More noob questions

[jfrey]

Awesome, thanks!

[modernage]

I didn't know madbean yet, but it is in the bookmarks now!

Madbean is the man! I just received an order from him yesterday. Wonderful boards. Guitar PCB is great too!

[jfrey]

Anyone have, or know where I could find some regular distortion pedal schems/perf layouts? Looking for something standard metal. Not super difficult if possible.

[mathias]

Like, a Rat? Those are pretty standard. Somewhat simple.

[orcrist]

this page has a lot of schematics for old pedals and amps. some are pretty simple,
http://www.freeinfosociety.com/electron ... .php?cat=1

[jfrey]

I have these small mustard yellow caps marked "V22".

Can anyone tell me what they are?

I'm guessing 22 nF.

[mysteriousj]

No that's probably the voltage, if it was the capacitance it would be something like 103 etc..

[jfrey]

Any ideas then? That's the only marking.

[mysteriousj]

Hmm. It doesn't really make sense at all to me. Mustard caps are usually pretty high voltage (the few i've seen) so 22V doesn't really make sense. It's probably some manufacturer code? Who knows, you'll probably need a multimeter able to read caps to know for sure. Somebody here might know more though? Could be 22n definitely a common mustard cap sort of value.

[jfrey]

Another question. Are there any combinations of diodes that you find sound better than using matching pairs?

[McSpunckle]

Mixing diodes can make the whole thing sound a bit more natural. I think the most common combo is 2 silicon diodes, but with a germanium diode in series with one of them.

I don't hear a huge difference between diode types, but I've been meaning to set up a test for that. It seems like the forward voltage (voltage that the diode conducts at) is the only important factor. I'll set up a test when I get some time.

[jfrey]

For the mixed diodes do you mean like this:

[jfrey]

And, posting this here also:

The way it shows here:
http://www.beavisaudio.com/Projects/DBS/

In the last image (for adding starve to a pedal) will it also starve when you're running from battery? Or just from an adapter?

Also, if there isn't much effect with a certain value pot, would increasing the pot value help?

[Scruffie]

Mixing diodes can make the whole thing sound a bit more natural. I think the most common combo is 2 silicon diodes, but with a germanium diode in series with one of them.

I don't hear a huge difference between diode types, but I've been meaning to set up a test for that. It seems like the forward voltage (voltage that the diode conducts at) is the only important factor. I'll set up a test when I get some time.

You are correct sir, the fV sets how much a pedal is going to clip and at what point and the sustain of the note but they do not have a sound themselves, case in point an 1N4148 and 1N4001, two completely different diodes, sound basically the same.

The best choices for diodes are LEDs, 1N4148/1N914 and Germanium, those will probably produce the most difference in sound, also assymetric clipping can be cool.

[mysteriousj]

And, posting this here also:

The way it shows here:
http://www.beavisaudio.com/Projects/DBS/

In the last image (for adding starve to a pedal) will it also starve when you're running from battery? Or just from an adapter?

Also, if there isn't much effect with a certain value pot, would increasing the pot value help?

1)It'll work for both.

2) Increasing the pot value might have an effect. That pot just limits the current so at the moment you have V=IR, I =9/10k =0.9mA. So about 1ma, even though that's small some effects (without an led say) might work fairly normal on that. Could try 50k etc. but I wouldn't go much more than that.