# Gauss Drive



## HamishR (Mar 10, 2020)

Just built this - as usual it worked first time no hassle - great board! Soundwise I really like it. It definitely has that TS compression which I'm not a massive fan of but if I lower the gain to around 9.00 or less it still has bite with less compression.

So I looked at the schematic - wow, it's not really very different from an Xotic BB, is it??  But it does sound good.  I used to use a BB a lot and while it's been a while since I played one I suspect I might prefer the Gauss Drive. I used a pair of 1N4148s with a pair of 1N4001s for clipping and that might help with the slightly lower compression over the BB.  Compared with my faves it has more midrange but that's not so bad. It sounds more like a pedal than the 45 Caliber or Majestic I usually use but I think it's worth persevering with and experimenting with other guitars.

Best of all I can use it without the stigma of using a Mesa pedal.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Mar 12, 2020)

They are damned near identical.  Interesting how they hard-wire the TS-style Tone control.  That, and the clipping diodes are the only notable differences between the two.

You gonna post some pix?


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## HamishR (Mar 12, 2020)

Oh ok!  It looks like every other pedal I build though.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Mar 12, 2020)

Just checkin' onya.    Making sure you maintain your high quality standards.

Is that a Tayda Box?  Nice that they didn't coat the entire inside with paint.


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## HamishR (Mar 12, 2020)

No this is a Hammond from Mouser.  Lots of colours available.  The Tayda boxes have more colour on the inside a lot of the time.

Now that Tayda are doing the texture black I'll probably get them there. The Hammonds are way more $$ but they are nicer to drill!  Both are made in Taiwan but I doubt at the same factory because the alloys appear to be different. When I drill the Tayda boxes they gall my drill bits more easily.


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## Barry (Mar 12, 2020)

The Tayda boxes are also painted after drilling if you order the pre-drilled, so you'll want to take a rat tail to the jack holes


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## Barry (Mar 12, 2020)

HamishR said:


> Oh ok!  It looks like every other pedal I build though.
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 3433View attachment 3432


Pedal Porn, it's what we live for!


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## HamishR (Mar 12, 2020)

I prefer to drill my own.  I'm sure there's a joke in there but I can't quite get there right now!


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## chongmagic (Mar 13, 2020)

HamishR said:


> No this is a Hammond from Mouser.  Lots of colours available.  The Tayda boxes have more colour on the inside a lot of the time.
> 
> Now that Tayda are doing the texture black I'll probably get them there. The Hammonds are way more $$ but they are nicer to drill!  Both are made in Taiwan but I doubt at the same factory because the alloys appear to be different. When I drill the Tayda boxes they gall my drill bits more easily.




I didn't know that Mouser had different colors.


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## HamishR (Mar 13, 2020)

Oh yeah - you can get Hammonds in texture black, blue, purple, green, white...


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## HamishR (Mar 13, 2020)

Played this some more tonight. Side by side with my faves it's pretty good. I'd like the kind of low end that the Rockett pedals have - lots of punch but never so low that they interfere with the bass player. The lows in this pedal go lower but they're not as punchy. So I'd like more lows but not bass player lows.    And I'd prefer slightly less compression. I quite like the extra mids for some occasions. I think it might be worth buying another board to build with a few mods.


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## HousTom (Jul 6, 2021)

Just built this.  Easy build, nice layout.  Pretty compressed drive sound -- a little mid-honky.  Surely better for a Heavy Music player which I ain't.  Very similar in sound to the Oxide (Mostortion) but the Oxide "opens up" more at low gain, has a better EQ and stacks better with other pedals.  The Gauss certainly won't be kicking my Mach 1 off the pedalboard but it is definitely another example of a quality PPCB project.  Thanks.


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## Feral Feline (Jul 6, 2021)

Apart from the Orange, I find the Hammond colours to be ... pedestrian.


I love Hammond enclosures, though.


EDIT: ahh I see it's an old thread revived.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jul 6, 2021)

HamishR said:


> Played this some more tonight. Side by side with my faves it's pretty good. I'd like the kind of low end that the Rockett pedals have - lots of punch but never so low that they interfere with the bass player. The lows in this pedal go lower but they're not as punchy. So I'd like more lows but not bass player lows.    And I'd prefer slightly less compression. I quite like the extra mids for some occasions. I think it might be worth buying another board to build with a few mods.


Less compression: replace D2 & D3 with resistors.
More bottom-end: increase C4 and R5.
Less noise: replace 4558 with TL072.
This is a TS with the TONE control stuck at 4:00 and Baxandall B & T after that.
Plenty of opportunities for retuning the tone shaping around IC1.2 and adjusting the BASS & TREBLE sweep.


