# Loafing Lounge



## fig (Aug 26, 2021)

*Show off those beautiful breadboard builds!*

BuggFX Raincoat - I love this circuit!


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## BuddytheReow (Aug 26, 2021)

That cap in the upper right corner on the power rails. I never thought of putting the filter cap in like that! Usually I jumper the power to a row then have the cap going back to ground. That row becomes my power source. I just saved myself some breadboard real estate!!!! Thanks @fig


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## fig (Aug 27, 2021)

@caiofilipini , 

I saw a nice spread of bread on another thread. 
A lot of hard work, and maybe frustrations,
They are beautiful to us, your electronic creations!






Anyone else have any breadboard shots?


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## uranium_jones (Aug 27, 2021)

This was from a while ago. Clark Gainster. I really need to start developing a neatness strategy, and making a breakout board to handle the potentiometers. Apparently this direct-to-breadboard idea isn't smart. I also ordered some proper jumper wires since then.


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## BuddytheReow (Aug 27, 2021)

quality_jones said:


> This was from a while ago. Clark Gainster. I really need to start developing a neatness strategy, and making a breakout board to handle the potentiometers. Apparently this direct-to-breadboard idea isn't smart. I also ordered some proper jumper wires since then.
> 
> View attachment 15298


@fig had a great idea that I used here. A daughterboard for all your pots, but will take up more workstation real estate. You'll also need male/female jumpers for that.

Great looking build!


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## uranium_jones (Aug 27, 2021)

That's exactly what I was thinking of @BuddytheReow. I had purchased these green clamp things (shut up, I was a mechanical engineer not electrical) in preparation for a Protoboard. I guess I can use them up and order more. Definitely a good part to have on hand, just like pin headers.


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## Coda (Aug 27, 2021)

I’ll grab a pic in a while, but I spent part of the day breadboarding something called the Bazz Fuss. Stumbled up. I stumbled upon the schematic this morning. It’s basically an 2 capacitor, a resistor, a transistor, and a diode. It’s easily modifiable too. I added a tone control, gain control, and master volume. Then I added a second gain stage; I basically added a second circuit onto the first, sans the input cap. Sounds thick and crazy. Now I have to figure out how to use the fuzz control to control both transistors…



Edit for photo.


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## Paradox916 (Aug 27, 2021)

I’ve posted this on another thread but here it is again a pop top boost with Chuck D bone mods(or at least my attempt at it)... a good clean boost that can go into breakup... I planed on using this circuit as the pre in a little practice amp build to have in the garage...


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## BuddytheReow (Aug 27, 2021)

Two Sticks of Derm with a BMP/LPB-1 block to output. I removed the last EQ filter right before output and swapped the tone stack. Crank the tone clockwise and it's still pretty doom-y, but with a little bit of bite. Worked on some electric wizard riffs with this (although that's the FZ1 if not mistaken). Still pretty good though


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## Coda (Aug 28, 2021)

I finished, now now, my aforementioned fuzz experiment. It’s based on the Bazz Fuss, with tone, master volume, and gain controls. The gain control blends the two stages.I can try to draw it up, if anyone is interested…


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## BuddytheReow (Aug 29, 2021)

Coda said:


> I finished, now now, my aforementioned fuzz experiment. It’s based on the Bazz Fuss, with tone, master volume, and gain controls. The gain control blends the two stages.I can try to draw it up, if anyone is interested…


Please do if you have the time. CAD can be a pain sometimes


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## Coda (Aug 29, 2021)

BuddytheReow said:


> Please do if you have the time. CAD can be a pain sometimes


I’ll give it a go tomorrow. My plan is to try and perfboard this build up. My first “from scratch” build.


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## BuddytheReow (Aug 30, 2021)

Here's a PedalPCB original. The _Acid Rain Fuzz_. I chose this one since the schematic has literally 3 identical booster stages before the tone section so you can literally hear the difference in sound after each stage.


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## Coda (Aug 30, 2021)

BuddytheReow said:


> Please do if you have the time. CAD can be a pain sometimes


I did my best. It looks a mess, but I'm 99% sure it'll work...


