Seymour Duncan - Pickup Booster  [schematic]

All about modern commercial stompbox circuits from Electro Harmonix over MXR, Boss and Ibanez into the nineties.
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royzic
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Post by royzic »

Hi Forum

It's been a while since my last contribution,
here is a layout I've made for the Seymour Duncan pickup booster.
after playing and building lots of boosters i always thought this one is not worth the trouble,but lately I've had one for repair and i really liked it.sounds great,no white noise or cracking,not distorted,just plain boost.

this is a verified layout based on the schematics posted here-

Image

Image

Cheers
-Roy

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SPeter
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Post by SPeter »

HI ALL! GOT ONE FOR REPAIR. HERE ARE MORE DETAILED PICTURES FOR THOSE INTERESTED!
ENJOY!
:D
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SPeter
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Post by SPeter »

AND THE SWITCH!
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okgb
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Post by okgb »

For one i'm having a harder time seeing and handling things that small BUT
If you take the idea that some things are designed down to limits and
other operate well within theirs , there does seem to be a difference
the tube circuit that take 10v on the input or has a freq response to 50k
A 1/4" pipe at full capacity or a 1/2" with room to spare ?

Certainly in mic preamps the discrete circuits sound better than a
thunb sized all in one I.C.
but then again some people prefer mp3's

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okgb
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Post by okgb »

Ah just saw the pix now , nice work

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Redhouse
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Post by Redhouse »

Greg_G wrote:
Dirk_Hendrik wrote:
Gila_Crisis wrote:
Dirk_Hendrik wrote:
Gila_Crisis wrote:it's orrible with all those smd components.....
Why?
in my mind smd is not the top for building fx's
:D
Again,
why?
The reason Dirk_Hendrik is asking:
It seems a lot of people have an aversion to smd.. but no-one has a rational explanation of why... (not that I've seen or heard anyway)...
In general i think the components are equivalent to through hole.
You're going to see more and more of it as time goes by.
Simply ergonomics, ...the shits too small... there it's been said!.

Now me and my old tired eyes will go back to my bench and get to soldering parts I don't have to pick up with tweezers.

There is also something to be said for resistor size, I read an old white paper (National Semiconductor?) once that defines noise in resistors, it pointed out that smaller resistors (1/8w) were more noisy than the same value in a larger physical size (1/2w) because of the density of the material.
(that's all I remember, please don't ask or argue it's validity)

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KindlyKiller
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Post by KindlyKiller »

Sorry for zombie thread and dumb question:

Would someone please recommend for me a particular NPN transistor for this (I won't do the bypass LED so I don't need that one).

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ppluis0
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Post by ppluis0 »

KindlyKiller wrote:Sorry for zombie thread and dumb question:

Would someone please recommend for me a particular NPN transistor for this (I won't do the bypass LED so I don't need that one).
If I read correctly, the npn smd transistors are marked "AJs", which mean that are BCX70J and can be replaced by BC107 as near equivalent.

The pnp can be a BC177, but any low noise types can be used succesfully I think.

Hope that helps you, and good luck 8)

Cheers,
jose

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josepqr
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Post by josepqr »

hello,

It really nobody can provide the values ​​of Q! , Q2, Q3 and Q4??

I'm stuck in the montage ...

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Post by okgb »

There is a " new " version II out, schematic below
Last edited by okgb on 20 Jul 2020, 14:29, edited 1 time in total.

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marshmellow
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Post by marshmellow »

Switching omitted.
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jy3
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Post by jy3 »

I've got one of these that will only work on the power supply, but not the battery. Can anyone help me figure this out?

Thanks!

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Sm4sh
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Post by Sm4sh »

Hello guys! First timer posting here! :thumbsup
Since I'm reading more and more of FSB forum, I'm decided to stop the vero and start making some "pro eagle boards". :horsey:
I've just made my first board from the Pickup Booster (I figured I should start with a not too complicated circuit) and I was wondering if some of you, more experienced in PCB could give a hand.
I ran the DRC with the .dru provided from OSH Park and I have no errors.

