Doug Hammond - The Brick (Percolator based)

Stompboxes circuits published in magazines, books or on DIY electronics websites.
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jakerandall
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Post by jakerandall »

as an albini fan, I must build one of these. All the info on the internet disputes any factual schematics. If I can build even a very similiar sounding circuit that would be cool. ideas anyone?

I did try the harmonic jerk and it was weird. similiar but way off. so that was a no go.

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snail
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Post by snail »

try doug h's brick, really cool stuff.
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DougH
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Post by DougH »

Oh shit...

Now I gotta go look that one up...

:lol:

FWIW, I don't think mine is an 'exact' clone or anything. Not because of what the Chuck cloner guy said, but because of new info that came to light in a diystompbox thread last spring. I used some 'NOS' hard-to-find diodes that gave it higher output with still the Ge sound. Also, I think coupling and other cap values in mine are different, although I tried some of the 'official' values but still preferred mine.

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tonator
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Post by tonator »

jakerandall wrote:as an albini fan, I must build one of these. All the info on the internet disputes any factual schematics. If I can build even a very similiar sounding circuit that would be cool. ideas anyone?

I did try the harmonic jerk and it was weird. similiar but way off. so that was a no go.
If You try the jerkulator You oughta put the clipping diodes back in, plus the resistor in series with one of them. Comes closer.
I dunno, maybe it takes some extensive breadboarding plus the right trannies to nail it...

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jakerandall
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Post by jakerandall »

dougs brick? I actually dont want to build an exact clone just a tonally sounding clone. Exact clones are nearly impossible with available components.

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Post by snail »

DougH wrote:Oh shit...

Now I gotta go look that one up...

:lol:

FWIW, I don't think mine is an 'exact' clone or anything. Not because of what the Chuck cloner guy said, but because of new info that came to light in a diystompbox thread last spring. I used some 'NOS' hard-to-find diodes that gave it higher output with still the Ge sound. Also, I think coupling and other cap values in mine are different, although I tried some of the 'official' values but still preferred mine.
no ofense intended man, I know you do better than cloning. It resembles the HP in it's structure (for what I gather the HP actualy is), but easyer to make it sound good, IMO.
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RLBJR65
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Post by RLBJR65 »

The Brick was first called the Harmonic Speculator right?

Here is a vero layout.
http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/v/Ric ... ewsIndex=1

MarkM's PCB layout http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/v/Mar ... T.gif.html
Transfer http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/v/Mar ... R.gif.html

Here is the schematic resulting from the thread at DIY Doug was refering to.
http://www.geocities.com/george_giblet/ ... rev1_1.png
PCB layout for that schem.
http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/v/Ric ... r.gif.html

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DougH
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Post by DougH »

no ofense intended man, I know you do better than cloning. It resembles the HP in it's structure (for what I gather the HP actualy is), but easyer to make it sound good, IMO.
snail
No problem. :D In this case I was actually seeing how close to the "real deal" I could get. The Brick grew out of a game of "hide & seek" I was playing with Chuck Collins on Aron's forum a few years ago. He builds HP clones to sell. I quickly learned I would never get to the "real thing", in his view anyway, but I ended up with something I think I like better. He insisted the diode type was important, and they were rare hard to find unobtanium. So I found some rare hard to find Ge diodes with higher than normal threshold voltage that gave me a hotter output than the HP. HP owners I've spoken to have complained about the "near unity-gain" output level, a problem I encountered when breadboarding it with 1n34a's.

Here's the Brick, btw:

http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/v/Dou ... /brick.gif

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Post by sosodef »

hmmm. I agree with the unity issues. I got to play one of the originals that steve might have used. It was a neat sound. I wonder what could be done to increase unity but still have that clean up fuzzy goodness of the original.
Screw the idea of it being 100% in fact it would be ok with me if it was all siclicon and was made with easy to find parts. The sound is the important thing. I was also not a fan of the jerk.

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Post by snail »

Any idea of a good gain recovery stage after the clipping diodes to gas the volume up? I've sufered the low volume too :(
I thought of a big muff stage or a mosfet boost stage, would you recomend it?

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DougH
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Post by DougH »

I wonder what could be done to increase unity but still have that clean up fuzzy goodness of the original.
Use the 1n46 diodes like I did. They have the same sound as a typical Ge diode with a higher threshold voltage. I don't they are made anymore so they might be hard to find. You might also try 2 1n34a's in series in ea antiparallel leg.
Screw the idea of it being 100% in fact it would be ok with me if it was all siclicon and was made with easy to find parts.
I built the Brick with the original transistors. As I mentioned, it was a futile & useless exercise in "cloning". If I was going to try this out, I would play with Tim E.'s "Jerkulator" circuit. It uses common Si 2n3904/06 type BJTs.

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DougH
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Post by DougH »

I have added some clips to my Brick folder:

http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/v/DougH/Brick/

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sosodef
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Post by sosodef »

Nice clips doug. I can't find any trannies or diodes that you used. Bummer

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DougH
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Post by DougH »

Thanks!

I would start with Tim E.'s "Harmonic Jerkulator"- current production Si bjt's and etc, Should sound good and be easy to tweak.

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DougH
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Post by DougH »

Here's a fun one. Albini demos the Harmonic Percolator and a "clone":

http://www.gearwire.com/bp1-albini-comparison.html

Compare this to the "BrickFuzz" and "BrickMayhem" clips for fun.

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sosodef
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Post by sosodef »

wow that barge pedal sounds pretty crappy. The interfax sounds superb. Albini is quite picky and really knows the interfax I was surprise at how involved he got into it.

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DougH
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Post by DougH »

That BC pedal is oscillating horribly. I can't believe they sent that to someone, esp a well-known pro, to try out.

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Kaos
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Post by Kaos »

damn
this bc thing sounds like shit
why would anybody buy this piece of crap?
The camel is a horse designed by a committee that never met.

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axiss
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Post by axiss »

Yeah, I had some time to play with that Barge Concepts and couldn't get a good sound of it... At least for my taste... :roll:

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Post by soulsonic »

You gotta love Albini's deadpan bashing of the clone.
I'm a huge Big Black fan, and I think it's really funny how people in the pretentious indie rock community think he's some kind of guru of tone.... it seems pretty obvious to me he takes sarcastic jabs at those people every chance he gets. I mean - have any of these guys ever listened to a Big Black album? His tone is purposefully terrible - it's a wry mockery of what people consider a good sound.

You can hear him using the Harmonic Percolator do it's harmonic thing for real at the beginning of this song:

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