Catalinbread - SCOD (Super Charged Overdrive)  [traced]

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fxdfxd
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Post by fxdfxd »

Hi all

Any infos about the catalinbread SCOD ? Sounds good to me :D



Regards
-fx

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Franky
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Post by Franky »

Hi fx, I already asked for this schematic, it seems that so far no one has open one..

Anyway it sounds really good, yeah!


Edit: I'm not sure, but seeing the way it looks and sounds like the Zvex SuperDuper, it might be made of MOSFET stages, some with fixed gain, the first with variable gain, and some tone controls. (I still can't hear what does the Contour knob.. :scratch: )

Catalinbread website wrote:
SuperCharged OD The audio equivalent of a forced induction high displacement big block make up the heart of the SCOD's "distortion powerplant". It is designed like a tube amp, fine tuned cascaded gain stages cause the distortion, not diodes. We knew we had a winner when it made our 5W 6V6 amp push air like a full stack. This pedal rocks harder than a Heart 8-track in a Hemi Cuda outside of a high school in 1978!

The tone for leads is balanced, focused, and sustains forever. Chords are chunky, tight, and resonant. Turn the GAIN and CONTOUR down for hi-wattage British sounds. Increasing the GAIN brings you into more modern saturation teritories without un-natural compression.Crank the CONTOUR knob and you tighten up the lowend adding resonance of a sealed 4x12.

The SCOD is capable of huge amounts of output and the gain can be down right METAL. Inspite of this the noise level is remarkably low. The distortion is natural without the buzzy "chopping" or "squaring" of your guitar's signal as often associated with high gain and metal pedals. This means you can play chords with your SCOD and not cause bizarre intermodulation.

Don't be surprised to find your daily 30 minute practice session lasting an hour or more with the SCOD. This pedal is truly inspiring.
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Post by analogguru »

From the manufacturer himself, here:
https://www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic ... cod#p17600
In regard to the SCOD. Grab yourself a CD4007 a pair of BS170's and have at it. You will find something interesting there. How much it looks like something else that came out MUCH later. I'm not running around here crying bloody murder that somebody is a rip off artist. Who cares?
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Post by blanik »

i really liked the demo for this one (and the Hyperpak Dirty Channel) very great sounding demos! it seems to be somehow related to the Super Duper 2 in 1 but sounds better on the demos...

any chances we get to see inside those? (i know the owner is a member here but this is FREEStompboxes afterall... :wink: )

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Post by blanik »

tried them at Moog Audio this afternoon (the SCOD and HPak Dirty Channel), i wasn't as impressed as with the videos but i think it was because of the crappy eastwood guitar (chose that one for the P-90s) and a crappy "boutique amp" i can't remember the name... (i tried a couple of those amps and none come close to the Blues Deluxe's clean channel IMO)

maybe i'll give it another shot bringing my guitar and using a vox amp... the BOR sounded slightly better than the SCOD on that gear (it also cleaned up better with guitar volume), the BOM was funny but not my thing

The HPak DC sounded promising (excellent dynamics and overall level) is it supposed to be inspired by the Red Llama? (since it's supposedly based on a CMOS inverter like the RL)

R.

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Post by Mitch T »

Both are one-trick ponies in my experience. The SCOD is due to the compression very suitable for leads but a bit stiff for rhythm. The Hyper Pak has very little compression, sounds very open and is much more suitable for heavy rhythm sounds. It can sound a bit bright with the gain up.

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Post by moltenmetalburn »

Alright fella after speaking with Briggs via email I have come following his recommendation to post here at your forum in order to trace and create a project for the catalinbread SCOD. very nice sounding circuit Id like to build outta much higher quality parts.

I do realize there are some "hidden" resistors under caps and some hard to follow component leads but i am willing to field specific questions until this project is complete.

In the near future ill compile a list of the component values i can see. For starters there are two bs170 mosfets one cd4007ube three diodes and the rest are carbon comp resistors and greenie film caps. I will also update the blurry pics.

heres what we have for now.

Image
Image
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Post by bumblebee »

Yes, we need to reverse some catalinbread (and devi ever) pedals, it seems no one ever posts gut shots of the pedals from these two builders.

