Robert_the_damned Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 Hi I'm new to the forums but have completed one project guitar so far and have two more on the way (I've been bitten by the guitar building bug!!). ok now for the question: has anyone here tried fitting an onboard distortion unit? is it worth the hasttle or not? I'm planning to make my own unit based aarround a boss HM-2 (just the ditortion and not the tone circuity). and I'm planning to use this handy little dual pot and switch that I got out of a radio for the gain volume abnd on/off control. all thats gotta go into a les paul body cavity + a battery (though I'm only using 1 vol an 1 tone pot) and I've managed to get a reasonable silverburst finnish on the body (after screwing it up twice and having several 'accidents' that have ment respraying) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Alex Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 I've got some dodgy assemetric clipping diodes for passive overdrive, but it only works with my superoverwound bridge humbucker(its abit like the black ice form stew mac, needs at least 10kohm). I just built a dod 250 clone, made it on perfboard and its like 1 inch square or less. Get diagrams from general guitar gadgetsthey have the easiest to follow layouts and diagrams Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert_the_damned Posted May 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 yeah I've looked a lot into DIY effects and thats what got mwe thinking of this plan. The passive clipping sounds intresting and it might work as I'm planning on 15K and 20L pick ups so that might work!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovekraft Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 Search for "strawberry ice" - the info's there somewhere. It's just a pair of anti-parallel schottky diodes shunted to ground. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert_the_damned Posted May 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 cool thanks. I was thinking that the active distortion unit would boost the signal like an accoustics preamp (though I think that's more for impedance matching?) and that it might make my passive pickups more of a match for actives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Alex Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 Search for "strawberry ice" - the info's there somewhere. It's just a pair of anti-parallel schottky diodes shunted to ground. ← 1n4148 diodes sound best in my opinion but use them in an assemetric pattern of 2 in series and 1 anti parallel to those. and replace the cap on a tone control with that setup, but personally the variable-ness it pointless as they work best fully on when the circuit is only passive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert_the_damned Posted May 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 this isn't going to turn into one of those 'asymetrical cliping topics' is it? I have done a lot of research into guitar effects and asymetrical diode cliping seems to be a heavily discussed subject! I think it sounds cool:P but then again I like transistor cliping a lot too and osilator noise....I'll try the passive diodes when I've got a few spare seconds and a hot soldering iron...I've got plenty of diodes lieing arround... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovekraft Posted May 6, 2005 Report Share Posted May 6, 2005 1N4148s are only going to clip when the signal gets close to 1v rms - that's one hot pickup! Some schottkys have a forward voltage that's less than half that, so unless you've got incredibly hot pickups, schottkys will be a lot more likely to work. The results I got from this trick were not worth the trouble to me, but lots of people swear by it, so give it a shot if you're interested. It won't cost much, and it's easy to remove, so you've got very little to lose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedoctor Posted May 6, 2005 Report Share Posted May 6, 2005 Unless I missed the point, couldn't he put the schottkys on an output adapter cord and try them? Or should they be right across the pickups? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovekraft Posted May 6, 2005 Report Share Posted May 6, 2005 Sure, no reason not to try 'em outboard - heck, you could even just twist 'em onto the output jack leads for a quick'n'dirty tryout! If I was going to go to the trouble to box 'em up, I think I'd go ahead and build an OD250 or a TS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ansil Posted May 7, 2005 Report Share Posted May 7, 2005 if you are not looking for over the top distortion. you can get a nice grind going on simply by hooking up an lm386 to input output and voltage and ground. respectivly. it has a fixed gain of 20if you leave the gain pins open. and this coupled with the massive output swing of it will drive the front of any amp nicely. max output on a 386 says 660mw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert_the_damned Posted May 7, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 7, 2005 I was kind of hopeing for something that would be variable. like a standard distortion stop box without having to have extra leads and something else to forget! my reasoning being that if its built into the guitar I can't forget it!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Alex Posted May 7, 2005 Report Share Posted May 7, 2005 all thats gotta go into a les paul body cavity + a battery (though I'm only using 1 vol an 1 tone pot) ← if its for a les paul cavity use the other two pots for the gain and level of an od250 or distortion+(uses same layout for od250 with some different parts for different sound) my od 250 AND stratoblaster booster(on same board) worked out under an inch square. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert_the_damned Posted May 7, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 7, 2005 I was thinking about the OD250 and DS+ (they're the same thing really!) but thought I'd go for the HM-2 as I've got the circuit diagram for it and its more my kind of sound! its not a lot more than the OD250/DS+ anyway (2 op-amps and about 4 transitors without the tone circuit which was planning on missing out) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Alex Posted May 7, 2005 Report Share Posted May 7, 2005 (edited) I was thinking about the OD250 and DS+ (they're the same thing really!) but thought I'd go for the HM-2 as I've got the circuit diagram for it and its more my kind of sound! its not a lot more than the OD250/DS+ anyway (2 op-amps and about 4 transitors without the tone circuit which was planning on missing out) ← yeah, go with something that gives a sound you like, I only suggested the od 250 cos its my personal favourite. if you know how to use it, use perfboard(vero, or whatever it may be called where your from) you can get the circuit up to half or less of the size that the printed circuit boards available are. edit: one thing to remember is that some of the boss pedals have a circuit board that covers the entire base(i haven't seem the hm-2 before though) so even after removing the tone circuitry it still may be quite big, and youve still got a get a 9v battery in there. Edited May 7, 2005 by Mr Alex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert_the_damned Posted May 7, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 7, 2005 the Boss boards are so huge because of the FET imput switching (which btw makes them buzz more and colours your sound even when 'off') and I was going to use Vero board. I think its going to be easier than etching my own board and a lot cheeper too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.