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## fig (Aug 30, 2021)

Archeologist to colleague at a dig site A34 in the year 4367: _It appears to be some sort of religious text._


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## BuddytheReow (Aug 30, 2021)

Coda said:


> I did my best. It looks a mess, but I'm 99% sure it'll work...View attachment 15447


Any transistor recommendations? Also, what made you alter the second collector to 560k? What kind of diodes did you like?

Sorry, also trying to wrap my head around the tone stack too. How does that work?

I'll definitely give this a whirl shortly. Thanks for sharing!!!


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## fig (Aug 30, 2021)

Question: Is that an M or N taper pot?


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## Coda (Aug 30, 2021)

BuddytheReow said:


> Any transistor recommendations? Also, what made you alter the second collector to 560k? What kind of diodes did you like?
> 
> Sorry, also trying to wrap my head around the tone stack too. How does that work?
> 
> I'll definitely give this a whirl shortly. Thanks for sharing!!!


All useful information that I forgot to add. Q1 (on the left) is a 5089. Q2 is a BC109C. The 560k resistor was to get Q2 to -4.5...I think. I have to fire it back up and double-check the voltage. The tone control just blends between high and low cuts. Diodes I used are 4148. I popped a few other things in (some GE...which didnt really work well, an LED...which didnt have much effect), but the 4148's worked best.


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## Coda (Aug 30, 2021)

fig said:


> Question: Is that an M or N taper pot?


Tone pot is A, Blend is B, Volume is A...and thats only because those were what I had on hand. The tone pot should be a linear pot...


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## fig (Aug 30, 2021)

Thanks, and great job! I'm going to give this a try.


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## Coda (Aug 30, 2021)

fig said:


> Thanks, and great job! I'm going to give this a try.


Good luck.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Aug 31, 2021)

quality_jones said:


> I really need to start developing a neatness strategy...


Neatness is overrated.





Top Left: Voltage-controlled sinewave LFO.  Intended for a UniVibe with an external speed pedal, OR the ability to hit a switch and gradually sweep from one speed to another à la Leslie.

Top Center: Servo Fuzz Face

Top Right: Modified FSH-1.  The random control is generated digitally.  Extra knobs include manual tuning and sweep range.

Bottom Left: Left side: FireDrake.  Right side: The HOE (CMOS Overdrive Deluxe).

Bottom Right: Suburban Maniac (modified Subdecay Variac).


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## BuddytheReow (Aug 31, 2021)

Looks like 3 modified Fuzz Faces and a Booster, LOL


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## bowanderror (Aug 31, 2021)

Here are a few I've been working on:

*1176 FET Compressor* - +-15V Opamp version




*Shure Level-Loc Compressor* - With additional circuitry for Line or Guitar, +9V


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## bowanderror (Aug 31, 2021)

And the one I've been having the most fun with:

*Low Tide (Fairfield Shallow Water) Low-Pass Gate* - Just the Preamp/LPG/Post-Amp (no BBD section) on an actual breadboard, for breadboarding...


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## Chuck D. Bones (Aug 31, 2021)

Clever use of the clipboard as a jack retainer.  Can you share the schematic for the Shure Compressor?


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## bowanderror (Aug 31, 2021)

Gotta make use of all that reappropriated office equipment somehow!

I posted a schematic in my thread over on FSB on the Level-Loc. My finished builds also use some PCB faceplates that I'm pretty happy with:


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## Chuck D. Bones (Aug 31, 2021)

Sweet!


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## fig (Aug 31, 2021)

That's a groovin' rig @bowanderror !


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## bowanderror (Aug 31, 2021)

Thanks fig! It took a bit of trial and error to find a setup that worked for me, but I prefer the all-in-one platform because I use the same desk for work. Being able to move the whole thing without disconnecting everything makes it much easier to pick up where I left off. The biggest challenge was bending and drilling the steel or zinc or whatever all the jacks are mounted in. Defo destroyed a step bit on that.

I did try a large hammond-style enclosure with spring terminals & a breadboard inside, but I didn't like having to flip the whole thing over to get to knobs vs. the board.


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## uranium_jones (Sep 1, 2021)

You know, when I first saw this Protoboard Micro, I thought there wasn't going to be enough real estate for me to work on....


