Distortion and filtering

[sa230e]

I'm fairly new to electronics and I've been building and fooling around with basic circuits. Mostly common source amplifier circuits using JFETs to create distortion but the sound isn't all that pleasant. Kind of like the song Revolution by The Beatles. My best guess as to why is that I didn't really design the circuit to filter out any frequencies pre-distortion so what I'm hearing is ugly harmonics from the lower notes but that's just a guess. I don't have a scope to test it.

So my question is: How do you get a pleasing tone out of a clipping gain stage. I'm aware that's pretty subjective but generally speaking.

And also, how do the commercial amp manufacturers usually do it? I've looked at schematics but my knowledge of filters so far is still pretty basic. Most solid state amps seem to use active filters with complex networks of components in the feedback loop and I can't really wrap my head around what they would do to the signal let alone work out the cutoff frequencies. I realize that different amps have different tones and all but electronically they still use variations of the same "building blocks".

Any help would be most appreciated!  :tu:

[J M Fahey]

Basically modern distortion circuits filter the buzzy sound into something smoother.
The old ones (Big Muff, Fuzz Face, MXR Dist+, etc.) did not, but were generally used overdriving a tube amplifier which was on 10, fully distorting too, so the Tube distortion smoothes the pedal one.
If you plug any of those early pedals straight into a clean amp or a PC sound board , the sound is horrible.
I think that's what's happening to you.
Check the RAT or the Tube Screamer: both filter annoying highs out for a "better" sound.

[joecool85]

The old ones (Big Muff, Fuzz Face, MXR Dist+, etc.) did not, but were generally used overdriving a tube amplifier which was on 10, fully distorting too, so the Tube distortion smoothes the pedal one.
If you plug any of those early pedals straight into a clean amp or a PC sound board , the sound is horrible.

I disagree with the sound being "horrible."  I like the Dist + style circuits running into a clean SS amp.  Is it for everyone?  Probably not.  But I like it.  I dial out the mids on my amp, put the bass about mid way and almost dime the treble.  Sounds like the White Stripes.

[J M Fahey]

The Dist+ is the best of the "raw" pedals, because it simulates an SS amp overdriving , not bad, I like it myself.
And it *is* somewhat filtered, look at that .001uF in parallel with the diodes.
And, of course, you are plugging it into a DM !!!   :tu: