# Chalumeau



## Goose

Hi there, I'm goose from Germany and new here. My question is, is there a possibility to turn off the fuzz in the chalumeau kit?
Greez


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## Chuck D. Bones

Thr distortion comes from overdriving the LM386.  Some people discuss reducing the gain of the LM386 here:  

http://effectslayouts.blogspot.com/2016/02/mid-fi-electronics-clarinot.html


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## Goose

THX. Thats what i was looking 4.


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## Jonathan

I did it by adding a 1pdt switch and attaching it like this to the lm386 leg 1. Just bend leg 1, leave it out of the socket and solder it to wire B and solder wire A into the socket. When leg 1 is switched out of the circuit there's no fuzz.


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## thedwest

Jonathan said:


> I did it by adding a 1pdt switch and attaching it like this to the lm386 leg 1. Just bend leg 1, leave it out of the socket and solder it to wire B and solder wire A into the socket. When leg 1 is switched out of the circuit there's no fuzz.



Just to clarify this, is this a SPDT On-On switch? And the middle pin goes to the bent leg 1 and either of the outer pins gets soldered to the corresponding pad on the pcb?

Your drawing is pretty clear but just wanted to confirm.

Thanks!


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## Jonathan

thedwest said:


> Just to clarify this, is this a SPDT On-On switch? And the middle pin goes to the bent leg 1 and either of the outer pins gets soldered to the corresponding pad on the pcb?
> 
> Your drawing is pretty clear but just wanted to confirm.
> 
> Thanks!



Yeah that's how I did it. You could use pretty much any switch. An spst on-off could be even smaller but I just used the simplest option I had on hand.


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## Jonathan

thedwest said:


> Just to clarify this, is this a SPDT On-On switch? And the middle pin goes to the bent leg 1 and either of the outer pins gets soldered to the corresponding pad on the pcb?
> 
> Your drawing is pretty clear but just wanted to confirm.
> 
> Thanks!



Also another thing I noticed recently while messing around with it is that because it's so volume sensitive, if you put a boost in front you get really pronounced modulation. I'm thinking of adding a little boost into it as well if I can squeeze it in somewhere.


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## thedwest

Jonathan said:


> Yeah that's how I did it. You could use pretty much any switch. An spst on-off could be even smaller but I just used the simplest option I had on hand.


Great, thanks! I'm just starting this build and this a mod I definitely want to include.


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## Chuck D. Bones

If you want more modulation without the distortion, then the LED needs it's own driver, separate from the rest of the signal path.  Something like two LM386's running in parallel, one for the signal to the PT2399 delay and Blend control, another for the LED.  Leave the gain set high for the LED path and variable gain for the delay drive.  It's a little more complicated, but what the Hell!


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## thedwest

Which value LDR should be used in this build?


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## Jonathan

Most people recommend a vactrol vtl5c3, but it's up to your preferences.  I decided to try a few different options, I ordered some fake chinese vactrols for like 3 bucks and also made some of my own.  I ended up going with a 5mm red LED and this LDR from pedalpcb  https://www.pedalpcb.com/product/gl5528/, but I tried all of the LDRs they have here and all had similar results.  I might swap it out for a real vactrol if I get one as part of an order so I'm not paying 5 bucks shipping on a tiny component; or if I find myself using the pedal more often.  

I may get some heavier use out of it soon.  I've been toying around with it more this past week since the LDRs just arrived and I swapped my old one for the Gl5528 and found some really good settings  I found that if you keep the fuzz on and turn the depth and tracking knobs all the way to the highest modulation setting , it actually cancels out the delay and the blend no matter what you have delay and blend set to.  So you get a weird, random wobbly, lo-fi vibrato type effect in almost realtime (it's delayed a few milliseconds)


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## thedwest

Jonathan said:


> Most people recommend a vactrol vtl5c3, but it's up to your preferences.  I decided to try a few different options, I ordered some fake chinese vactrols for like 3 bucks and also made some of my own.  I ended up going with a 5mm red LED and this LDR from pedalpcb  https://www.pedalpcb.com/product/gl5528/, but I tried all of the LDRs they have here and all had similar results.  I might swap it out for a real vactrol if I get one as part of an order so I'm not paying 5 bucks shipping on a tiny component; or if I find myself using the pedal more often.
> 
> I may get some heavier use out of it soon.  I've been toying around with it more this past week since the LDRs just arrived and I swapped my old one for the Gl5528 and found some really good settings  I found that if you keep the fuzz on and turn the depth and tracking knobs all the way to the highest modulation setting , it actually cancels out the delay and the blend no matter what you have delay and blend set to.  So you get a weird, random wobbly, lo-fi vibrato type effect in almost realtime (it's delayed a few milliseconds)


Cool. Thanks for the link! Looking forward to getting this completed and playing around with it.


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## Nostradoomus

The Tayda LDRs seem to work nicely in most builds too.


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## the_grumpy_gnome

Jonathan said:


> I did it by adding a 1pdt switch and attaching it like this to the lm386 leg 1. Just bend leg 1, leave it out of the socket and solder it to wire B and solder wire A into the socket. When leg 1 is switched out of the circuit there's no fuzz.


I love this picture.  It's perfect.


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## Quinn301

I tried a momentary footswitch  for time 3 and tracking 2 and a footswitch for tracking 2 to depth 3..crazy cool sounds..gonna try and add the lfo mod and this fuzz switch all in one box..hopefully


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