# Angry Charles - or "Perturbed Charles"



## HamishR (Apr 5, 2020)

I built a Pedal PCB Angry Charles some time back, and it's a great pedal. But as usual (sensing a theme here??) I wanted a little more grunt from it. With a Strat or a Duo jet a lot of dirt pedals sound like pedals because they seem to artificially cut the lows too soon.  Through a stack or at higher volume it's probably not an issue, but I play through a 1x12 combo and maybe it's because my amp has a big sound I notice the low end cut of a lot of pedals?  I dunno!

I also play at lower gain levels than most players because I don't need the fizz. I like just enough dirt to give a little compression and bite, but not "endless sustain", etc! So what I wanted to do with the Angry Charles was let some more highs through - at lower gain they're a bit muffled - and get some more natural sounding lows. I also wanted to reduce the sibilance you get with LED clipping diodes.

So I changed C16 to 22µF (!), which helped, but not as much as you might think! So going over what Chuck had said about modifying the Gauss Drive I swapped R12 from 6K8 to 4K7. I swapped C17 from 22nF to 10nF (could go even lower possibly) to restore some highs and replaced the LEDs with a pairs of 1N4148 and 1N4001. If you use this pedal with the gain cranked these mods might not be for you but if you like the gain below noon it makes a world of difference! Well it suits me perfectly.  Super stoked about this one.

As I didn't want to damage my PCB I drew up a Vero layout and built it like that. Now I have my mods I might build another on the PCB from here.  This is why I like building and I especially have come to really value this forum.


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## Barry (Apr 5, 2020)

Looks good


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## Mourguitars (Apr 5, 2020)

Man that looks great...awesome build !

Mike


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## zgrav (Apr 5, 2020)

very nice and a clean build.  can you share your vero layout?


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## music6000 (Apr 5, 2020)

HamishR said:


> I built a Pedal PCB Angry Charles some time back, and it's a great pedal. But as usual (sensing a theme here??) I wanted a little more grunt from it. With a Strat or a Duo jet a lot of dirt pedals sound like pedals because they seem to artificially cut the lows too soon.  Through a stack or at higher volume it's probably not an issue, but I play through a 1x12 combo and maybe it's because my amp has a big sound I notice the low end cut of a lot of pedals?  I dunno!
> 
> I also play at lower gain levels than most players because I don't need the fizz. I like just enough dirt to give a little compression and bite, but not "endless sustain", etc! So what I wanted to do with the Angry Charles was let some more highs through - at lower gain they're a bit muffled - and get some more natural sounding lows. I also wanted to reduce the sibilance you get with LED clipping diodes.
> 
> ...


Instead of 2 LED's, Have you tried this:


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## HamishR (Apr 5, 2020)

I guess I can post the vero layout - I'll take it down if Mr PCB doesn't like it.  You can do my mods on the PCB - which is what I'll probably end up doing!

As the layout was only for me really it has some shorthand. I know that where the diodes are it is a 1N4001/1N4148 pair - you can just about make it out in the photo.   I have used four 1N4148s on many builds but prefer the combo I used. It always works for me!


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## HamishR (Apr 5, 2020)

Oh, and I didn't use the OPA2134 - just used a TL072 there!


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## zgrav (Apr 5, 2020)

thanks.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Apr 5, 2020)

Nice build!  Cool mods!  
What do you use to draw the Vero layout?  I use VeroRoute.


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## HamishR (Apr 5, 2020)

DIYLC. I think it's from Russia, so there's a good chance it's emptying my bank account while I'm happily drawing layouts.      It's easy to use once you know the rules, and there are no tutorials so you kinda just have to work it out yourself. But it's not hard.

I'm a bit nervous because I'm hoping that what I changed was actually correct!  The big one for me was changing the 6K8 to Bass 3 to a 4K7.  I didn't want to go lower than 4K7 because I was concerned it might start to interfere with the mids control.