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## fig (Sep 1, 2021)

One size, fits all!


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## BuddytheReow (Sep 1, 2021)

fig said:


> One size, fits all!


Nice True Bypass circuit!!!


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## fig (Sep 1, 2021)

Yup, when you run out of real estate, annex some more!


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## BuddytheReow (Sep 1, 2021)

Coda said:


> I did my best. It looks a mess, but I'm 99% sure it'll work...View attachment 15447


@Coda , I whipped this up today using your instructions (I used 2n5089 and 2n3904) and, I've gotta say, this thing is pretty rad! I've seen the Bazz Fuss from runoffgroove and built it. THIS puts 2 of them together and blends them. IMO, this really shines with downed tuning guitars for some doooooooom. The other breadboards in my pics have the gyrator which I'm asking everyone here in a separate thread to help, but this is a very simple and effective circuit. Great job!!!!

EDIT: It was really noisy for me using the bare circuit posted. I threw a 100uf cap in the power rails and cleaned a lot of it up, but not 100% not sure if it's the circuit or my breadboard (it's my "bad" one).

EDIT2: As a +1 I would add a tone control of some kind right before the volume pot. Perhaps a Big Muff variant? I threw my stripboard build of one on there and was pleased.


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## Coda (Sep 1, 2021)

BuddytheReow said:


> @Coda , I whipped this up today using your instructions (I used 2n5089 and 2n3904) and, I've gotta say, this thing is pretty rad! I've seen the Bazz Fuss from runoffgroove and built it. THIS puts 2 of them together and blends them. IMO, this really shines with downed tuning guitars for some doooooooom. The other breadboards in my pics have the gyrator which I'm asking everyone here in a separate thread to help, but this is a very simple and effective circuit. Great job!!!!
> 
> EDIT: It was really noisy for me using the bare circuit posted. I threw a 100uf cap in the power rails and cleaned a lot of it up, but not 100% not sure if it's the circuit or my breadboard (it's my "bad" one).
> 
> ...


Glad to see it worked for someone else. My first schematic passed the test.


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## Coda (Sep 1, 2021)

BuddytheReow said:


> @Coda , I whipped this up today using your instructions (I used 2n5089 and 2n3904) and, I've gotta say, this thing is pretty rad! I've seen the Bazz Fuss from runoffgroove and built it. THIS puts 2 of them together and blends them. IMO, this really shines with downed tuning guitars for some doooooooom. The other breadboards in my pics have the gyrator which I'm asking everyone here in a separate thread to help, but this is a very simple and effective circuit. Great job!!!!
> 
> EDIT: It was really noisy for me using the bare circuit posted. I threw a 100uf cap in the power rails and cleaned a lot of it up, but not 100% not sure if it's the circuit or my breadboard (it's my "bad" one).
> 
> ...


I’ll have to try a 3904 in mine. I’ll also try the big muff tone stack, though I think I’ll put more mids in. Did you elimate the tone control t the input? Or did you run both?


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## BuddytheReow (Sep 1, 2021)

Coda said:


> I’ll have to try a 3904 in mine. I’ll also try the big muff tone stack, though I think I’ll put more mids in. Did you elimate the tone control t the input? Or did you run both?


I kept both in. Yours acts as a pre-gain/clipping EQ and the other is post clipping. The post is more dramatic, but the pre tweaks it just a bit more.


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## Coda (Sep 1, 2021)

BuddytheReow said:


> I kept both in. Yours acts as a pre-gain/clipping EQ and the other is post clipping. The post is more dramatic, but the pre tweaks it just a bit more.


Maybe I’ll redesign the pre-eq as an toggle.


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## Coda (Sep 4, 2021)

BuddytheReow said:


> @Coda , I whipped this up today using your instructions (I used 2n5089 and 2n3904) and, I've gotta say, this thing is pretty rad! I've seen the Bazz Fuss from runoffgroove and built it. THIS puts 2 of them together and blends them. IMO, this really shines with downed tuning guitars for some doooooooom. The other breadboards in my pics have the gyrator which I'm asking everyone here in a separate thread to help, but this is a very simple and effective circuit. Great job!!!!
> 
> EDIT: It was really noisy for me using the bare circuit posted. I threw a 100uf cap in the power rails and cleaned a lot of it up, but not 100% not sure if it's the circuit or my breadboard (it's my "bad" one).
> 
> ...


