Drive Easy

allesz · Post by **allesz** » 16 Feb 2014, 21:53

This is my go to booster - overdrive - dostortion right now, and i really like it with tube amps; going in a solid state amp probably a tone control would be mandatory, but you can swap the 68 K resistor on the output wit a 100K pot in series with a small resistor (around 20 K?).
I like the fact that it does not use diodes, maybe the note decay won't be super smooth this way... but at least it will sound a little different, actually it's like a low gain rat to me

.

As you will see it's not very original: I took inspiration from the rat, hot cake, buffalo pfuz, rez overdrive (pinkjimi also noticed this simple ad nice overdrive).

Since I finally downloaded and started working with diylayoutcreator (god bless him) I can at least share a readable perf layout (sorry but never tried vero); the layout can be very easily translated in pcb too (sorry but I gave up etching). Well at least it's the first project made by me wich is really ready to build... on perf.

allesz · Post by **allesz** » 07 Mar 2014, 17:01

A link to an humble sound clip.
At first it's the clean amp and guitar, then the effect used only as booster (but sadly I had not the chance to "open" the amp). And then I increase the gain progressively. Since the amp was totally clean you ear the pure distorted sound coming from the pedal.
http://soundcloud.com/allesz/easy-drive

atreidesheir · Post by **atreidesheir** » 08 Mar 2014, 22:01

Your quick description in the the first post is right on. You demo sounds like a light rat. smooth attack and overdrive but not fizzy at all.

allesz · Post by **allesz** » 10 Mar 2014, 17:24

Thanks for your comment, you suggested me a good name for the thing: "The best part of the rat". In my opinion, of course.

I forgot to say that you can also try a tl071 if you whant a smoother the sound; in the end I opted for the lm741 because I thought some grittyness is not bad (the tube amp ahead helps to smooth out the things afterall, and a too smooth sound can have problems cutting through a band) and then someone, the venerable mictester

, always says that it's safer to put a buffer in front of a fet input IC like the tl071 (or tl072)... and I wanted to stay super simple, but still safe.