Clock of Tone 50 - Modified COT50

jzilla · Post by **jzilla** » 06 May 2008, 16:15

thanks!
-j

jzilla · Post by **jzilla** » 06 May 2008, 17:12

i was thinking, would you want to adjust that cap when using humbuckers vs single coils? would that useful to put on a switch?

thanks again,
-j

kokohi5 · Post by **kokohi5** » 29 May 2008, 05:13

Is there a layout anywhere with the added "blend" pot for blending the sets of diodes? I put this together yesterday and REALLY like it. I'm going to put it and a BSIAB (- the last 2 caps) in the same box. The 2 pedals play nicely together with the COT in front. They sound great with my Weber Plexi!!

briggs · Post by **briggs** » 29 May 2008, 08:39

jzilla wrote:i was thinking, would you want to adjust that cap when using humbuckers vs single coils? would that useful to put on a switch?

Yeah, you could do that. Check out the "Trotsky Drive" and see how it is done there. Or you could tag a SWTC on the end and have a full range treble cut control there, possibly something like the OCD tone control would be better, it's up to you really.

Is there a layout anywhere with the added "blend" pot for blending the sets of diodes? I put this together yesterday and REALLY like it. I'm going to put it and a BSIAB (- the last 2 caps) in the same box. The 2 pedals play nicely together with the COT in front. They sound great with my Weber Plexi!!

No, I don't believe there is. What types of diodes did you use? I wouldn't be to difficult for you to modify one of the previous layouts to accomodate that mod. Glad you like it, with the mods I stuck on I really feel it becomes a usable pedal rather than only good for one type of amp/too brittle sounding.

kokohi5 · Post by **kokohi5** » 29 May 2008, 16:06

I'm using the 1n270's. I'm pretty pleased with the way it sounds now, but the blend idea sounds too good to not try. I think I can figure it out, but I'm just a little confused on what goes to which lugs of the pot.
This pedal is just freakin' awesome for adding some girth to my amp!

seniorLoco · Post by **seniorLoco** » 02 Jun 2008, 06:22

CoT 50 Gold ?!?!

WTF ???!

chris_d · Post by **chris_d** » 04 Jul 2008, 00:36

I just built this from Torchy's layout.

I am building from scraps here (

) so i subbed:

1. A paralleled .047uf and .01uf for the .056uf,
2. A .15uf for the .12uf,
3. A 2n5089 for the 2N5088, and
4. A pair of 1N34A diodes for the 1N270.

I built the OCD yesterday, and i have to say, the sound that this COT50 makes is the sound i was expecting the OCD to make. It is, IMO a really excellent pedal, and pretty much all settings of the two knobs sound good to me as it stands.

In a very short time this one is becoming one of my favorite boost/low gain circuits. Very useful. Even with all of the subs, i am perfectly happy with the sound(very odd for me), and actually don't intend to get the "right" parts anytime soon.

Thanks very much for everyone who helped bring this one to DIY life. Torchy, your layouts are consistently some of the best, easiest, most well thought-out ones out there. Thank you very much. I used the Torchy layout for the OCD yesterday and it was equally pleasant to work with.

Thanks!

-chris

briggs · Post by **briggs** » 04 Jul 2008, 09:51

Glad you enjoyed it. The subs you made won't alter the sound of the pedal too much - it's a great little circuit to tweak with. I went back to the original Electra Overdrive circuit a few days ago (That is what the COT50 is!) and just played with that - on it's own, no mods, it sounded great for a single transistor OD.

I've been playing with the "Clock of Tone" circuit some more and have devised even more mods (an extra knob! Wooooo, nothing very special though, a monkey would have thought of this one - just a simple 4.7kA pot in series with the diodes to play with clipping threshold. Also changed the bias slightly to result in a little less overall gain to remove that "Transistory" feel it can sometimes have

) and I'm thinking about actually building a few up and offering them out to the forum... Might have to see where that one goes

It all depends on time, and if anyone cares

...

Torchy's layouts = great. Always the most compact and efficient you will find. Only problem is when he's around it makes my vero skillz look very shoddy

- everything I come up with is twice the width!

minor7th · Post by **minor7th** » 04 Jul 2008, 12:27

briggs wrote: I've been playing with the "Clock of Tone" circuit some more and have devised even more mods (an extra knob! Wooooo, nothing very special though, a monkey would have thought of this one - just a simple 4.7kA pot in series with the diodes to play with clipping threshold.

Out of curiosity- are you still using the diode/mosfet blend pot you mentioned earlier in the thread, or did you go back to diodes only?

DWBH · Post by **DWBH** » 04 Jul 2008, 14:25

I might give this one a try. A booster would come in handy, and this circuit seems pretty simple and moddable.

briggs · Post by **briggs** » 04 Jul 2008, 21:41

minor7th wrote:
briggs wrote: I've been playing with the "Clock of Tone" circuit some more and have devised even more mods (an extra knob! Wooooo, nothing very special though, a monkey would have thought of this one - just a simple 4.7kA pot in series with the diodes to play with clipping threshold.
Out of curiosity- are you still using the diode/mosfet blend pot you mentioned earlier in the thread, or did you go back to diodes only?

I've just been using a singular set of diodes (BAT46 at the moment) - I found that with the adjustable resistance in series with a set of low threshold diodes you can turn the resistance up to simulate having a pair of higher voltage threshold diodes in there. Therefore you can have fairly compressed clipping or up the resistance to increase the clipping threshold and generate a more "open" and uncompressed sound. It's a different flavour tone it gives you, lower parts count than the "Blend" mod too so simpler to wire up...

