Catalinbread - Formula No. 5  [traced]

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Barcode
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Post by Barcode »

JimiHendrix1987 wrote:Hi there !

Is this Layout veryfied? ! Barcode, have you been able to work it? Anybody?

Thanks :block:
Mine has an issue, but the original poster has said that the layout is verified:
mich wrote:Oh and it's verified. I built a few
Barcode wrote:
mich wrote:Oh and it's verified. I built a few
I can definitely say it's verified (I did manage to poulate the board backwards so that it would work :) ) I'm just not getting very good sound from it. I'd put money on it being the fets for me.

By the way, no ill will intended, I thoroughly appreciate you posting the layout!

Why the flip though? If you printed as you have posted it onto transfer paper, it will etch backwards.

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mutetourettes
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Post by mutetourettes »

So I finally built my tagboard layout for the number 5, so consider it verified. it sounds great, like my amp's melting, which is i suspect how it should.. the '11' switch does indeed switch from formula 5 to formula 11, ie stupid amounts of gain.

I've corrected the schem to include the 470pf cap. so this v3 is the one.

If anything, fed with humbuckers this pedal has too much gain. Any suggestions for reducing the gain?

Cheers to all you mighty tracers and component detectors!
number5clone.jpg
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formula_no5_plesur_rev3.pdf
Version 3 - VERIFIED
(16.12 KiB) Downloaded 698 times

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Nocentelli
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Post by Nocentelli »

I agree with you about the minimum gain with humbuckers, I tinkered with the resistor-to-ground off the gain pot but it didn't do a great deal. I've found it much easier just to roll back the guitar's volume a touch to clean it up a bit.
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 HHR18 »

My oh my, what a pedal, without the R6 resistor, it's has quite a lot of gain but an overall very nice sounding overdrive. When the switch is engaged you get an amazing sounding, almost fuzz face like, overdrive. Cleans up great with volume on guitar too! Great, great pedal!

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Post by briggs »

Nocentelli wrote:I agree with you about the minimum gain with humbuckers, I tinkered with the resistor-to-ground off the gain pot but it didn't do a great deal. I've found it much easier just to roll back the guitar's volume a touch to clean it up a bit.
Why not place a pot up in front of the circuit. Possibly replace the 1M resistor to ground (on the first mu boost stage) with a 1M pot as a "pregain" control and see how it sounds?
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Post by Throbb7 »

You guys do good work. ;)

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sonicboom
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Post by sonicboom »

Wondering if I can get some help from the experts,

I built one of these using this board https://www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic ... 40#p143346

Unfortunately, I get nasty feedback and squealing unless I remove the 4.7 uf cap on Q1. Any thoughts on what could be causing this? I've not measured the voltages yet, but the problem centers around the cap. If it is taken out, it seems to work. I tested the cap and replaced it just in case. Transistors are 2N5457s.

I've checked for cold solder joints, wiring errors and traced the circuit verifying component placement.

Thanks for any comments.

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coldcraft
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Post by coldcraft »

just got one of these in the easter egg mystery sale. I really dig it for leads! a nice compressed tweed sound. very late 70s springsteen
Black Dynamite wrote:you need to shut the fuck up when grown folks is talkin.

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HHR18
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Post by HHR18 »

Ok, so I build another one for my father. When comparing the two, one is a tad brighter. Anyone have an idea what could be different between the two? Transistors voltages maybe?

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roseblood11
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Post by roseblood11 »

Some caps or pots have +/-20% component tolerance..

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Post by ampbldr2 »

I thought i would add my voltages from mine. I used the vero from roseblood. I'm not sure the voltages i got are correct. Mine sounds a bit nasaly. Wonder if i could improve the sound of it a bit. I'll have to try some different trannys and see if that makes a difference.

Q1
D-2.32
S-0
G-0.56

Q2
D-8.91
S-2.32
G-2.96

Q3
D-4.08
S-0
G-0

Q4
D-8.91
S-4.08
G-4.24

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Gary_W
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Post by Gary_W »

Barcode wrote:Haven't verified it yet, it is populated but I haven't wired it up yet. But here is the corrected project file anyway, with the proper PnP orientation.
Hi folks,

I know I'm very late to the party with this one but I built this from an etched board last night. It just plain didn't work (one very hot C4 and no output whatsoever). My only substitution has been to sub the 0.1uf electrolytic with a 100nf box - as discussed earlier in this thread there's no problems with this.