I just auditioned a few Muff tone stacks. Worked pretty well…but a little too muffish for me. I ended up taking it out. I did, however, replace the A100k with a B100k for my input control. I much prefer it.
While I was experimenting, I tossed a pair of GD859 diodes in place of the 4148’s. Very splatty. I think I prefer the Si. I think this one is nearly finished. Now to learn how to use perfboard…


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## Feral Feline (Sep 4, 2021)

Try the SWTC (Stupidly Wonderful Tone Control) or one of its variants — basically it'll help clean up the high fizz generated...


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## Paradox916 (Sep 8, 2021)

Not a pedal but a fun little project made possible by the infamous @fig a signal trigger that will be incorporated into a few builds I have planned


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## BuddytheReow (Sep 8, 2021)

Paradox916 said:


> Not a pedal but a fun little project made possible by the infamous @fig a signal trigger that will be incorporated into a few builds I have plannedView attachment 15810


LED's blink when signal goes through them?


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## Paradox916 (Sep 8, 2021)

BuddytheReow said:


> LED's blink when signal goes through them?


If I understand It correctly.  I believe the guitar signal is triggering the transistor to complete  the circuit to the LEDs


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## fig (Sep 8, 2021)

Paradox916 said:


> If I understand It correctly.  I believe the guitar signal is triggering the transistor to complete  the circuit to the LEDs


If true, It would do it regardless of your understanding. -Bill's Law. 🤣

(I read that somewhere.....cereal box maybe? fortune cookie? Snapple lid!)


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## Paradox916 (Sep 8, 2021)

Everything is on the ground side so I don’t believe the guitar signal goes through the LEDs at all....you know what I meant🤪.


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## benny_profane (Sep 8, 2021)

Is that basically a Schmitt trigger circuit?


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## Paradox916 (Sep 8, 2021)

benny_profane said:


> Is that basically a Schmitt trigger circuit?


I’m not sure to be honest... It seems similar the Schmitt trigger( I had to look that up) is a little more fancy and well thought out than my bastardized creation.


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## Paradox916 (Sep 13, 2021)

From breadboard to prototype V.1


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## bowanderror (Sep 14, 2021)

Here's my Moog Ladder Filter with Hi-Z Guitar Preamp & Attack/Release Envelope Generator:





The transistor ladder core is based on the Kassutronics Ladder Filter, and this filter sounds _amazing_! It's a 24dB voltage-controlled lowpass filter, so the frequency drops off much more steeply than filters you commonly see in pedals. The cutoff frequency can be controlled with either a knob or a control voltage input (more on that later). The resonance control is currently uncompensated, so it will cut low frequencies and volume as you turn it up. I've seen a few ways of improving that, but haven't had a chance to try them yet. Note the schematics shows both through-hole & SMD symbols, but you only need choose one.





The transistors & capacitors for the ladder portion of the circuit must be tightly matched in order to sound right, so I hand-tested 50 transistors and picked out the best pairs. It's super time consuming, and you can't touch the transistors with your fingers as the temperature will wreak havoc on your measurements. If I do a PCB, I'll probably go with SMD matched transistor pairs.

The Kassutronics version of the ladder filter has a neat little circuit block on the CV input, called an "attenuverter" - an inverting attenuator. It takes a control voltage (0-5V DC) and lets you to control both the amount of CV & the polarity with just one knob. This means that an envelope can switch from opening or closing the filter with just the flick of a knob. I'm surprised we don't see this on many pedals as it's one of the best bang-for-your-buck building blocks I've seen, with only 4 components:



It receives control voltage from a pretty simple envelope follower I built, with adjustable attack & release time controls. Both the filter & the envelope follower receive signal from a super high gain Hi-Z input stage, which boosts the guitar signal from ~70mV RMS up to ~5V RMS. Synth signal levels can be up to 10Vpeak, so the preamp helps overdrive the ladder filter.