DWBH · Post by **DWBH** » 04 Jul 2008, 21:51

Can I replace the Nature knob with a fixed resistor? If yes, how?

armoredfist316 · Post by **armoredfist316** » 10 Jul 2008, 05:13

I built this tonight and it sounds wonderful, but I have one problem. The nature control doesn't do anything.

I built it on perf using this layout: And I've double checked everything and didn't see any errors. Has anyone else encountered this? Any help would be great!

chris_d · Post by **chris_d** » 10 Jul 2008, 05:29

armoredfist316 wrote:I built this tonight and it sounds wonderful, but I have one problem. The nature control doesn't do anything.

I built it from Torchy's vero layout. What i found was that the nature control is fairly subtle. It should sort of shift the focus of the drive between a mildish treble boost and a restrained full boost, if my build is anything to go by. It won't go as "honky mids" as a rangemaster, or as flabby as a typical full boost can, but both extremes of the control should be audibly distinct. It is somewhat subtle though, not really like a typical tonestack.

-chris

briggs · Post by **briggs** » 10 Jul 2008, 07:31

chris_d wrote:
armoredfist316 wrote:I built this tonight and it sounds wonderful, but I have one problem. The nature control doesn't do anything.
I built it from Torchy's vero layout. What i found was that the nature control is fairly subtle. It should sort of shift the focus of the drive between a mildish treble boost and a restrained full boost, if my build is anything to go by. It won't go as "honky mids" as a rangemaster, or as flabby as a typical full boost can, but both extremes of the control should be audibly distinct. It is somewhat subtle though, not really like a typical tonestack.

-chris

What you will find is that the higher the gain - the less you will notice the nature pot. When you set the gain lower (Which is where I think this circuit sounds best) the nature pot has a sweep that takes things from a "woolly" boost (That sounds similar to the original COT50) to a biting treble boost which has a very pronounced treble and upper mids response.

I'm working on a third control as I mentioned previously - it's either going to be the diode blend or a treble roll off tone pot. What do you guys think would sit best/be the most advantagous?

P.s I've also been playing with the "Piggybacking" of transistors to tailor the gain of the Q in the circuit, it allows you to get just the right gain into the tranny without over doing it and getting that distinct "Transistory" tone from the clipping. More info soon

armoredfist316 · Post by **armoredfist316** » 10 Jul 2008, 16:12

Thanks for the replys. I will have to play it some more tonight. I remember the structure being fairly subtle but definitely noticeable adjusting the gain, but I couldn't really tell anything from the nature. Either way, its a really cool nice sounding circuit, and I look forward to seeing the mods.

kokohi5 · Post by **kokohi5** » 11 Jul 2008, 03:42

briggs wrote:
chris_d wrote:
armoredfist316 wrote:I built this tonight and it sounds wonderful, but I have one problem. The nature control doesn't do anything.
I built it from Torchy's vero layout. What i found was that the nature control is fairly subtle. It should sort of shift the focus of the drive between a mildish treble boost and a restrained full boost, if my build is anything to go by. It won't go as "honky mids" as a rangemaster, or as flabby as a typical full boost can, but both extremes of the control should be audibly distinct. It is somewhat subtle though, not really like a typical tonestack.

-chris
What you will find is that the higher the gain - the less you will notice the nature pot. When you set the gain lower (Which is where I think this circuit sounds best) the nature pot has a sweep that takes things from a "woolly" boost (That sounds similar to the original COT50) to a biting treble boost which has a very pronounced treble and upper mids response.

I'm working on a third control as I mentioned previously - it's either going to be the diode blend or a treble roll off tone pot. What do you guys think would sit best/be the most advantagous?

P.s I've also been playing with the "Piggybacking" of transistors to tailor the gain of the Q in the circuit, it allows you to get just the right gain into the tranny without over doing it and getting that distinct "Transistory" tone from the clipping. More info soon

I think your blend control is a great idea! I haven't had a chance to try and add that to mine yet. I took the COT out of the box that I had it in with the BSIAB2. It sounded pretty good together, but I decided to go for selectable drive controls for the BSIAB2 instead. I was planning on trying to figure out how to add the blend to the COT, so I'd love to see something on that.

minor7th · Post by **minor7th** » 11 Jul 2008, 04:14

briggs wrote: I'm working on a third control as I mentioned previously - it's either going to be the diode blend or a treble roll off tone pot. What do you guys think would sit best/be the most advantagous?

P.s I've also been playing with the "Piggybacking" of transistors to tailor the gain of the Q in the circuit, it allows you to get just the right gain into the tranny without over doing it and getting that distinct "Transistory" tone from the clipping. More info soon

Blend pot.

I look forwards to the piggyback results- should make it interesting!

Nice one, Briggs! All this fun, so few parts...

armoredfist316 · Post by **armoredfist316** » 11 Jul 2008, 19:03

Ok, I take back my past comments. I decided to build this on a whim at 3am, and when I finished at 4am, I didn't give it much of a workout.

Both controls seem fairly subtle at first, but actually make a pretty big difference when you get into it. Its a very cool sounding box!

briggs · Post by **briggs** » 02 Aug 2008, 09:14

I've got a new version of this coming out, it now has an innovative treble cut control as well as "Piggy Backed" transistors for adjustable transistor gain (It allows you to tweak from full out transistor Hfe which produces the stock sound to a lower Hfe which produces a much softer, smoother tone!).

Another leg for the design. I'm not going to call this next one the Clock of Tone though, it's so different from the COT50 I believe it to be in honour of it's own special name, which I will think of shortly