd reccomend adding a simple filter of your choice right around the node of the 47n cap and pin one of the volume.
that's kinda experimental. i didn't add it to this cuz i didn't think it was really worth it. this thing wants to grind and scream, so putting a muzzle on it seemed kinda counterintuitive ;)

anywhos... here's the stripboard version. i ditched the first electro, the 47u cuz it seemed unnecessary.
also added a bright cap across the volume control, now labeled c6. this thing needed a little sparkle when turned down.
i tried various tone controls, but it lost that nice tubey edge...real responsive to the volume knob twiddles.
fairly hard to get a really "clean" sound. really easy to get a filthy one.
not surprisingly (seeing as how its me) it kinda reminds me of a fuzzface into a fender amp, fwiw

anyways.. babble babble it's 2:52 am and i gotta go to bed ;)

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Post by Manfred »

hi,

thanks for sharing.
:thumbsup

Is there a demo video of it available?

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pinkjimiphoton
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Post by pinkjimiphoton »

not yet, bro, shit, i don't even have it built on one board yet. ;)
soon,
it'll be posted asap. rock on!
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace."
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Post by Manfred »

pinkjimiphoton wrote:not yet, bro, shit, i don't even have it built on one board yet. ;)
soon,
it'll be posted asap. rock on!
Thanks, I waiting for.
I appreciate your work very much

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pinkjimiphoton
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there's videos that totally suck of about 90 of 'em here:
http://youtube.com/666pinkster
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Post by pinkjimiphoton »

but wait, the man said, there's more.....!!!!

yeah. BURRRRRRRRRP.

here's a slight return. no idea if it will fly but i imagine it should, as it's basically what is on my bench right now. i re-added the 47u cap for the overdrive part, and decoupled it with a small resistance... and re-arranged the way it connected so that the amp part gets more filtering and the preamp less... but it's after the amps filtering, so it should work. also moved a couple parts around some to accomodate the circuit changes.
gonna try and build this beotch up now.

check it out if ya feel brave only. i gotta build it up as drawn first.

Image

no idea who the dead young lady is or was. just did a google search for PD b&w's tagged ruby and she came up. so i figured hey mannnnn
it's like, karmaaaa or somethin dewwwwwwwwd

Image

stay tuned.. off to my dungeon
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace."
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Post by Manfred »

Did you draw the rough draft on blackboard and make shot of it afterwards? :D

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pinkjimiphoton
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Post by pinkjimiphoton »

hahahahah
no, i drew it on white paper with a black pencil, but i got glaucoma so it's easier to see for me if i made it negative.
i mean, there's only SO MUCH WEED i can smoke, and it's not stopping the progression anymore i don't think.

that said, i ran into a problem, so don't bother with this circuit.
its fuckin killing me., :slap:

if i run the od section on the original into my breadboard and connect it to the ruby, it works just tits.
as soon as i run everything on one board, it dies.
voltages look right on the transistor, the fet and the chip.
i've swapped the actives with the one on the breadboard, and everything works fine.
i've checked for continuity, bridges, shorts etc. dead as a doornail. :applause:

there's a couplle things i gotta try still to suss it out. it may be the little resistance of the extra wires and the breadboard sockets themselves that are letting it work.

it could be having the diode clipper after the output cap of the preamp stage too. like i said, gonna probably be ditching some parts.

i added the diode clipper on the breadboard, it wasn't part of either original circuit. it made the whole thing louder. but now i'm suspecting it may be the issue. or ...who knows.

i'll spend the day debugging this motherfucker. i was hoping to give it to my bassist yesterday for his birthday. just did a bunch of shots of jameson's instead :wink:
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Post by Manfred »

just did a bunch of shots of jameson's instead :wink:
Yeah, a bunch of shots of jameson's clears your head,
and the solution of the problem will appears in an sweet dream after that.
I know about the spiritual experience believe me. :secret: :lol:

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pinkjimiphoton
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http://youtube.com/666pinkster
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Post by pinkjimiphoton »

sure doesn't seem to hurt any lol :mrgreen:
if i don't sort it out, i guess it will have to be on TWO boards. :shock:
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace."
Slava Ukraini!

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pinkjimiphoton
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there's videos that totally suck of about 90 of 'em here:
http://youtube.com/666pinkster
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Post by pinkjimiphoton »

well i fucked up again ;)
that said, i DID get it working... :applause:
kinda. :slap: :slap:
had to ditch the diode clipper. switched it to a single 1n914. done.
changed a couple cap sizes...input from 470n to 100n, output of overdrive from 680n to 470n.
ditched the treble bleed cap.
also ditched the buffer. it just plain would not work with it in it. so i ditched the 1.5m resistor to ground, and ultimately the jfet too.
no idea why the hell it worked with my breadboard, with the od and ruby connected by my breadboard with that massive ass diode clipper.

i still gotta fuck with it some, but it's now working and sounds pretty good. lotta balls. it will self oscillate easily when everything is cranked full, but it's LOUD. ;)

anyways... here's a vero (adapted from the one already posted ) with a schematic, a rework of the old one. hey, it's 2:27, i shoveled snow all day and hippay is tired. :shock: :

but anyways.. it's not really a ruby per se anymore. but here it is, have at it if you dare.... 8) :

this could likely be laid out MUCH smaller.

but beware... the chip needs the b+ going directly to it. and it needs that 100u cap from pin 6 to ground as close to the chip as possible.
a 100r smoothing resistor in front of the chip? it won't work.
i don't know why, and i'm too tired to keep fucking with it. it works, sounds pretty close to how it did with the breadboard experimentation, so good enough for now. :popcorn:

i will revise it one of these days, knowing me.... :horsey:

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Post by Manfred »

Thanks, man! :thumbsup
i shoveled snow all day and hippay is tired.
I know that, that why I bought a snow blower.
It works fine, since then we never have so massive snow as we had before. :scratch:
I guess it is an enchanted snow blower with magic powers. :o
100_2035.jpg

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pinkjimiphoton
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there's videos that totally suck of about 90 of 'em here:
http://youtube.com/666pinkster
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Post by pinkjimiphoton »

hahahahahahah

love it.

yeah, we gotta snow blower too, but it breaks down so damn much it's easier to just shovel that shit ;)
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace."
Slava Ukraini!

