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Monarchy Drive

Started by blackcorvo, August 14, 2015, 01:51:11 AM

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blackcorvo

I stumbled upon this circuit the other day, and since Vox amps always had one of my favourite types of tone of all time, I decided to try his circuit.
But, to be honest, the sound didn't cut it for me. The Headroom control was specially not that great to my ears. Sounded too much like crossover distortion when not at it's minimum setting, which I am not a big fan of.

So, I experimented for a while and I ended up with this:



It has a much more dynamic (i.e. gradual) distortion, a little more gain and compression, and a much closer sound to what Vox amps sound like (to my ears).

The idea is that, by cascading the clipping circuit using diodes of different voltage drops, you can simulate the gradual, cumulative type of distortion that happens on a tube amp. Each clipping stage simulates a different stage on the amp (the bicolor RG LED would be the preamp, the 4x 1N4148 are the phase inverter, and finally the BAT43+1N4148 is the power amp).

Plus, you get a cool "clipping" indicator with that bicolor LED.

J M Fahey

Em Pee Threes !!!!!!
Em Pee Threes !!!!!!
Em Pee Threes !!!!!!
Em Pee Threes !!!!!!
Em Pee Threes !!!!!!    :trouble

blackcorvo

#2
Quote from: J M Fahey on August 14, 2015, 03:42:23 PM
Em Pee Threes !!!!!!
Em Pee Threes !!!!!!
Em Pee Threes !!!!!!
Em Pee Threes !!!!!!
Em Pee Threes !!!!!!    :trouble

Tomorrow I'll have something up. For now, I have a very neatly made layout produced by my good friend Plautz from the Handmades.com.br forum, where I also posted about this circuit. Enjoy!

(File is attached to this post)

[EDIT]

Thanks J M for letting me know of the dropbox sign-up thing. I wasn't aware of that.
I also would like to add something I only noticed today: the bypass cap in the PDF is marked as 10uF when I actually used 2,2uF. It's the one right next to the transistor in the layout.

J M Fahey

1) sorry, Dropbox FORCES you to become a member and sign in, I suggest you attach that same .PDF here so anybody can see it.
Reply to the post, ckick below "Attachments and other options" and upload straight to SSGuitar .
2) o senhor é Brasileiro?  kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk ;)

blackcorvo

Quote from: J M Fahey on August 16, 2015, 11:52:05 AM
1) sorry, Dropbox FORCES you to become a member and sign in, I suggest you attach that same .PDF here so anybody can see it.
Reply to the post, ckick below "Attachments and other options" and upload straight to SSGuitar .
2) o senhor é Brasileiro?  kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk ;)

Fixed the file situation, now it's attached to the post.

Sim, sou brasileiro!

blackcorvo

#5
Here's a stripboard layout I'll be building, most likely today, after work. Not as neatly done as Plautz's but It'll work:



In that layout, the pots are supposed to be facing upwards (aka viewer's direction), and I'll use rigid copper wires to connect them to the circuit board.

I only have DPDT switches, so I'll be using this neat circuit (already included in the stripboard) to switch the LED on and off:



P.s.: I just noticed the gain pot (left) is marked as "10k Volume" instead of 1k. Oops. You know my secret now, I copy/paste a lot.

blackcorvo

Here's the so-long-awaited soundclip of this simple circuit:

http://a.tumblr.com/tumblr_o6bjsrzIBb1r4gqjso1.mp3

All gain settings were achieved with Gain Max and turning the volume on the guitar down.

I had built it and lost the circuit in the middle of all my stuff, but I found it today. For some reason, it has some bad connection issue at some point in the circuit and it sometimes doesn't work, but I managed to make it work using a "brute force" maneuver  :trouble :lmao:

I simply connected it directly to a PAM8403 board and connected one of the outputs to my "French Bulldog" cab (1x 8" Vox Bulldog from a PF15R stuffed in a France-themed suitcase).

I rather like this combination, but I think I'll work on changing the circuit a bit so I can add tone controls to get a better control over the sound.