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## HousTom (Jul 15, 2021)

Thank you Chuck.  Your point is well taken (even though I'm not certain it's one you were trying to make).  If a pedal I've just built "doesn't float my boat" then instead of whining about it I should grow a pair, analyze the circuit and mod appropriately.  I sometimes forget that entire aspect of this hobby!  Usually -- and I bet a lot of guys are like this -- once I box a build, I tend to think of it as DONE.  And either I like it or I don't.  But that's the wrong attitude.  The circuit is neither sacred nor carved in stone.  Thanks for reminding me that modding and tweaking is a thing.  I think from now on I'm at least going to always socket any clipping diodes so I can experiment and tweak-to-taste.


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## HamishR (Jul 15, 2021)

I ended up modifying a BB following Chuck's advice - after all, the Gauss is a copy of a BB so I thought I'd begin at the beginning. And it worked out great. Chuck is a guru.


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

I usually breadboard a pedal circuit to see if
a) It sounds like something I want
b) It can be tweaked to sound more like something I want

Occasionally, I'll buy a board and then breadboard it.  A couple of times I have decided I didn't want to build the PC board because the breadboard didn't work for me and no amount of tweaking was gonna get it there.


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## music6000 (Jul 15, 2021)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> I usually breadboard a pedal circuit to see if
> a) It sounds like something I want
> b) It can be tweaked to sound more like something I want
> 
> Occasionally, I'll buy a board and then breadboard it.  A couple of times I have decided I didn't want to build the PC board because the breadboard didn't work for me and no amount of tweaking was gonna get it there.


Darn!, I had this dialed in where it needed to be but now I can't get the Lid on !!!   :


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## HamishR (Jul 15, 2021)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> I usually breadboard a pedal circuit to see if
> a) It sounds like something I want
> b) It can be tweaked to sound more like something I want
> 
> Occasionally, I'll buy a board and then breadboard it.  A couple of times I have decided I didn't want to build the PC board because the breadboard didn't work for me and no amount of tweaking was gonna get it there.


Well yeah I would do that that too - if I knew how to work my breadboard!


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## music6000 (Jul 15, 2021)

This is what I use!   :


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## HousTom (Aug 26, 2021)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> I usually breadboard a pedal circuit to see if
> a) It sounds like something I want
> b) It can be tweaked to sound more like something I want
> 
> Occasionally, I'll buy a board and then breadboard it.  A couple of times I have decided I didn't want to build the PC board because the breadboard didn't work for me and no amount of tweaking was gonna get it there.



I fully took this idea and ran.  Built myself a really nice little breadboard/proto rig and it is _SO USEFUL_.  In fact I'm so proud of it I'm gonna start a separate thread about breadboard setups and post a photo.


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## HousTom (Aug 26, 2021)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> Less compression: replace D2 & D3 with resistors.
> ...



So rookie me figured "I'm sure ChuckD just meant replace D2 & D3 with jumpers.  Four diodes (2 series pairs in back-to-back) equals lots of clipping so TWO diodes (back-to-back) should equal less clipping/more headroom, right?" WRONG.  I now understand that a pair of diodes in series has twice the Vf as one alone, so simply shorting D2 & D3 actually lowered my clipping threshold making the pedal sounds even grittier. And I think I now grasp that having a small resistor in series with a clipping diode can "soften" the clipping.  I'm playing with this in an MDMA (Euphoria) right now as well.

Only thing is I'm unclear on the value for said resistors.  Are we talking like 500R?

Thanks


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## Danbieranowski (Aug 26, 2021)

HousTom said:


> So rookie me figured "I'm sure ChuckD just meant replace D2 & D3 with jumpers.  Four diodes (2 series pairs in back-to-back) equals lots of clipping so TWO diodes (back-to-back) should equal less clipping/more headroom, right?" WRONG.  I now understand that a pair of diodes in series has twice the Vf as one alone, so simply shorting D2 & D3 actually lowered my clipping threshold making the pedal sounds even grittier. And I think I now grasp that having a small resistor in series with a clipping diode can "soften" the clipping.  I'm playing with this in an MDMA (Euphoria) right now as well.
> 
> Only thing is I'm unclear on the value for said resistors.  Are we talking like 500R?
> 
> Thanks


You may also want to consider throwing a switch in there and switching to LED clipping to give even more room to breathe (depending on your clipping diodes of choice).


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## Chuck D. Bones (Aug 26, 2021)

HousTom said:


> Only thing is I'm unclear on the value for said resistors.  Are we talking like 500R?
> 
> Thanks


Given the values of R7 and the GAIN pot, I'd say somewhere between 1K and 10K is a good place to start.  You could also try a trimpot.  Remove D2 & D3, jumper D2-K to D3-A and connect the trimpot from D3-A to D3-K.  Dan's LED suggestion is also a good one.


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