*Which brings me to my favorite thing about this filter:* that grimy, disgusting saturation. It's like velcro & silk had a bastard child and named him Bob Moog. It's quite a bit different from any overdriven filter I've played with, and the characteristic sound interacts with both the cutoff & resonance controls. Differential amplifiers tend to have really soft clipping characteristics, and this is like a diff amp skyscraper, so I imagine that's part of the magic. I wish there weren't so many finicky components in this circuit, as it's just a treat to play with.

Here are some audio clips:

Clean to overdriven filter, no envelope
Envelope opening filter - Attenuverter set positive (~3:00)
Envelope closing filter - Attenuverter set negative (~10:00)
I do have some problems with my single opamp input stage, which has this weird low to mid frequency clipping. So let me know what I've messed up:




It's based on the AI Synthesis AI006 Stomp Box Adapter, but I increased the gain and left off the 10pF input cap, so maybe that's part of the problem.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Sep 14, 2021)

Wow!  Cool.  I remember studying that filter years ago.

Transistor diff amps are easily overdriven.  Anything over 60mV at the input to your filter will start distorting.  Bottom line: you have way too much gain in the opamp input stage.  Try increasing R9.  Or remove R9 & C10, making the input stage a unity gain follower.  There are also tricks you can use to "pre-distort" the signal going in.  The LM13700 has that option built-in.  In fact, you can mimic the freq response of this circuit with cascaded LM13700s.  The advantage with the LM13700 is the transistors inside are matched.


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## bowanderror (Sep 14, 2021)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> Wow!  Cool.  I remember studying that filter years ago.
> 
> Transistor diff amps are easily overdriven.  Anything over 60mV at the input to your filter will start distorting.  Bottom line: you have way too much gain in the opamp input stage.  Try increasing R9.  Or remove R9 & C10, making the input stage a unity gain follower.  There are also tricks you can use to "pre-distort" the signal going in.  The LM13700 has that option built-in.  In fact, you can mimic the freq response of this circuit with cascaded LM13700s.  The advantage with the LM13700 is the transistors inside are matched.


Where did you study it, if you don't mind me asking? It's such a cool circuit, and I'm glad they've documented the history of it as it seems to have influenced a lot of other designs.

Yeah I was surprised at how easily you could overdrive a standard diff amp, and how quickly it goes from "nice and saturated" to absolutely destroyed. Definitely a difficult circuit element to use for overdrive without careful level control & a bunch of feedback - which seems to make the overdrive less pleasant. On the other hand, the ladder filter seems to have a lot more room between clean & absolutely trashed.

The clipping I'm getting is present in the output of the opamp gain stage whether it's hooked up to the filter section or not, but in order to get a good range of overdrive on the input pot, I seem to need that big increase in signal level. The power rails are +-12V, so I'm not hitting the rails, but am I running out of bandwidth on a single gain stage? I was thinking of splitting it in to 2 cascading gain stages, is there a "best way" to set up the gain in sequential stages like that?

I guess the other option is to reduce the series resistor on the output of the Input pot (R5/10k on my schem), but I've experienced how finely balanced the circuit is while breadboarding it, so I'm reluctant to mess with anything that close to the ladder itself.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Sep 14, 2021)

You're not running out of bandwidth.  The full-power bandwidth of a TL07x opamp is over 100KHz.  A TL07x will get within about 1.5V of either rail and saturate.  That means if you have ±12V power, you should be able to get over 20Vp-p out of IC1A.  If you're not getting that much, then there is something wrong with how it's built.

Now why would you need anything near 20Vp-p to drive the ladder filter?


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## bowanderror (Sep 14, 2021)

Well that's good to know! Between 10 & 20Vp-p is the signal level for the Eurorack standard, which is what the Kassutronics Ladder Filter is designed around. I sim'd the original Eurorack layout with that 20Vp-p signal and and got ~400mVp-p (Input pot @ 50%) and ~900mVp-p (Input @ 99%) at the input to the ladder.

