Catalinbread - Dirty Little Secret  [traced]

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

Rock mode, Tone 12:00, Gain 12:00, Vol. 11:00, shit eating grin, rock pose # 5 , fuck. Thanks Nic.

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MoonWatcher
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Post by MoonWatcher »

blanik wrote:what is the added bonus of the third transistor on each stage?
The "mu amp modules" work very similar to the push-pull configuration of a class AB tube power amp section. While many folks tend to think of even order harmonics with tubes/valves, the power sections in AB config. tend to mainly create odd order harmonics, predominantly. So a circuit exclusively with them will not get you everything you'd want - even order harmonics are really needed as well.

While that third tranny performs more than one task (like the final one serving as an output buffer), one add'l purpose can be to add those even order harmonics, if configured properly, and especially when driven by a prior stage with ample gain (as the "mu amp modules" are so capable of doing).

IMO, you can actually drive the single jFET stages with any amplifier of sufficient gain, which has the benefit of simplifying the circuit and yielding similar results. SoulSonic's Hunny Bunny uses an op amp stage to drive a mosFET into clipping as a great example.

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Post by Seishin »

Greg_G wrote:The mu-amp has been used as a building block for a lot of pedal designs.

In terms of gain stages I like the sound of Jfets second to tubes. The mu-amp arrangement has a BIG benefit in terms of building on scale, first a jfet is cheaper than a trim pot and you don't have to spend extra time tuning from the line and fielding down the road in CS. So it is a great building block for sure.

The DLS was an extension of the Habanero Fetish I made sometime around 2000. Like an idiot I was experimenting with patina of copper I made a copper faceplate for the Fetish and stuck the entire pedal guts and all in the bucket with ammonia. Needless to say the pedal died. :(
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Post by Seishin »

Skreddy wrote:
Seishin wrote:
soulsonic wrote:I like the battery spring used to ground against the chassis. I've seen that in some of the newer EHX stuff too. Pretty slick.
I liked that trick so much when I saw it in the Hazarai internally we refer to this build method as "hazarai'd". :thumbsup
Slicker'n shit. You managed to conquer the supreme board-mounting challenge on all fronts. :applause:
Thanks Marc. This has really helped us make 'em faster. I like that cause I can pass the new found efficiency to the customer, to the crew AND keep stores stocked up.

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Post by Skreddy »

Seishin wrote:
Skreddy wrote:
Seishin wrote:
soulsonic wrote:I like the battery spring used to ground against the chassis. I've seen that in some of the newer EHX stuff too. Pretty slick.
I liked that trick so much when I saw it in the Hazarai internally we refer to this build method as "hazarai'd". :thumbsup
Slicker'n shit. You managed to conquer the supreme board-mounting challenge on all fronts. :applause:

Thanks Marc. This has really helped us make 'em faster. I like that cause I can pass the new found efficiency to the customer, to the crew AND keep stores stocked up.
Wow; getting product shipped out; what a concept! :slap:

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Post by ShortScaleMike »

Image

Knocked this up today from Lawnchair's Schematic. Unverified as yet, any eyes cast over would be greatfully received.
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VERIFIED perfboard layout for the Catalinbread - Dirty Little Secret
VERIFIED perfboard layout for the Catalinbread - Dirty Little Secret
shortscalemike_catalinbread_dls_perfboard.gif (30.13 KiB) Viewed 2641 times
Last edited by modman on 08 Jan 2011, 13:54, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: added the verified layout (see below) as attachment

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Seishin
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Post by Seishin »

blanik wrote:
Seishin wrote:
Greg_G wrote:The mu-amp has been used as a building block for a lot of pedal designs.

In terms of gain stages I like the sound of Jfets second to tubes. The mu-amp arrangement has a BIG benefit in terms of building on scale, first a jfet is cheaper than a trim pot and you don't have to spend extra time tuning from the line and fielding down the road in CS. So it is a great building block for sure.

The DLS was an extension of the Habanero Fetish I made sometime around 2000. Like an idiot I was experimenting with patina of copper I made a copper faceplate for the Fetish and stuck the entire pedal guts and all in the bucket with ammonia. Needless to say the pedal died. :(
Image
what was the second switch for on the "Hanabero Fetish"?

(Hanabero Fetish, Chili Picoso... you do have a fetish for peppers :lol: )
Second switch switched out the second gain stage. The story goes about the habanero is I grew some when I was living in Kentucky, they grow GREAT there better than in Oregon. I had so many I didn't know what to do with them. I cut a few up and made a salsa or something I don't remember exactly. An hour later I went to take a leak and suddenly my junk began to burn to all hell. It really hurt bad and seemed to spread. My girlfriend at the time brought me a glass of milk, I jumped in the bathtub, and tossed the milk on the burning. The pain went away but damn those peppers were hot!

