Surprise Sound Labs High Voltage Overdrive

drbob1 · Post by **drbob1** » 25 Jun 2013, 15:38

Has anyone seen this (sorry, I can't seem to extract the pictures):

http://www.surprisesoundlab.com/ssl-27_014.htm

His argument is that the problem with ODs not sounding like real tubes is not enough voltage, so he's running an OD pedal using discrete transistors at 250v (from a 9v power supply, charge pumps I'd guess). Aside from the silly argument about voltage, I'd think that cost and durability would be negatively affected by running things at those kind of voltages? There're no reviews and no gut shots that I've seen anywhere, so I'm left to speculate...

atreidesheir · Post by **atreidesheir** » 26 Jun 2013, 01:28

The seymour duncan tube pedals get high voltage from a 16v power supply.

drbob1 · Post by **drbob1** » 26 Jun 2013, 19:09

But they need high voltage to run the tubes at proper plate voltages, as do the Fryette pedals and others I'm sure. This is a fully solid state pedal, transistors, no tube. And sure, you can use a charge pump to get a 9v DC input up to 250v, that's not rocket science. But what about the claims that running transistors off of 250v rails makes a pedal more "amp-like"?

I was talking to Todd Wolfram (the Chaos and Helium pedals, now built by Malekko) about it yesterday, and he was wondering if the guy believes that high voltage/low current works better for some reason? Or if there's a transformer output to get the voltages down to line level?

mictester · Post by **mictester** » 26 Jun 2013, 22:46

drbob1 wrote:But they need high voltage to run the tubes at proper plate voltages, as do the Fryette pedals and others I'm sure. This is a fully solid state pedal, transistors, no tube. And sure, you can use a charge pump to get a 9v DC input up to 250v, that's not rocket science. But what about the claims that running transistors off of 250v rails makes a pedal more "amp-like"?

I was talking to Todd Wolfram (the Chaos and Helium pedals, now built by Malekko) about it yesterday, and he was wondering if the guy believes that high voltage/low current works better for some reason? Or if there's a transformer output to get the voltages down to line level?

Running semiconductors at high Voltages will just give more available headroom. You'd also need to use physically bigger capacitors, and higher voltage rated diodes. Practically, in a guitar effect, there's no point whatsoever in running the circuit at 250V except for the usual bogus Boutique Boob bluster and silly specious advertising claims. It will also increase the risk of musicians receiving high voltage shocks (more likely to be lethal than low voltage shocks).