Tube Treble Booster

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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JOHNO
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Post by JOHNO »

This is a pedal hack ive been wanting to do for a while now. I always wanted a tube rangemaster but i have never seen or heard of anyone doing such a thing, so i did it myself. I hacked the schematic from the clean channel of the hotbox with some changes obviously and hacked the smps from Gabriels aka "Dark rain" GTFO. It still needs some work but it sounds very good the way it is now. I still have some other tricks to try like a treble bleed cap on the pot for instance and perhaps put the pot at the very end of the circuit. I don't really know what im doing but it is a simple design using only one half of the tube. If anyone cares to point out any faults or improve the design your help would be most welcome. I will post some more crap later in the way of layouts if there is any interest. I'm pretty sure all the components can be soldered directly to the tube socket and the smps can be built on vero. I built mine on Darkrains GTFO pcb. Well enough chit chat here is the schematic.Thanks for looking.
Johno
Tube Treble Booster.png

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Renegadrian
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Post by Renegadrian »

What kind of tube is used?! I see a pentode but 12AX7 is written...please explain!

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JOHNO
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Post by JOHNO »

Yeah its a triode. 12ax7
Note to self, dont draw schematics while drunk.

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Post by atreidesheir »

JohnO, you have done some good stuff lately.
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Post by iq01221 »

U can try it with 6AV6, 6C4, etc... Singles hi-mu triodes ;) .
Or a pentode, as EF86, EF144, etc... in triode mode; a thing that I've never seen is a triode in pentode mode, reaaally nice idea :lol: :hug:

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JOHNO
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Post by JOHNO »

Corrected schematic. I also replaced the the 68k at the input with 33k for a bit more brightness. Dont take this circuit too seriously. I'm just hacking away on an idea thats been floating around in my head. In essence its just a basic gain stage set up to cut the bass frequencies. Nothing more.
Tube Treble Booster.png

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Post by Nocentelli »

I've never tried anything with tubes - This seems simple enough that I will give it a go. You don't have a link to the power supply only, do you?
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Post by ch1naski »

I think it's great idea.

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JOHNO
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Post by JOHNO »

Nocentelli wrote:You don't have a link to the power supply only, do you?
No i don't. But if you search the forum for "GTFO" all the information is in the first post. But the SMPS schematic is incomplete. You need to put a 68k resistor from pin 5 to pin 8 on the NE555. The SMPS puts out over 400V DC, so be very careful where you touch it or it will sit you on your arse.
Nocentelli wrote: This seems simple enough that I will give it a go.
Yeah its a very simple circuit and you can tune it to your gear just by changing the cathode bypass cap and the input and output caps. Larger caps will make it a more of a full range booster. But its not a clean booster as drawn, its a dirty booster. But it could be a clean boost by changing the value of the cathode resistor.
I think i may have posted in the wrong sub forum so if mods want to move it thats cool.

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Post by JOHNO »

Just thinking out loud, but i think an input cap blend would be cool on this circuit. And maybe change the output resistor to 100k to let more highs out of the circuit. And then a voltage divider on the input, either fixed or a pot wired as a divider to cut the overall output when the output volume(or is it gain,i don't know) is dimmed. And also try the bypass caps on the gain pot as on the matchless Hotbox.
Is this even a Booster? I think its more of a pre amp.
I have only used it on tube amps so i can't say what it would do on a solid state rig.

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Post by iq01221 »

JOHNO wrote:... Is this even a Booster? I think its more of a pre amp.
I have only used it on tube amps so i can't say what it would do on a solid state rig.
Just a tought: it's a perfect candidate for DC70 or any subminiature tube, powered by nixie supply :idea: . It could become into a regular sized pedal easly.

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Post by JOHNO »

It is a regular guitar sized pedal even with the 12AX7. And it does run of a nixie SMPS. I'm running the B+ at well over 200v dc (i can't recall the exact voltage atm) and the anode of the tube receives 190v dc.

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Post by DrNomis »

If you're just using a single 12AX7 tube, you could use the second triode section in a common-cathode configuration to buffer the output of the first triode section, you'd only have to link pin 7 to pin 3 and have pin 6 going to the +V supply, and then connect a 100k resistor from pin 8 to circuit ground, then connect the output cap to pin 8, the resistor values for the first triode section could be say a 1k5 for the cathode resistor and a 100k or 220k resistor for the anode, a 1uf cap should work okay as the cathode bypass cap, reduce it's value if there's too much bass..... :thumbsup
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Post by ppluis0 »

Hi folks,

I can't see any schematic in this thread... :cry:

Johno: can you repost the diagram of your design ?

Thanks in advance,
Jose

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Post by DUTCH »

JOHNO wrote:Corrected schematic. I also replaced the the 68k at the input with 33k for a bit more brightness. Dont take this circuit too seriously. I'm just hacking away on an idea thats been floating around in my head. In essence its just a basic gain stage set up to cut the bass frequencies. Nothing more.
Tube Treble Booster.png
It appears the schematic is no longer available on this thread. Could you post the latest updatest version, or repost the old one? I'm thinking about adding something of this sort to an AC30 normal channel design, to get something Brian May-ish. Thanks!

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Post by JOHNO »

Tube Treble Booster.png
Tube Treble Booster.png (17.31 KiB) Viewed 2485 times
I can't remember how to tune it any more, I was way smarter in 2013 and even then I wasn't too bright.
Your probably better of building a "Rangemaster". I don't think Brian used any of my designs.

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