# Paragon



## Travis (Nov 12, 2020)

Hi! I build a Paragon and it's sound great but on OD Mode it's have less volume than other pedals.

How can I make It sound louder?


Thanks


----------



## Cybercow (Nov 13, 2020)

Which Paragon did you build - the standard or the "mini"? And what DIP switch settings are being used. The 'hard clipping' setting is going to result in a lowered OD signal level because hard clipping limits the signal level to the value of the combine Vfd of the clipping diodes. How does it sound with 'hard clipping' turned off and the 'soft clipping' turned on?

Also, did you substitute any parts?


----------



## Travis (Nov 13, 2020)

On clean boost mode sound LOUD. 

Is the Paragon standard and the problem is when I turn on the OD or DIST mode.

I didn´t substitute any parts


----------



## Nostradoomus (Nov 13, 2020)

That’s just the nature of introducing diodes into the signal, especially germanium.


----------



## Travis (Nov 14, 2020)

I don´t think so, when I use other builds I can get louder sounds.

Not with paragon...


----------



## zgrav (Nov 14, 2020)

are both channels working the same?  the clean tone compared to the OD of Fuzz will be louder, but you should still be able to compensate by turning up the volume control to reach the same level as your bypassed signal.


----------



## Travis (Nov 14, 2020)

To compensate the volumen with OD Mode I must turn the volume to 3:00


----------



## zgrav (Nov 14, 2020)

I haven't built this pedal, but I won't be surprised if that is normal.   Maybe some other folks that have built the Paragon can chime in.


----------



## Chas Grant (Nov 15, 2020)

The King of Tone is a Marshall Blues Breaker with a few changes. I haven’t built the Paragon but have built a few different Blues Breaker based pedals with both soft and hard clipping diodes. One thing they all have in common is when in a clean boost mode they get loud, when you switch any type of clipping on the volume drop is considerable and you have to crank the volume up to compensate for it. If using germanium diodes, the drop is much more noticeable. This is the nature of the circuit. So crank the volume and enjoy it is a great sounding circuit, it just need a little more gain on it.


----------



## Cybercow (Nov 17, 2020)

As consideration for a circuit mod, there is the 2-Knob Job PCB available from GuitarPCB. It provides the addition of a trimpot to the signal path (directly onto a 3PDT switching PCB daughterboard) allowing the loss to be made up when switching between the two modes . . . . . .


----------



## TheSin (Nov 18, 2020)

Chas Grant said:


> The King of Tone is a Marshall Blues Breaker with a few changes. I haven’t built the Paragon but have built a few different Blues Breaker based pedals with both soft and hard clipping diodes. One thing they all have in common is when in a clean boost mode they get loud, when you switch any type of clipping on the volume drop is considerable and you have to crank the volume up to compensate for it. If using germanium diodes, the drop is much more noticeable. This is the nature of the circuit. So crank the volume and enjoy it is a great sounding circuit, it just need a little more gain on it.


I agree. I’ve built more than one and I usually have to turn volume up to 2 or 3 o’clock to reach  unity.


----------



## Travis (Nov 19, 2020)

Thanks you all for the help!!


----------