Anyway It sounds exactly as I was hoping it might.  I'm going to check out VeroRoute now.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Apr 5, 2020)

I think VeroRoute is pretty cool and the designer is open to adding new footprints.  First time I used it, I imported a netlist from TinyCad and let it auto-route just to see what it could do.  After that, I just enter parts and connections manually to make my layouts.  Like all EDA tools, there's a little bit of a learning curve.  After an hour or so, you'll be proficient.  It exports a BOM too, which is a great way to check that you didn't forget any parts.


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## HamishR (Apr 5, 2020)

Had a quick look - looks scary to me! But I would love to one day be able to design my own PCBs. I suspect that's a long way off yet.

BTW does changing a 6K8 to Bass 3 to a 4K7 look right to you for increasing bass in a Angry Charles?


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## Chuck D. Bones (Apr 5, 2020)

I installed a copy of EAGLE, which is what Robert uses to design the boards here.  Having trouble getting started.  For now, I want to use it to draw schematics, but will do board layouts eventually.

R12, is the one you want to reduce to permit more Bass boost.  You can easily go down to 4.7K or even further.  It should have very little effect on the mids.  Fattening up C11 and C12 won't hurt either.


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## HamishR (Apr 5, 2020)

Cool!  That's the one I changed. i wondered about C11 & 12 but figured I don't really need to change too much - it's a great sounding pedal already.  Ages ago I did try the beginner's trick of using a bigger input cap but it didn't sound as good as my new mods... for now obvious reasons.

I have used DIYLC to draw schematics too.  It doesn't have any auto-routing stuff and no PCB either, but I like it because I can use it. I looked at Eagle but then my head exploded.  Baby steps...


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## phi1 (Apr 6, 2020)

What schematic editor does pedalpcb use?
					

Hi I was wondering what editor you use to create your schematics. Looks great and clear.  Cheers



					forum.pedalpcb.com
				




In this thread pedalpcb said he uses diptrace. I started messing with eagle, then tried diptrace. I personally found diptrace a little easier to get started on (like you said, there’s always a learning curve). The really nice thing is the rullywow library is basically plug and play for most things needed (although I think there’s a madbean library for eagle too). 

So far I’ve done a few boards and had them fabbed, and it went pretty well. Couple minor mistakes but easy to work around when building, should be easy to get spot on next time. 

I’ve used DIYLC as well for vero, nice and simple.


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## twebb6778 (Apr 6, 2020)

That's a tidy vero build! Nice work!


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## Dali (Apr 6, 2020)

HamishR said:


> I guess I can post the vero layout - I'll take it down if Mr PCB doesn't like it.



He's not afraid. He won't care at all.

If this post get deleted then I was wrong...  

But I know I'm not. I'm never wrong. Except when building pedals...


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## Elijah-Baley (Apr 7, 2020)

Thanks for sharing your veroboard layout. I think is verified.
Did you get oscillation problem at highest gain and mid setting? The Tagboard layout one has some kind of this issue, and this doesn't make me build that layout. I built some PCBs stuff, but I love use veroboard, too.
If your layout is completely ok could be a good thing.


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## HamishR (Apr 7, 2020)

I don't know!  I've never tried it like that.  I can do that tomorrow and let you know.


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## Elijah-Baley (Apr 9, 2020)

Thanks. I'm waiting for your heavy testing of your built!


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## BurntFingers (Apr 9, 2020)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> I installed a copy of EAGLE, which is what Robert uses to design the boards here.  Having trouble getting started.  For now, I want to use it to draw schematics, but will do board layouts eventually.
> 
> R12, is the one you want to reduce to permit more Bass boost.  You can easily go down to 4.7K or even further.  It should have very little effect on the mids.  Fattening up C11 and C12 won't hurt either.



Pedalpcb use diptrace. We had an email discussion last week where this came up.

I use eagle though. First thing you have to do is download the madbean library for parts. No other library (gauss Markov) is correct for our kind of stuff.


