BJFE - Blueberry Bass Overdrive  [traced]

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JFace
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Post by JFace »

This is a schematic of the degooped BJFE BOD #045

Image

I am the owner of this pedal. The switch became faulty recently, so I decided to replace it and trace the schematic while it was open. Here are some pics of the pedal:

Image

Image

This schematic is different than the Mad Professor incarnation in a few very important ways:
  • 1. The MP has a JFET amplifier in the beginning, the BJFE does not
    2. The MP gain pot is 1M, the BJFE is 370k
    3. The MP tone control effects the AC gain of the output JFET. The BJFE tone control effects the output treble response
As a result, these two pedals do not sound the same.

Some people have reported their blueberry uses a LM301 IC. I have breadboarded this circuit and can attest that the CA3130EZ sounds much better. The sound is more clear and articulate.

The gain pot is an unusual value of 370K. I made certain this value is correct. When I breadboarded the circuit, I tried a 250K and a 500K. I noticed the 250K sounded identical to the BJFE, whereas the 500K increased in gain too quickly, and became muddy. This may partially explain why the MP version sounds so different. If you truly want to emulate the 370K pot (I couldn't find this actual value pot anywhere), you can use a 2M pot (smallbear) in parallel with a 470K resistor. The upper range of the gain pot does not give much of a difference in sound, and the 250K is just fine IMO.

Although the output volume pot is linear, it helps fine tune the level when adjusting the gain. An audio pot is usually a standard, but a linear has proven useful for me when I use basses with different output.

I believe that R11 and C8 are easter eggs...meaning, they produce no effect and exist only to make tracing this circuit more difficult. Removing them seems to have no effect on the sound. R9 and C7 definitely have an effect...reducing gain and high end. This may be 50% of why this circuit sounds so unique.

I have made a layout based off of madbean's Yellow Shark, since they are similar in design. I left R11 and C8 for the purists. I did not include the zener diode for the LED (use a bigger resistor). I tied lugs 2 and 3 of the gain pot together if you choose to use a wire on lug 3.

PCB
Size is 48 x 40mm (1.9" x 1.6") and can fit in a 1590B enclosure. The pads are all 1.0mm. The electrolytics are assumed to be 6.0mm with a lead spacing of 2.5mm, although these values can have some tolerance.
Image

Layout
This is the component layout of the above pcb. Notice two of the resistors are stretched a bit. All other resistors are 7.5mm (standard 1/4w), film caps are 5.0mm.
Image

I hope you find this useful.
Last edited by modman on 05 Feb 2015, 21:57, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by modman »

Sometimes a user with three posts get promoted to Degoop Doctor...
Thanks received make clear that this is what the forum is about. Congrat! Great work...
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Post by JFace »

Folks,

My apologies, I mixed up the labels on 9V and LED wire pads. They are reverse of what the first post is, just swap the wires. Here is the corrected image:

Image

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Post by JFace »

johnk wrote:just wondering. are you sure that the 2n2 on the tone circuit connects to lug 3 of the volume pot as opposed to the Jet's source as BJFE does on all of his other OD's?
I noticed that the madbean Yellow Shark (BJFE honeybee), the Bearfoot and the Mad Professor 3BOD's have that cap connected to the source.
I am 100% sure the 2n2 is connected to lug 3 of the volume pot. I noticed this difference right away and made certain I had it right.

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Post by rocket8810 »

awesome. thanks so much for this one. myself and a few other bassplayers have worked on the bearfoot version, and i have been dying for the original for a long time to say the least. i've actually gave up hope that this would ever come to be. i'm going to get to work on a vero layout for this, and i'll have it done some time tomorrow. really man, i can't say thanks enough. :thumbsup

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Post by yeraym »

Thanks again, I drew my own vero and finished it yesterday, this sounds incredible with my bass.

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Image

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Post by rocket8810 »

[quote="yeraym"]Thanks again, I drew my own vero and finished it yesterday, this sounds incredible with my bass.

Image

Image[/quote

I'm even mode excited hearing that your thing it sounds amazing with your bass. Did you build the bearfoot version? If so, how do they compare? Im planning on building the and comparing the two anyway, but always like to hear what others thing. Nice job on the vero, btw.