I'm definitely looking to drive the filter into OD territory, so I'd like to drive the filter beyond it's linear input range. I'm now realizing I'm going about that in a backwards way by boosting the signal only to attenuate it again. It looks like I could reduce that 10k resistor (R5) to between 1k & 4.7k and lower the gain of the input stage accordingly.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Sep 14, 2021)

I would definitely reduce R5 if you want to overdrive the diff stage harder.  Because the filter has a low input impedance, you're basically driving it with current.  You'll blow the transistors before you ever get 20Vp-p at the L input.

You may be in uncharted waters here.  Do you know of anyone else deliberately overdriving the ladder filter?


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## bowanderror (Sep 14, 2021)

Sounds good, I'll give it a try on the BB.

I've seen a lot of synthesizers & modules that have options for overdriving a ladder filter, but not so much in pedals. I just recently found a schematic for the Moogerfooger MF-101 Lowpass Filter, which is a ladder filter pedal with a drive control, but the ladder itself is quite different. The ladder itself seems to run on +-5V supply and uses CA3086 transistor arrays, which I'm not super familiar with. It does seem to use a gain stage to drive the ladder, but I'm not sure if it's an apples to apples comparison in terms of signal level.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Sep 14, 2021)

The advantage of a transistor array is they are all matched and run at the same temperature.

The way they're implementing the DRIVE control makes good sense.  Is that Audio IN jack intended for guitar level signals or line level signals?


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## Coda (Sep 14, 2021)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> You may be in uncharted waters here.  Do you know of anyone else deliberately overdriving the ladder filter?


As long as he doesn’t cross the streams…


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## bowanderror (Sep 14, 2021)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> The advantage of a transistor array is they are all matched and run at the same temperature.
> 
> The way they're implementing the DRIVE control makes good sense.  Is that Audio IN jack intended for guitar level signals or line level signals?


Yeah I've seen those arrays in quite a few transistor ladder schematic, I'd give them a go if I could find a reasonably priced equivalent. I'm leaning more towards the BCM847 NPN matched pairs as they're cheap (~$0.50ea) & easy to drop in to other differential pairs like VCAs & oscillators. Most of the stuff I've read on ladder filter circuits points to the top & bottom pairs as being the most critical to match closely, but I haven't seen much on how matching between pairs effects the sound.

The MF-101 manual says you can use either instrument or line level sources, adjusting the Drive control accordingly. Running on +-5V, the headroom on the ladder is probably quite a bit lower on the MF-101, but I may give that Drive control a go in LTSpice and see if I can get it scaled up for my circuit.

Btw, those changes you suggested worked a treat! I decreased R5 from 10k to 1k and dropped the opamp gain by about half. I've left a trimmer in there until I can find the ideal values, but the weird clipping is gone & the Input control can go from clean to saturated without any harsh artifacts. The overdrive is also much smoother, especially when the cutoff frequency is sweeping at high resonance settings. Thanks for the advice, Chuck!


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## bowanderror (Sep 14, 2021)

I'm also noticing the MF-101 uses 3x1k resistor arrays, I wonder how much difference that makes?


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## Paradox916 (Sep 15, 2021)

Maybe I’ll come back later I’m still having trouble with this



I can’t seem to figure out how to pick off the guitar signal with out grounding it out, or turning into some crude noise gate or clipping circuit... lol... back to the drawing board I guess...lol


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## Chuck D. Bones (Sep 15, 2021)

I don't like that circuit.


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## Paradox916 (Sep 15, 2021)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> I don't like that circuit.


I’m with you it’s not working out like I was wanting it to.


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## BuddytheReow (Sep 16, 2021)

Here are my 2 LPB-1 based circuits. An overdrive (LPB OD) and a fuzz (L-BMP-1 Fuzz). I’d like to think they’re original, but I’m sure someone else has built them. Schematics can be found in the LPB-1 tutorial thread. Edit: Link found here.


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## music6000 (Sep 16, 2021)

fig said:


> @caiofilipini ,
> 
> I saw a nice spread of bread on another thread.
> A lot of hard work, and maybe frustrations,
> ...


Is breadboarditis even a word, if not *fig *should get it registered!!!


