Threebanger fuzz/OD/Distortion schematic

[Nocentelli]

I've put together a schematic for an OD/distortion/fuzz "inspired by" (stolen from) soulsonic's fourbanger. It's three boosters threaded together, comprising of a simple silicon transistor boost posted by mictester -> soulsonic's CNO -> AMZ miniboost. I'm waiting on parts before I can try it out, so if anyone could look over it and offer advice/suggestions/improvements/potential problems/howling errors, I'd be very grateful.

Threebanger_Overload_schematic_v1.bmp (194.59 KiB) Viewed 1119 times

[jonasx26]

Hey!
A couple of suggestions;
Place the 100R resistor before the 100µ capacitor. As drawn, it will not be very effective as a V+ rail lowpassfilter..

The 1N5819 is most probably a polarity protection diode, it will only protect the CNO and Minibooster. I suggest you put it first, i.e;

DC-jack > 1N5819 > 100R > 100µ > [+9v to circuit]

edit:
(Actually, you will get a voltage drop across the 1N5819 and 100R.
So you won't get 9v to the rest of the circuit..)


Also, you won't need both the 2.2µ AND the 220n capacitors between mictester's boost and the CNO. I'd remove the 220n and the 100k resistor to ground.

Same goes with the caps between the CNO and the minibooster-stage.
One cap is enough to remove any DC, so remove the 10µ and 100k at the CNO output.


Otherwise you should be good to go. Ask away if something is unclear, I'm swedish and it's kind of difficult to explain this stuff.
/ J

[Greenmachine]

When you're done building your CNO, will you let me know if it's blazing-ass loud? I like mine, but I have the pot all the way off and I still get all the boost I need.

Thanks.

[Nocentelli]

Hey!
A couple of suggestions...

Many thanks for the help: I was also a bit unsure about the two capacitors between each stage - I posted a question in the workbench section but no-one replied

One further question - I might put in a simple treble cut/boost pot: Where is the best place for this? I was thinking after the CNO but before the AMZ?

I'll make some changes an re-post soon.

[jonasx26]

One further question - I might put in a simple treble cut/boost pot: Where is the best place for this? I was thinking after the CNO but before the AMZ?

I would try a passive low pass filter first, google "stupidly wonderful tone control" for some ideas..

My guess is, as each stage is boosting, you'll get a somewhat hot signal feeding into the minibooster-stage even when the two 'gain'-controls are turned down. A passive filter would attenuate your signal some, but that wouldn't be a problem.
Try it out, maybe it'll be sufficient. If it doesn't provide enough treble boost you'll need an active filter stage..

I think the hardest part of designing a overdrive/boost/dist., is deciding where and how to filter the signal. IMO it's also the filtering pre/in/post -stages that define the character of the effect.
SO, it depends on what sound you're after. I'd suggest breadboarding the circuit, experiment and see where the tone control works best.

All the best! / J

[Nocentelli]

Thanks again, this is what I'm going to try out as soon as my parts arrive:

Overload schematic v2.bmp (187.79 KiB) Viewed 1064 times

[jonasx26]

Cool! Would be interesting to hear what it sounds like.