D*A*M - Sonic Titan ( DAM )  [traced]

General documentation, gut shot, schematic links, ongoing circuit tracing, deep thoughts ... all about boutique stompboxes.
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gilmour_pugliese
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Post by gilmour_pugliese »

I've experimented with various FETs:

-2N5457
-J201
-BF244A
-2N3819

the pedal sounds good with BF244A and 2N3819... This one (2N3819) has a very strange voltage on Source: 3V instead of 1V of other FETs :popcorn:

So, I've used both JRC386D and LM386N, and I prefer the first one... fuller sound!

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Post by kinski »

Cool, i will try some different FETs when I place my next parts order to see if I can get it to behave with batteries. I went with the stock FET and chip (LM386N-1). I tried other 386s...a JRC and another one I can't remember at the moment. None of them helped the decay. I did it at night with a crappy headphone amp. I could not really tell much of a difference with different chips. I'll try again through a real amp and see if the JRC is "fuller" as Gilmour has found. But again, works great with my Voodoolab Pedal Power.

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Post by azrael »

Does anyone else have a problem with DC on their guitar volume pot? I'm wondering if I should add an input cap to my build.

Also, does anyone know what the difference between the standard version and the Sonic Titan Dark is? Is it just shifting C3 (using ShortScaleMike's vero layout parts numbers...)?

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Post by okgb »

No idea what it sounds like but , galled to see someone local trying to get 300.00 for it
the description listed [ must have been lifted ] and an actual gut shot .
[ Mods maybe this post needs to be melded into another titan post ? ]

i'm offering my very Rare hard to get D.A.M. Sonic Titan !!
i got this pedal a few months ago.. shipped New, to me from Joe's pedals in the U.K.
it comes new with the box, bag, sticker etc.

"The Sonic Titan is a little different from your regular overdrive or distortion pedal in the sense that it actually uses its own power amplifier stage to create distortion.
How it works. The Sonic Titan’s first stage is a JFET (Junction Field Effect Transistor) pre-amp. This stage creates tube like clipping by slightly compressing your signal thus creating a superbly focused tone that will offer remarkable string clarity and dynamic overdrive tones. Picking styles become very touch responsive giving the player the ability to go from a fairly clean guitar tone to mild overdrive tones just from the strength of the pick attack alone.

The power amplifier stage in the Sonic Titan does all the muscle work and greatly amplifies the initial pre-amplifier stage. This stage is built around a miniature low voltage power amplifier chip configured to have a high gain output level, but, like with any power amplifier distortion it needs to be pushed hard to create a heavily saturated tone. The on-board Level control along with the Drive control will greatly affects the saturation of the power stage.

The amount of output volume and gain available from this pedal is particularly ample but will vary depending on the choice and type of amplifier you decide to pair with the Sonic Titan. Placed into the front end of high output clean tone amplifier you will be able to achieve a good deal of volume boost from the pedal alone. On the other hand, running the Sonic Titan into an overdriven amplifier you will achieve a greater boost in gain and saturation levels as the Sonic Titan is engaged. The idea here is to achieve big power amplifier style distortion that you can actually use at slightly more reasonable volume levels than pushing a non master tube head it to distortion "
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azrael
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Post by RnFR »

please search first. believe it or not, but it's really not that fun merging topics together.
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Post by monkeyxx »

blanik wrote:sorry i couldn't edit the previous post, after tweaking with this pedal i've discovered that raising the 2N3819s voltage to 7.20V give a lot more clean range while maintaining a lot of distortion when maxxed, i could change the trimpot to a fixed 1k resistor to have the same results, it's a lot more interesting to me now... i'm still tweaking with the tone values so far just lowering the tone pot to a B50k does the job

as far as C3 goes i've put a switch to select between 4n7 and 6n8 and it doesn't make much difference on my bridge pickup but on the neck the 6n8 gets muddy, i think i'll stick to the 4n7...

it's incredible how dynamic this circuit is... i wish i tried it sooner, but i will have to jam with it to know for sure
I didn't have the right JFET so I used a 2N5457 at first with "OK" results but then I put in a J201 and biased to around where you did, in the higher end of 7 Volts, and the sound did seem to improve like you described, cleaner at the lower end but still a lot of gain at max. The sound also seemed to have gotten "softer" or more compressed and slightly darker after this change. lost a bit of punchy boldness but gained a bit of moodiness, still fairly clear and punching though.

I was also getting some funny static noise and weird hissing when touching the guitar strings and not playing at somehwere around 3 o'clock on the gain knob...adding a 1M resistor from Source pin to ground, and raising the bias to the right point (by ear, also balancing out hum at max gain on the pot) seems to have mostly cured these odd behaviors. The 1M from S to ground thing was sort of an improvisation by me, not based on any theory I know, but it seemed to help. I noticed that when I touched that pin with a screwdriver or alligator clip the hissing stopped so I thought maybe a "reference to ground" could help, and it seemed to.

I'm going to have to spend some time with this thing, and watch a lot of demo videos to see the way it's "supposed" to sound, but right now, I'm pretty happy with it, it is giving me slightly that "wall of stacks" Sleep vibe that I would guess D. Main was inspired by, based on the title of this circuit. I will have to try the "proper" JFET just out of curiosity

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Post by pamaz »

the decay is the problem for me too.
at the scope there is a point at which the lm386 shows som instability when passing form clean to distorted sound, and the jump form one state ( clean) to the other( distorted) is not gradual, but really a sudden event.
I don't know the internal schematic of the 386, so if somebody can jump in with a few ideas i'll be more than happy.
thanls

Paolo

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Post by pamaz »

googling around I 've found that this problem is common in the original stomp too. check TGP.
in any case I've been messing around the feedback/gain control of the 386 and IMO the problem lies there. Placing a 470 ohm resistor in series to the cap that goes from pin 1 to pin8 lowers the gain , but in my case almost solved the problem. Still have to find a serious solution though.
As always, no feedback circuitry ( if done correctly) are always better.......

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Post by pamaz »

update:

the 386 is made to work on a loudspeaker load (8-32 ohm). If you give a look at the datasheet for the 386, you'll find most often in the output section also a zobel network at the output, just to linearize the load.
With a load that is not the proper one, (like in this stomp) you'll have chances to get instability issues
So the easiest solution to solve the decay problem is to lower the impedance seen by the 386 at its output.
I've just done it placing a 1kohm ( but could be a lower value too) resistor from pin 5 - output to ground. Still a large load for the 386, but enough to stay away from instability.
No more decay issues for me.
please check if this cure the problem also in your stomp.

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Post by Dingleberry »

Hi.
Worked with this circuit about two years ago and gave up...
Because of the decay issue.
Probably got to dig it up and return it to the table.
I remember that it sounded pretty nice.
Few questions popped to my mind:

Will that 1k resistor to ground lower the output level dramatically,
or will there be still plenty of available, because the 386 really is an 1/2W amp chip?
Di it change the sound of the circuit?
And will the tone control still work as it supposed to work?

-T
Simplify before you amplify.

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Post by beatr1 »

I'm a newbie looking for some guidance. I've been trolling around for about 6 months and this is my first real post. So far I've only ever built from kits (byoc and ggg) and the Titan looks like the perfect introductory build. So, for the first time I'm shopping around for parts and am having difficulty knowing what to purchase for the 10k Variable trimmer resistor (R3 on Mike's layout/VR1 on McElroy's). These are the only ones I can come up with but don't seem correct:
http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDet ... 14S-3-103E
http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/p ... =&sort_by=
And second question is; could anyone direct me to some info as to how to wire the vero layout up to the footswitch? It seems like it is very straightforward, and I'm sure I can get by but I could use some backup documentation to eliminate some guess work.
Thanks! Brian

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Post by joeboo88 »

hey BEATR1, the trimmers @ the goldmine site look about right (first one which is a small one, or third one, which is bigger, looks good) it is a 10k, i think thats what you need for the sonic titan.

Madbeans site and ggg have great diagrams on how to wire pedals.
I just grabbed this because i had it book marked
http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/tec ... ng-options
Or of course you can look in here...this is where you learn, especially from other peoples boo boo's...like me!

https://www.freestompboxes.org/viewforum.php?f=48

Hope this helps, Cheers
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Post by beatr1 »

Thanks joeboo88, that ggg page was exactly what I was looking for. Silly to have forgotten, I've referenced it in the past.

Also, possibly an update on the Sonic Titan. I had the opp to look inside a recent Titan and the pot values or type are different than the ones listed in this thread. The Volume Pot is 100KA, concurrent with the much talked about, suggested mod here. The Tone is 100KA and the Gain is 10KB, despite McElroy's Vero as listing the Tone as 100KB and Gain 10KA. I understand the difference but am too novice to really know the practical difference. Perhaps this addresses the complaint that some had in this thread about the tone knob having little desired effect? Pure speculation on my part.

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kinski
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Post by kinski »

Forgive my ignorance...how exactly would I add this 1k resistor from pin 5 to output ground?

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Post by monkeyxx »

kinski wrote:Forgive my ignorance...how exactly would I add this 1k resistor from pin 5 to output ground?
solder one end of a 1K resistor to pin 5 of the IC and the other end to ground

the idea is "from pin 5 (output), to ground" not "output ground"

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Post by kinski »

Hey thanks. It actually did the trick! :hug:

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Post by Branimir »

Meanwhile I sold my build to a friend, so I forgot how it sounded... I'm about to build a new one these days, waiting for the parts to arrive and then to the soldering! I even bought 2N3819...

I'll post some clips with downtuned guitar when I finish...

Cheers!
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Post by joe_pineapple »

roseblood! i gotta say .. that is one awesome looking enclosure. :applause:
:shock: i'm a little shocked that no-one has commented positively.
is the wire (solder?) lettering yr idea?


roseblood11 wrote:I just got my shipment of 2n3819´s and put one into the sonic titan.
Just to realize that I had to turn it around, compared to the symbol in Mike´s layout...
http://www.uk-electronic.de/PDF/2N3819.pdf

But I think I like the sound of the 2n5457 better anyway

This is my built:
"..the finished product is just the garbage left over from the work." R.G. Keen

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kinski
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Post by kinski »

Is there a cap I could change to allow more bass that is post any distortion? I like more low-end in the sound, without getting muddy.

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