Kazan - Kvaker

plush · Post by **plush** » 13 Feb 2020, 13:27

modman wrote:....

snk · Post by **snk** » 13 Feb 2020, 20:31

Wow, yours in truly great condition, like new !

camljenkins94 · Post by **camljenkins94** » 20 Feb 2020, 19:31

I can't help but love old Soviet-era effects, but I am incredibly confused about the schematic that plush uploaded. How does the negative voltage supply get to the circuit? What do R5 and R7 do? Are the "2200" capacitors in pF, nF, or uF? I wish I knew.

plush · Post by **plush** » 20 Feb 2020, 19:42

camljenkins94 wrote: How does the negative voltage supply get to the circuit?

I guess it comes from battery through switchable din connector (pins 4 and 5)

camljenkins94 wrote: What do R5 and R7 do?

They are controlling the range and timbre, one of them is tied to the expression pedal, the other one is mounted on the front panel together with the volume

camljenkins94 wrote: Are the "2200" capacitors in pF, nF, or uF?

Pf, I believe

camljenkins94 · Post by **camljenkins94** » 20 Feb 2020, 19:47

I should have thought about it for a minute before I posted. As far as google will tell me, kvaker means "quaker," and as far as LTSpice will tell me, it is in fact a wah pedal. I wasn't sure what it was, since the other Kazan pedals that I've seen on this site also look quite wah-like.

After modeling all of the Kazan effects, I'm left wondering why they all have such a ludicrously low output level. They all have a huge amount of attenuation before the volume pot, so you'd be lucky to get even unity gain out of them.

snk · Post by **snk** » 18 May 2020, 08:10

Hello,
I have used one a couple times, and i like it.

If we had to remake one :

- Which would be the best way to make it louder? Adding a booster afterwards, or tweaking/swapping some components?

- Is there any way to have a wider frequency range? I always found the frequency sweep to be quite too narrow. It's great as it gives the sound a strong coloration, but i wish it could go both higher and lower in the frequencies.

- How to increase the resonance? The stock resonance is fine, but I often like to have 2 resonances settings on a switch, and i'd be willing to experiment a bit...

snk · Post by **snk** » 24 May 2020, 14:58

Hi,
I built it today, and here are my little recommendations, if anyone is willing to build one :
3- I found that a 100K LOG pot for wah works better than 250K LIN.
4- You can use a switch instead of a pot for TIMBRE, because most of the difference in sound is at the extremes of the pot. The switch would allow you to adjust the frequency range where the wah operates (it is mostly noticeable in the low frequency range, where one position of the switch will shift the cutoff further down).

By the way, the unit I built has an ok volume (about unity gain), there is no noticeable volume loss.

Kazan - Kvaker [schematic]