I've done 9 previous pedal builds ranging from fuzz up to a Pearl Octaver and this has been the first one that didn't work straight off. I can see no obvious issues with the soldering / etching - I'll check again tonight but before I go throwing too much time at it, has anyone apart from the guy who drew this board actually built it and had it working? If not, part of me is considering cutting my losses and doing the stripboard layout that has had several succesful builds here. Looking at the stripboard layout vs this one there also seems to be a couple of component differences.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Gary

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Post by plesur »

Gary_W wrote:
Barcode wrote:Haven't verified it yet, it is populated but I haven't wired it up yet. But here is the corrected project file anyway, with the proper PnP orientation.
Hi folks,

I know I'm very late to the party with this one but I built this from an etched board last night. It just plain didn't work (one very hot C4 and no output whatsoever). My only substitution has been to sub the 0.1uf electrolytic with a 100nf box - as discussed earlier in this thread there's no problems with this.

I've done 9 previous pedal builds ranging from fuzz up to a Pearl Octaver and this has been the first one that didn't work straight off. I can see no obvious issues with the soldering / etching - I'll check again tonight but before I go throwing too much time at it, has anyone apart from the guy who drew this board actually built it and had it working? If not, part of me is considering cutting my losses and doing the stripboard layout that has had several succesful builds here. Looking at the stripboard layout vs this one there also seems to be a couple of component differences.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Gary
If you're using my layout from here:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=9373&start=140#p130101
then yes, there have been several successful builds reported.

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Gary_W
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Post by Gary_W »

mich wrote:Here ya go: (all 300 dpi)
PNP_Reversed_transfer_300dpi.png
layout_300dpi.png
I really appreciate the reply, Plesur - I wish it was your version I'd built but unfortunately, I chose this one from page 13 of this thread (it was later in the thread) that is different to yours.....

I'll compare the two and see where the issue lies. Of course, it could well be me but there's nothing blindingly obvious to cause such an unhappy cap. Mind you, I was getting rather tired last night!

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Post by Gary_W »

Comparing to your layout has been really helpful - thanks again for listing.

Whilst there may be other mistakes, the blindingly obvious one is that all of the transistors on the layout I'm using are shown back to front!!!

Fortunately I have several new ones - I bought a job lot of 50 2N5457's as I was doing a Phase 45 build and needed a matched pair. I'll whip the new ones in later and see what it does before I go any further. I'll post back with the results.

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Post by Motter »

Anyone tried replacing that 2M2 with a 2M pot (or 1M resistor and 1M pot in series) and a stomp switch, to have a footswitchable, adjustable gain boost?

Also, I'm curious how to incorporate the noiseless biasing into this pedal. Do I simply set up a 10k/10k divider and send a 500k from that junction to each of the upper JFET gates? At http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/m ... dmuamp.htm , RG Keen say to use a 1/2 meg resistor for this, but in the example schematic he uses a 4M7 resistor, so I'm not sure which to do. Additionally, would anyone recommend the 1K in series between the upper and lower JFET, as RG Keen uses?

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Post by Gary_W »

I now have a fully working Formula No. 5 :applause:

The schematic posted by Mich is great apart from the bit saying which way up each transistor goes..... Each needs rotating through 180 degrees and then all is well.

Many thanks for the help Plesur - whilst I didn't use your board or layout it helped me to faultfind the one I had :thumbsup

It does exactly what it says on the tin - a flabby bottomed gain monster. I like it very much.

I have one more Catalinbread board to build (a WIIO). I already have an original Dirty Little Secret. I can't wait :D

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Seiche
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Post by Seiche »

Gary_W wrote:The schematic posted by Mich is great apart from the bit saying which way up each transistor goes
you should always check pinout and not go by the little graphics to see which side is which, since depending on the number and make of the transistors the pinout might be swapped. That actually happens quite a lot. Not really a fault of the schematic.

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Post by Gary_W »

Seiche wrote:
Gary_W wrote:The schematic posted by Mich is great apart from the bit saying which way up each transistor goes
you should always check pinout and not go by the little graphics to see which side is which, since depending on the number and make of the transistors the pinout might be swapped. That actually happens quite a lot. Not really a fault of the schematic.
Point taken and fair enough, but the parts list given in one of the following posts showed the use of the 5457's so I (wrongly) thought it was reasonable to go for it :)

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Post by Seiche »

Gary_W wrote:
Seiche wrote:
Gary_W wrote:The schematic posted by Mich is great apart from the bit saying which way up each transistor goes
you should always check pinout and not go by the little graphics to see which side is which, since depending on the number and make of the transistors the pinout might be swapped. That actually happens quite a lot. Not really a fault of the schematic.
Point taken and fair enough, but the parts list given in one of the following posts showed the use of the 5457's so I (wrongly) thought it was reasonable to go for it :)
I know what you mean, sometimes it is, sometimes it's not. The BS170P that the original SHO uses as a 180° pinout from the common BS170 many D.I.Y.ers substitute, for example. So same part number, different manufacturer can still have different pinouts, is what I meant.

More often than not the person doing the layout uses the pinout of the substitutes they have at hand, yet still lists the original part.

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