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Post by rocket8810 »

here's my vero layout layout. it's not verified yet, but i'm 99.9999% sure it will fire right up, since the Bearfoot BBBOD version i made is, and this is based off it. i tried to have no standing resistors, but just like the bearfoot version i made, i got stuck with 1, and in this one its that damn 5.6k that's at a slightly elevated angle. i will be building this soon, probably either tomorrow after work, or this weekend, but by all means give it a shot, it should work perfectly.

Image

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Post by rocket8810 »

i built one using my layout, the one i posted above, and found 2 stupid mistakes. one being i put in the resistor on the far right from 1uF to volume 3 as 47k when it's 27k according to the schematic, and i miss counted and had it marked as 21x13, when it's 22x13. i found that out after cutting 3 boards and wondering why my cuts were off by 1 every time.

here's the corrected and verified layout:

Image

so if one of the mods would like to remove the faulty layout to avoid any confusion that would be awesome. :thumbsup

i compared this to the bearfoot bbbod, and can tell you they are completely different animals. i feel like the bbbod had a bit of a midbump to it, where as the bjfe is much much warmer and seems to retain more of your basses character. both great overdrives, i boxed both, but have to say that they bjfe is the winner IMHO.

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Post by Nocentelli »

You can pull any attachment you have uploaded in user control panel -> manage attachments.
modman wrote: Let's hope it's not a hit, because soldering up the same pedal everyday, is a sad life. It's that same ole devilish double bind again...

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Post by rocket8810 »

I'll see of that works. I did it as a link to photobucket though.

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Post by V1nce69 »

JFace wrote:This is a schematic of the degooped BJFE BOD #045

[ Image ]

I am the owner of this pedal. The switch became faulty recently, so I decided to replace it and trace the schematic while it was open.

Thank you so much for posting this !

I just built it in a 125B with top jacks. It really sounds great. I used the original schematic you posted, i.e. with the zener diode and etched my pcb after having made my layout in Eagle (not so different from yours that is).

Here are some pictures and the files I used, for those interested in etching.
BBOD_DIY_outside
BBOD_DIY_outside
BBOD_diy_inside
BBOD_diy_inside
BBOD_pcb close view
BBOD_pcb close view
BBOD_parts layout
BBOD_parts layout
BBOD_pcb layout
BBOD_pcb layout

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Post by BJF »

Hi,

Yes well thank you for the kind words and I am glad you enjoy :popcorn:



At your service
BJ
BJF Electronics
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Post by Coolhat »

Hello everyone, a new poster and beginner pedal builder here!

I built BBOD yesterday using Yeraym´s vero layout and it sounds absolutely wonderful! However, it is not very loud: when I have both gain and volume maxxed out, the volume level is about the same as in bypass mode. And consequently, if I turn the gain down to get mild crunch, the volume level is considerably quieter than the clean signal. Is this normal behaviour for this pedal or have I screwed up somewhere? How should I go about mending this?

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Post by BJF »

Coolhat wrote:Hello everyone, a new poster and beginner pedal builder here!

I built BBOD yesterday using Yeraym´s vero layout and it sounds absolutely wonderful! However, it is not very loud: when I have both gain and volume maxxed out, the volume level is about the same as in bypass mode. And consequently, if I turn the gain down to get mild crunch, the volume level is considerably quieter than the clean signal. Is this normal behaviour for this pedal or have I screwed up somewhere? How should I go about mending this?

Hi well you can try to connect a 1uF cap in series with 4K7 across 2K6 written as R14 in schematic in this thread and you'll get about 6dB boost

It is hard to tell from your post if you have an active bass or a passive bass and what kind of level it gives

At your service
BJ
Designer of
BJF Blue Berry Bass Overdrive

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Post by okabass »

Coolhat wrote:Hello everyone, a new poster and beginner pedal builder here!

I built BBOD yesterday using Yeraym´s vero layout and it sounds absolutely wonderful! However, it is not very loud: when I have both gain and volume maxxed out, the volume level is about the same as in bypass mode. And consequently, if I turn the gain down to get mild crunch, the volume level is considerably quieter than the clean signal. Is this normal behaviour for this pedal or have I screwed up somewhere? How should I go about mending this?