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## Chuck D. Bones (Sep 16, 2021)

BuddytheReow said:


> Here are my 2 LPB-1 based circuits. An overdrive (LPB OD) and a fuzz (L-BMP-1 Fuzz). I’d like to think they’re original, but I’m sure someone else has built them. Schematics can be found in the LPB-1 tutorial thread.


What?  No link.  I am sooooo lazy.


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## BuddytheReow (Sep 17, 2021)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> What?  No link.  I am sooooo lazy.


Haha. I added the link above.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Sep 17, 2021)

Thanks, Sandy.  I did end up finding the LPB mods among your plethora of instructional posts.  You've done a lotta great work there!  Hard clippers on a single transistor stage?  Check Lovepedal COT50 and Electra Boost for similar examples.


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## fig (Sep 23, 2021)

It happens _every _time I assume I have enough of something....😖






TC1044S added after pic taken.


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## BuddytheReow (Sep 24, 2021)

Here's an originally designed circuit so profound and so simple that may stand the test of time. I call it the *Fuzz Face*!!!

Ok. Not original, but I wanted to see what all the fuss was about with this one. It's an NPN version and I used BC109Bs. When I fired it off it sounded, well....kinda cool, I guess. With my guitar volume maxed out this got very glitchy and 8-bit sounding which was fun to play with and had to dial guitar volume back to 1 or 2.

Then it dawned on me...

I have a tuner right before my test box that has buffered bypass!! Now it makes sense to me. Fuzz Faces don't respond well to buffers and now I know why. Plugging directly into the test box and bypassing my tuner opened up a new world on the sound of this. It's warm, creamy, and definitely Hendrix sounding so naturally I popped off a couple Jimi tunes through this.

A nice, simple, and relatively quick build


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## Chuck D. Bones (Sep 24, 2021)

Isn't great when you can feel stupid & smart at the same time?  I know I like it!

One of the magic things about a FuzzFace is how it interacts with the guitar.  Sometimes it's the good kind of magic and sometimes it's the other kind.  When we find ourselves disgruntled with how the FF interacts with the pedal (or active pickups) driving it, just connect a resistor (or pot) in series with the input cap. Some FF derivatives already have a pot there.

A question for the group: I've been disgruntled many time, but I've never been gruntled.  How about you?


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## fig (Sep 24, 2021)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> Isn't great when you can feel stupid & smart at the same time? I know I like it!


You been smokin' Small Bear again?


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## Mcknib (Sep 24, 2021)

fig said:


> It happens _every _time I assume I have enough of something....😖


Sorted


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## fig (Sep 24, 2021)

There goes my coffee again, ya right bastard!


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## Chuck D. Bones (Sep 24, 2021)

fig said:


> You been smokin' Small Bear again?


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## JamieJ (Sep 25, 2021)

@Chuck D. Bones - I have been underwhelmed several times but never whelmed.


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## fig (Sep 25, 2021)

After reading that, I've become disillusioned. I was perfectly illusioned prior to that!


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## fig (Oct 8, 2021)

Sneak Peek!






You might notice the somewhat unconventional use of a power rail.


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## Coda (Oct 8, 2021)

fig said:


> Sneak Peek!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


So, it’s a Fuzz Face?…


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## fig (Oct 8, 2021)

Coda said:


> So, it’s a Fuzz Face?…


You betcha!


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## Feral Feline (Oct 9, 2021)

JamieJ said:


> @Chuck D. Bones - I have been underwhelmed several times but never whelmed.


I'm usually overwhelmed...


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## Paradox916 (Oct 9, 2021)

fig said:


> Sneak Peek!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Induction indecisiveness? That looks a little crazy... I like it! .... oh and nice sticker you got there.😁


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## fig (Oct 9, 2021)

Paradox916 said:


> Induction indecisiveness? That looks a little crazy... I like it! .... oh and nice sticker you got there.😁


You like my sticker? I do too! I also love my T-shirt! 

I loved your rendition of the Breadboard Islands so much, I had to pay tribute!


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## blackhatboojum (Nov 17, 2021)

I just started messing around with a breadboard last weekend.  This is my first successful circuit.  Runoffgroove’s Ruby amp.  I was really impressed with how it sounded.  So much so, that I’m gonna build this on some veroboard, put it in a proper enclosure, and use it as my workbench amp.