Can someone please take a look on the board, to see if I made any n00b mistakes? :P

Thank you very much guys!
Attachments
PUP Booster.zip
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Sm4sh
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Posts: 13
Joined: 07 May 2015, 09:03
my favorite amplifier: At the moment my THR10
Completed builds: Booster: AC/RC Boost, Echoplex, EP Booster,
OD: Euphoria, Plexi Drive, KOT, Super OCD, Angry Charlie, BB Preamp, Klon, 808, , Morning Glory, 808, Lighspeed, Timmy, Eleven OD, OD820, Palisades,
Distortion: RAT, Red Llama, El Rey Dorado, Purple Plexi, Grey Channel
Fuzz: Velvet Fuzz, Sunface Ge and Si, Fuzz Face, Soul Bender, Pharao Fuzz, Dirt Transmitter, Fuzz Factory, Big Muff Triangle, Fallout Cloud
Delay: Deep Blue Delay, Disaster Transport Jr
Tremolo: Magnalous Lunevibe,
Compressor: Bearhug
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Post by Sm4sh »

I've just notice I have no GND hole to hook a wire up. I guess I could just hook up to a pot leg but to make it clean I've added a ground port.

Anything else?

Anyone? [smilie=a_whyme.gif]

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Sm4sh
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Posts: 13
Joined: 07 May 2015, 09:03
my favorite amplifier: At the moment my THR10
Completed builds: Booster: AC/RC Boost, Echoplex, EP Booster,
OD: Euphoria, Plexi Drive, KOT, Super OCD, Angry Charlie, BB Preamp, Klon, 808, , Morning Glory, 808, Lighspeed, Timmy, Eleven OD, OD820, Palisades,
Distortion: RAT, Red Llama, El Rey Dorado, Purple Plexi, Grey Channel
Fuzz: Velvet Fuzz, Sunface Ge and Si, Fuzz Face, Soul Bender, Pharao Fuzz, Dirt Transmitter, Fuzz Factory, Big Muff Triangle, Fallout Cloud
Delay: Deep Blue Delay, Disaster Transport Jr
Tremolo: Magnalous Lunevibe,
Compressor: Bearhug
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Post by Sm4sh »

Hello all,

Just so you know I recently populate the PCB and... it doesn't work... no sound.
Well, I guess I have the benchmark it again... :(

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Sm4sh
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my favorite amplifier: At the moment my THR10
Completed builds: Booster: AC/RC Boost, Echoplex, EP Booster,
OD: Euphoria, Plexi Drive, KOT, Super OCD, Angry Charlie, BB Preamp, Klon, 808, , Morning Glory, 808, Lighspeed, Timmy, Eleven OD, OD820, Palisades,
Distortion: RAT, Red Llama, El Rey Dorado, Purple Plexi, Grey Channel
Fuzz: Velvet Fuzz, Sunface Ge and Si, Fuzz Face, Soul Bender, Pharao Fuzz, Dirt Transmitter, Fuzz Factory, Big Muff Triangle, Fallout Cloud
Delay: Deep Blue Delay, Disaster Transport Jr
Tremolo: Magnalous Lunevibe,
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Post by Sm4sh »

Sm4sh wrote: I have TO benchmark it again... :(

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patafix
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Post by patafix »

Since the topology of its circuit is basically a discrete opamp, has someone tried to build it using an IC ???
Patafix... so sticky

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Sm4sh
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Posts: 13
Joined: 07 May 2015, 09:03
my favorite amplifier: At the moment my THR10
Completed builds: Booster: AC/RC Boost, Echoplex, EP Booster,
OD: Euphoria, Plexi Drive, KOT, Super OCD, Angry Charlie, BB Preamp, Klon, 808, , Morning Glory, 808, Lighspeed, Timmy, Eleven OD, OD820, Palisades,
Distortion: RAT, Red Llama, El Rey Dorado, Purple Plexi, Grey Channel
Fuzz: Velvet Fuzz, Sunface Ge and Si, Fuzz Face, Soul Bender, Pharao Fuzz, Dirt Transmitter, Fuzz Factory, Big Muff Triangle, Fallout Cloud
Delay: Deep Blue Delay, Disaster Transport Jr
Tremolo: Magnalous Lunevibe,
Compressor: Bearhug
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Post by Sm4sh »

Hello !

Never knew what was wrong with the previous board so I've tried again. :scratch:
Here it is. Could someone take a look to see if there is anything wrong with this one ?

Thank you !
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PUP Booster V2.zip
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aion
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Post by aion »

Schematic attached for Version 2. This is the update that was released in 2015. Same basic circuit, but the output stage has been changed to Class A push-pull and the gain control has been wired so it can go down to unity (version 1 always had a little bit of gain even at minimum). Very high quality, nice-sounding circuit with low parts count.

Tracing log here - no photos, but some background info:
https://aionelectronics.com/blog/tracin ... p-booster/

PCB available here:
https://aionelectronics.com/project/pho ... ne-driver/
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Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster Schematic - Version 2 (2015)
Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster Schematic - Version 2 (2015)

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