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ShortScaleMike
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Post by ShortScaleMike »

Aside from the transistors all being drawn the wrong way round which I will fix tomorrow, my layout is verfied and working. I built it this evening

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Post by RnFR »

hey guys-

whitekeyhole was nice enough to send me his eagle files for the dls, so i thought i would clean up his schem a bit. here's what i got-
"You've converted me to Cubic thinking. Where do I sign up for the newsletter? I need to learn more about how I can break free from ONEism Death Math." - Soulsonic

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Post by dap9 »

Awesome work everyone! I'm having a hell of a time "seeing" the wiring of the Rock/Rawk switch. Can someone draw it out? I get the rest of the schematic, but can't get the image of how that DPDT is wired. thanks

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Post by RnFR »

the way i'm thinking it goes is that sw1a on my schematic is one half of the dpdt, and sw1b is the other. don't quote me on that though.
"You've converted me to Cubic thinking. Where do I sign up for the newsletter? I need to learn more about how I can break free from ONEism Death Math." - Soulsonic

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ShortScaleMike
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Post by ShortScaleMike »

RnFR wrote:the way i'm thinking it goes is that sw1a on my schematic is one half of the dpdt, and sw1b is the other. don't quote me on that though.
That is nearly correct, they're labelled SW1 and SW2 on my layout with P being the Pole and A/B either side.

From messing with the veroboard I made up yesterday when I had the poles seperate so I could do the "correct" and different combinations, SW2 affects the overall gain and voicing from the oldschool to the newschool whereas the SW1 change tightens up the bass response in the higher gain mode.

Anyway: Verified veroboard layout. Will fit into a BB Hammond Case with ease, not so a Hammond B, I would have to halve the width and make a taller layout.
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Post by Da Cat »

A very very very very very ...... very quick prefboard design, which could use some optimising:
Unverified, please report errors.

It doesn't include 100uf cap for power filtering, which i usualy stick on the DC jack
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DLS.png

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Post by Lawnchair »

Cap on gain pot should be 47p no?

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Post by dap9 »

ShortScaleMike wrote:
RnFR wrote:the way i'm thinking it goes is that sw1a on my schematic is one half of the dpdt, and sw1b is the other. don't quote me on that though.
That is nearly correct, they're labelled SW1 and SW2 on my layout with P being the Pole and A/B either side.

From messing with the veroboard I made up yesterday when I had the poles seperate so I could do the "correct" and different combinations, SW2 affects the overall gain and voicing from the oldschool to the newschool whereas the SW1 change tightens up the bass response in the higher gain mode.

Anyway: Verified veroboard layout. Will fit into a BB Hammond Case with ease, not so a Hammond B, I would have to halve the width and make a taller layout.
Thanks guys, after staring at it for a while, that's exactly what I started picturing - so thanks for the confirmation

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Post by blanik »

anyone tried to use two separate SPST switches to have the thighter bass with the old voicing? sounds interesting

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Post by Lawnchair »

One of the issues I have with Rawk mode is the lack of low punch. I find rock to be perfect with my setup. Keeping the EQ of rock with the gain boost sounds ideal.

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Post by Seishin »

Lawnchair wrote:One of the issues I have with Rawk mode is the lack of low punch. I find rock to be perfect with my setup. Keeping the EQ of rock with the gain boost sounds ideal.

If you have the chance to check out a Silver Jubilee you'll notice something similar compared to a later mid year Marshall like that. If there is one rule you can apply to Marshalls in terms of evolution, as time went by they became more bright and more gainy. As far as gain is concerned they didn't get boneheaded brewtal until fairly recently. I do think the big bass frequencies are starting to come back into favor for Marshalls. Early metal guys like Priest or Maiden goosed theirs with treble boosters, 80's guys used a boss or ibanez object. Different strokes... We limited the scope of the DLS to what we could do with the Marshalls we were working with. Nothing compares to a real Marshall, but I think we got really close for a pedal. Schematic is correct from a quick glance.

I am looking forward to where you guys take the DPDT to a pair of SPDTs. Only reason we didn't go there was for the sake of simplicity. :thumbsup

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Post by dap9 »

Thanks Nic for your participation in the thread! I have a capacitor question for ya (anyone else can chime it). The pics of the DLS have ceramic and the Greenies. Are the Greenies any certain brand? And what's the rationale for the choices here. You know, instead of box caps etc. I've read and re-read a lot of stuff on different caps and no matter what I always end up :scratch: I like the idea of my parts bin having a plethora of styles of caps, but I'd like to no the reasoning for it. Thanks again for everything! dap

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Post by playon »

soulsonic wrote:
... and then there was the incident with the Icy Hot... [smilie=sweat2.gif]
That reminds me of the time I mistook some Eucalyptus ointment for the lubricant in the dark... the lady was amused, I was not. :oops:

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