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## flemming (Nov 17, 2021)

blackhatboojum said:


> This is my first successful circuit.  Runoffgroove’s Ruby amp.  I was really impressed with how it sounded.]



Any easy thing to try while you still have that on a breadboard is to swap out the input section with the ROG Fetzer Valve.



			A closer look at the Fetzer Valve
		


You then end to with the Fetzer-Ruby, which you can Google plenty of examples of. The Noisy Cricket is another easy amp to breadboard. Good luck


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## BuddytheReow (Feb 7, 2022)

Here's a switchable Double Bazz Fuss with a Baxandall tone stack. I used 4148 diode in the first stage and a 1n4001 in the second stage. Input cap at 22n and the others are 100n. Was playing around with it this afternoon and I kinda like it. The switch is on the very left side of the pic. The first stage has some hiss that I need to get rid of, but this goes away when it goes into the 2nd stage.


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## BuddytheReow (Feb 8, 2022)

PedalPCB Panspermia Fuzz. Similar to the Seppuku Space Fuzz. Stock values here. Was a bit hesitant to add a tone stack to it. Also here's a sound clip. I only have my phone so sorry for the shoddy camera work. Yes, that's a Cry Baby my phone is sitting on.

Decent sounds, but VERY sensitive to your guitar's volume. You'll have to dial it back a lot like I did. Or not. It is definitely a gated fuzz, meaning the transistors don't really work until some signal goes through them (double edged sword here).


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## fig (Feb 8, 2022)

That's gnarly!


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## BuddytheReow (Feb 8, 2022)

fig said:


> That's gnarly!


It is, but I feel like it's a one trick pony. Does a cool trick though...


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## fig (Feb 8, 2022)

BuddytheReow said:


> It is, but I feel like it's a one trick pony. Does a cool trick though...


When you're breadboarding-building dozens, nay hundreds of circuits anyway, may as well have a whole stable of those ponies.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Feb 8, 2022)

Gnarly indeed.
Almost plays itself.  Thanks for the Demo!


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## giovanni (Feb 8, 2022)

I am feeling so many feelings right now after going through this thread: inspiration to start breadboarding for reals (so far I have only done it to work with microcontrollers), shame for having wasted the last 40 years without breadboarding, desire to smoke whatever that bear was smoking, and so many more...


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## giovanni (Feb 8, 2022)

bowanderror said:


> Gotta make use of all that reappropriated office equipment somehow!
> 
> I posted a schematic in my thread over on FSB on the Level-Loc. My finished builds also use some PCB faceplates that I'm pretty happy with:
> 
> ...


That's a cool faceplate, how did you make it?


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## BuddytheReow (Feb 8, 2022)

blackhatboojum said:


> View attachment 18712View attachment 18711
> I just started messing around with a breadboard last weekend.  This is my first successful circuit.  Runoffgroove’s Ruby amp.  I was really impressed with how it sounded.  So much so, that I’m gonna build this on some veroboard, put it in a proper enclosure, and use it as my workbench amp.


Did you ever get this boxed up?


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## blackhatboojum (Feb 9, 2022)

BuddytheReow said:


> Did you ever get this boxed up?







Yes I did.  This was also my first attempt at building a circuit on veroboard as well.  Not surprisingly, my wiring is a mess but, surprisingly it worked first go around.  Rather than buying a speaker and building a little cab for the Ruby.  I elected to just add a speaker jack to my Blackstar fly extension cab and run my the amp into that.  It worked out rather well and sounds pretty damn good.


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## bowanderror (Feb 11, 2022)

giovanni said:


> That's a cool faceplate, how did you make it?


It's a PCB, designed in Inkscape and exported to Kicad via SVG2SHENZHEN


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## BuddytheReow (Feb 13, 2022)

Here’s a Red Llama into a Marshall tone stack/recovery stage. Upped the feedback resistor to 2.2m. Not bad considering the parts count


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## fig (Feb 13, 2022)

bowanderror said:


> It's a PCB, designed in Inkscape and exported to Kicad via SVG2SHENZHEN


Gesundheit


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