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pinkjimiphoton
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there's videos that totally suck of about 90 of 'em here:
http://youtube.com/666pinkster
gimme a like: http://facebook.com/pinkjimiphotonrocks
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Post by pinkjimiphoton »

ok, no stupid pedal trick yet. i hope to do a quick one before this goes off to foppelicious tonite.

i got it running. i added a couple small resistors here and there to limit the gain so no more spurious<<< i love that word

oscillations.

also added a cheezy line out that sounds half way decent plugged into anything reverb ;)

changed a couple cap values. less motorboat. swapping out the 100u cap for a 220u may not be a bad idea.

it's pretty stable now.

also made the bias a 50k. you can go from quasi clean to starved and sputtery with it.

i'd start with the gain control off and the volume about half. bias somewhere around 30-40%.

want clarity of tone with your guitar cranked up?
FUHGEDDABOUDDIT. not gonna happen. this thing wants to grind.

but turn your guitar down and it cleans up just like an amp should. an amp with a GOOD fuzz in front of it.
kinda brassy clean tones that cut well. very responsive to volume and tone twiddles from the guitar.

different q's will give different tones. you can plug damn near anything npn in there. ge's sound very sweet as well and may end up on a switch in mine.
like brutal nasty tones? reverse beta the transistor. some will work, some won't, but you can get some ridiculous distortion happening that way.

i tend to like the bias where it sounds sweetest with a hint of breakup and the gain and volume pegged.
running the line out to my princeton reverb sounded pretty amazing. other than the reverb, i couldn't really tell which amp was which, which was an amazing phenomenon for me.

my bud dave tried it . on 11, of course. he seemed to diggit. he's a strat and a tube amp guy and he kept going. for hours it seemed like.
i put a vibe in front of it and it was even cooler.

ANYWAYZZZ

here's some pics and a quasi refitted layout. as shown it should work, tho it could most definitely be made considerably smaller for sure.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace."
Slava Ukraini!

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pinkjimiphoton
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there's videos that totally suck of about 90 of 'em here:
http://youtube.com/666pinkster
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Post by pinkjimiphoton »

egads...
shucked a couple clams on the last layout dealio.

this one should be better
thanks rutabaga bob for noticing my fuckups ;)

had a gig last nite, so just got a chance to fix this up
here ya go. haves at it.
where it says 100-220r resistor you can go anywhere ya want, it's just there to snub a little gain so it doesn't go into oscillation on ya.
keep your leads short. shielded cable to pots jacks is a good idea. i didn't bother. kept the leads short, and tend to solder 'em right to the node itself with other stuff with gain pots. just seems to work better for me than using long sections of track.

https://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt1 ... xjn5h6.png
RubyDoobie 2.2_zpsnxxjn5h6.jpg
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace."
Slava Ukraini!

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pinkjimiphoton
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there's videos that totally suck of about 90 of 'em here:
http://youtube.com/666pinkster
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Post by pinkjimiphoton »

say WHAAAAAAT??? I forgot the damn stupid pedal trick??

motherfucker!!

here ya go. enjoy. even get to watch a pedal fail on me. it's awesomely stupid. especially when i got the fucker plugged in backwards ;)



but should give my distortion monger freinds something to play with in the middle of the nite other than

anyways. it should be more than loud enough to piss off the neighbors hopefully.
rock on!

and remember... the only way to get clean is with your guitar rolled back. have fun ;)
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace."
Slava Ukraini!

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Post by Manfred »

Yeah,
I love your amazing sounding lil boxes built with a handfull of parts. :thumbsup

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Post by smackoj »

Pink Jimmy; that rig is a TOTAL winner! I'm not into the rabid distortion but many of your test settings nailed Hendrix tones and I even heard the ghost of Lowell George.
Fantastic work amigo. I would love to build it but I'm not too competent with Vero brd. Do you think it could be developed into a pcb mask? I know that is asking a lot but the final product you demo is better sounding than two dozen 'made in china' vacuum tube amps on the market in the 300-600 price bracket. I'm serious, that is not an exaggeration. That is a 'keeper' senor Jaime! :mrgreen:

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pinkjimiphoton
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my favorite amplifier: my own, a redesigned princeton
Completed builds: so fucking many goddamn pedals it would make your ass hurt just looking at 'em all!!!!!
there's videos that totally suck of about 90 of 'em here:
http://youtube.com/666pinkster
gimme a like: http://facebook.com/pinkjimiphotonrocks
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Post by pinkjimiphoton »

i never made a pcb in my life, but could probably do a layout of some kind with diylayoutcreator,
no promises, but let me see what i can do.

my bass player loves it , it was designed to use in his studio for guitar overdubs,
heckle me.

i am a lazy old bastidge ;)
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace."
Slava Ukraini!

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