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## HamishR (Apr 9, 2020)

Hey EB  - just tried this pedal out with gain and mids on full and yes, there is a whistling sound. Doesn't bother me because I don't use it anywhere near like that but if you do you will have a problem!


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## Elijah-Baley (Apr 10, 2020)

It's the second veroboard layout that got in this issue. In case I will build this or the other layout the oscillation could be a problem, I mean I don't like this kind of limitations. I always want a pedal that works in any setting.
I think this is the usual problem caused by the input and output track too much close. I'm not so expert, but in your layout I see that the output pass next to the the input stripe for a bit: the jumper coming from the pin 1 of the OPA2134 goes to the stripe under the input strip.
I see how hard could be move the parts, but maybe a little bit we could do, if somebody want to try before me. Probably I'm not going to build this pedal too soon.

1. I'd say that we could cut the track of the input wire just after the 1M, and not near the 2.2uF cap. This is the most fast and simple thing I can think. And maybe HamishR can try it, if he want. It's enough to add a cut track.
2. Or, if this is not enough and we want to move some parts, we could try to turn away a bit more the input signal from the output signal moving the input wire and the bottom side of the 22nF and the 1M one stripe above, and cut the track on the left side of the 100uF cap.
In this moment I can't think something better than this, and we can't know if this will work fine or just a bit better until somebody will try it.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Apr 10, 2020)

phi1 said:


> What schematic editor does pedalpcb use?
> 
> 
> Hi I was wondering what editor you use to create your schematics. Looks great and clear.  Cheers
> ...



Thanks for clearing that up, my bad.  I'll check out diptrace.


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## HamishR (Apr 10, 2020)

Hey EB - just cut the input trace right next to the 1M. Actually I drilled a hole from the top because it's too much hassle to pull everything apart again!  So I drilled a hole just for you and guess what? The whistle is still there.   

I'm not really fussed about this. I've had amps which howled if I turned everything on 10 but that's not how I use them usually so I don't worry about it.  I understand your point but it's only an issue to me if it affects my enjoyment of the pedal - and in this case it really doesn't at all. I kinda work with the limitations of vero. I don't know if this is a result of the vero layout or whether it's a design issue - does the original pedal have this quirk?


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## Elijah-Baley (Apr 13, 2020)

Indeed, I'm wondering if even the origianl pedal has this issue, but I don't know, it will be strange.
Now we know that an hole next that 1M doesn't work.
I don't know, maybe even a hole to the left of the 2.2k resistor, upper side. This will not make so in contact that two stripes. 
For a more massime mod we could try to move even this 2.2k resistor on the column 6, of course moving the cut track on the downer side of that 2.2k resistor, too. I know it's a bit difficult explain this with words.

Anyway, all these moving is an attempt to keep a bit off the input track signal from other "gainy" or louder track signal.


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## Elijah-Baley (Apr 14, 2020)

Thank you HamisR for sent me the project file.

I tried to make the movement I told early. The target was to take away the input track from the close Middle pot track, assuming that could give some annoying about the oscillation/squeal this effect gets with mid and gain at max, or at extreme setting.

- Looking at the original layout in the previous page I moved the *input wire* one stripe above, and of course I moved the *22nF input cap* and the *1M pulldown resistor*, too. And added a *cut track* to disconnect them from the 100uF negative side.
- I moved the *2.2k resistor* coming from the Mid 1 to the column 6, and placed the *cut track* on the right just close the 6.8k. (*Maybe we can place it just next to the 2.2k itself for better result?*)
I added a *cut track in J4*, it's not necessary because it separates nothing, but this just make the stripe shorter and keep the signal further far away from the input signal.

This new layout is still *UNVERIFIED*, this means it probably will work like the original one by HamishR, but we don't know if has solved the oscillation/squeal problem.
Maybe we could move even other parts, but the thing will be a bit difficult, especially without to build it another one.

I still never built none layout version of this effect. But I hope our effort will worth.


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