BTW, some clearer pics of both sides and a list of hidden parts would help.
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Post by IvIark »

bumblebee wrote:Yes, we need to reverse some catalinbread (and devi ever) pedals, it seems no one ever posts gut shots of the pedals from these two builders.
And BJF. I don't think I've even seen a gutshot
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Post by soulsonic »

IvIark wrote:
bumblebee wrote:Yes, we need to reverse some catalinbread (and devi ever) pedals, it seems no one ever posts gut shots of the pedals from these two builders.
And BJF. I don't think I've even seen a gutshot
There are photos of the inside of BJFE pedals, but you don't see anything because the board is covered in Neoprene.
It's too bad that Björn hides his circuits like that, but at least he is nice enough to share his ideas, so we can still learn things from him even if his pedals still remain hidden.
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Post by Fuzzer »

Here's one of the BJF effects, directly from the man;

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=851&start=0&st=0&sk ... een+wonder
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Post by Güero 2.0 »

moltenmetalburn wrote:Alright fella after speaking with Briggs via email I have come following his recommendation to post here at your forum in order to trace and create a project for the catalinbread SCOD. very nice sounding circuit Id like to build outta much higher quality parts.

I do realize there are some "hidden" resistors under caps and some hard to follow component leads but i am willing to field specific questions until this project is complete.

In the near future ill compile a list of the component values i can see. For starters there are two bs170 mosfets one cd4007ube three diodes and the rest are carbon comp resistors and greenie film caps. I will also update the blurry pics.

heres what we have for now.

Tks for sharing this moltenmetalburn!

I need some help with these guts, now I am tracing the board but I need some Hi resolution ( and not blury ) photos, 3PDT connections, POTS values, Caps values, etc, etc
Could you please provide these itens?

I'll see the the work in progress linked below



Image

tks again
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Post by moltenmetalburn »

yeah ill get to that soon, busy with the holidays but ive been meaning to get enough info together to make this one a reality. soon i promise. :thumbsup
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Post by Güero 2.0 »

moltenmetalburn wrote:yeah ill get to that soon, busy with the holidays but ive been meaning to get enough info together to make this one a reality. soon i promise. :thumbsup
:thumbsup

Ok , we all are waiting for updates.
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Post by culturejam »

Very nice of you, moltenmetal. :D

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Post by moltenmetalburn »

Ok here you all are as promised, I have to say with all I have learned and gained from this forum it feels REALLY good to give something back that you are all clamoring for!

So this is technically my first trace project ever, if you see any issues say so!

I know some more information is necessary , such as off board wiring, I will continue to update soon, but this should def get someone started! I have no experience drawing schematics or layout so any help getting this one to the ready to build section is highly appreciated!

(After opening this one up for the first time i must say Im disappointed I spent $200 bux on this thing, it does sound good tho.)

[smilie=new_microwave.gif]
Attachments
scod transparency.jpg
scod jumper trace.jpg
scod trace.jpg
componentsscod.jpg
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Post by moltenmetalburn »

parts list thus far:

resistors:


(2) 1K
(4) 3.3K
(4) 10K
(1) 61K
(3) 100K
(2) 10M
(1) 1.7M METAL FILM

capacitors:

(5) .05uf
(2) .005uf
(3) .0022uf
(3) .022uf
(1) .01uf
(1) .001uf

electrolytic caps:

upper 100uf 25v
lower 10uf 25v

diodes:

(2) zener
(2) 1n914

mosfets:

(2) BS170

IC:

(1) CD4007UBE

Potentiometers:

(1) A100K
(1) B50K
(1) B100K
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Post by moltenmetalburn »

If no one gets to this before I do again ill probably give a shot at tracing the schematic, Ive always been a hands on learner!

how about Dogalincheese Secretly Cloned Over Drive? :hmmm:
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Post by moltenmetalburn »

Someone else is gonna have to help me with this one. after hours of fumbling with the circuit board, and pics I really havent gotten anywhere, this is my first trace mind you so I feeling a bit overwhelmed with this one, the layout is not any easy trace, at least for me. [smilie=a_hrm.gif]

Is anyone else interested in helping out?
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Post by PurplePeopleEater »

Great work so far. My time is limited right now, but if I have a free hour or two I'll see if I can get this traced.

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