Madbean Sugarbomb

madbean · Post by **madbean** » 30 Aug 2009, 01:23

Here's a simple little circuit I've been playing around with. I like this one for rhythm, esp. in the lower mid-range of the guitar. You can get some sweet feedback from it as well on the lower stings around and below the 5th fret. Nothing ground-breaking or innovative...just an easy, low part-count overdrive.

Schematic.gif

And the project file.

Sugarbomb.pdf

devastator · Post by **devastator** » 30 Aug 2009, 16:42

thanks.

Can you say what does the sugar control ? a simple tone control ?

earthtonesaudio · Post by **earthtonesaudio** » 30 Aug 2009, 16:57

Looks like a combo gain/tone control. At max. resistance, the two resistors and two caps in IC1B's feedback loop form a bridged-T network and boost the mids. At min. resistance it's basically a lowpass filter going into a lossy integrator, so it probably rolls of quite a lot of highs.

Of course this is just armchair speculation.

Cool design, by the way.

madbean · Post by **madbean** » 30 Aug 2009, 17:02

devastator wrote:thanks.

Can you say what does the sugar control ? a simple tone control ?

It is. You can get some interesting variations by playing with C4 and C5, though. Actually, if you take C5 up to 100n or so, then when the tone control is all the way to the left you get some crazy fixed wah with the gain dialed back, and to the right it's more of a mid boost with added gain. I may take another look at the tone control, however. I think it could be improved.

culturejam · Post by **culturejam** » 30 Aug 2009, 17:50

Nice work, as usual!!

Was there any specific circuit that was the inspiration for this, or was it a bit of this and that from here and there?

madbean · Post by **madbean** » 30 Aug 2009, 18:18

culturejam wrote:Nice work, as usual!!

Was there any specific circuit that was the inspiration for this, or was it a bit of this and that from here and there?

Not really. It's just a variation on something that started on the breadboard a while ago. Actually, I think I put this project up too soon...I need to flesh it out a bit more. I think breaking the tone control into two parts might be better. One control for a more inductor like filter control and one to dial in the amount of boost and grit that it gets. I also have some schems that had attempts at second order active filters, so I might look back at those. Nothing wrong with building this version, but the next one will be a bit more versatile.