Hi
Make sure there's no mistakes. I tried a 10 µF cap at the FET source resistor. More gain, but didn't like it. It perhaps alters the feedback to "Nature" pot in a bad way. To me the circuit has enough gain.
I have a Bearfoot unit and I modded it to the original BJFe (That schematic above). To me it sounds better.
Only little change to the BJFe circuit is to lower the minimum IC gain. It's now a hair over 1, and the sound is practically clean at 0 ( with a P-bass).

It is really nice, natural sounding unit. Best I've have had. It is so good it doesn't need a blend as usual. I even sold my Tech21 pedals.
Thanks to Björn and JFace.

Ps. Sorry to say the MP version is horrible compared to BJFe and BF circuit.

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Post by BuddyPrince »

I'm looking to either mod my Bearfoot 3BOD or build the BJFE version, but I'm brand new to building / modding effects. Mostly I want to lower the gain so that I'm essentially running a clean signal when Drive is set to a minimum.

I noticed @okabass said he lowered the minimum IC gain to just over 1 to get a practically clean sound at 0. What do I modify in the original schematic to make that happen?

Thanks!

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Post by Chaseth »

Could someone familiar with the bjfe honey bee tell me exactly what the difference is between the honey bee and the blueberry bass? I have heard they are essentially the same pedal

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Post by Belanger88 »

Yikes, I didn’t think there pedals would be so poorly built. You’d think they would take some pride in their work as really Bjorn already did the heavy lifting for them. I know a lot of people will argue it doesn’t matter but it most definitely does matter. A commercial product should NOT look like that ever, and it’s so many companies these days. Slapping they’re pedals together haphazardly just so they can get more of them out the door. I understand keeping up with demand but if this is what it takes in order for you to meet your orders then perhaps these companies could hire trained monkeys who can actually solder

If it sounds good it is good is only true to a point, especially when there being designed for you and your only real is job to build them.

JFace wrote:This is a schematic of the degooped BJFE BOD #045

[ Image ]

I am the owner of this pedal. The switch became faulty recently, so I decided to replace it and trace the schematic while it was open. Here are some pics of the pedal:

[ Image ]

[ Image ]

This schematic is different than the Mad Professor incarnation in a few very important ways:
  • 1. The MP has a JFET amplifier in the beginning, the BJFE does not
    2. The MP gain pot is 1M, the BJFE is 370k
    3. The MP tone control effects the AC gain of the output JFET. The BJFE tone control effects the output treble response
As a result, these two pedals do not sound the same.

Some people have reported their blueberry uses a LM301 IC. I have breadboarded this circuit and can attest that the CA3130EZ sounds much better. The sound is more clear and articulate.

The gain pot is an unusual value of 370K. I made certain this value is correct. When I breadboarded the circuit, I tried a 250K and a 500K. I noticed the 250K sounded identical to the BJFE, whereas the 500K increased in gain too quickly, and became muddy. This may partially explain why the MP version sounds so different. If you truly want to emulate the 370K pot (I couldn't find this actual value pot anywhere), you can use a 2M pot (smallbear) in parallel with a 470K resistor. The upper range of the gain pot does not give much of a difference in sound, and the 250K is just fine IMO.

Although the output volume pot is linear, it helps fine tune the level when adjusting the gain. An audio pot is usually a standard, but a linear has proven useful for me when I use basses with different output.

I believe that R11 and C8 are easter eggs...meaning, they produce no effect and exist only to make tracing this circuit more difficult. Removing them seems to have no effect on the sound. R9 and C7 definitely have an effect...reducing gain and high end. This may be 50% of why this circuit sounds so unique.

I have made a layout based off of madbean's Yellow Shark, since they are similar in design. I left R11 and C8 for the purists. I did not include the zener diode for the LED (use a bigger resistor). I tied lugs 2 and 3 of the gain pot together if you choose to use a wire on lug 3.

PCB
Size is 48 x 40mm (1.9" x 1.6") and can fit in a 1590B enclosure. The pads are all 1.0mm. The electrolytics are assumed to be 6.0mm with a lead spacing of 2.5mm, although these values can have some tolerance.
[ Image ]

Layout
This is the component layout of the above pcb. Notice two of the resistors are stretched a bit. All other resistors are 7.5mm (standard 1/4w), film caps are 5.0mm.
[ Image ]

I hope you find this useful.
Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.

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