This Week on the Breadboard: The EHX Ripped Speaker

[Chuck D. Bones]

With some mods, of course. Here's the stock circuit:



I could do without the opamps. I tossed the input buffer and replaced the active Tone circuit with a BMP-style Tone circuit followed by a MOSFET buffer. Gets the job done with a lot fewer parts. I've tried the active Tone circuit with other things and while it's clever, it has limitations. I redid the FUZZ control, tweaked a few component values and here we are. I tried Ge for Q3, but ended up liking Si better. I used a BC109C for Q1 on the breadboard. This baby has plenty of gain, over 80dB. The RIP pot varies the bias on Q3 from cutoff to saturated. Gating can be splatty, mild, or fully open. There's no clean setting unless we back the guitar's volume knob down a ways. Definitely some vintage fuzz tones in there.



Knobs (L-R): LEVEL - TONE - RIP - FUZZ
Q4 on thr far left, Q1 on the far right.

 

[HamishR]

So in other words you designed a fuzz pedal because you didn't like the EHX Ripped Speaker? Fair enough.

 

[music6000]

With some mods, of course. Here's the stock circuit

Well, this is it:

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

I'd swap the RIP & TONE knobs.

The "Ripper Fuzz" name is already taken by Electrograve.

How about Supreme Fart Machine?

 

[music6000]

I'd swap the RIP & TONE knobs.

The "Ripper Fuzz" name is already taken by Electrograve.

How about Supreme Fart Machine?

I met in the middle.

 

[music6000]

Is the BS170 acting as a Boost / Recovery stage for volume loss?

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

No, it's simply an optional unity gain buffer. I considered a boost stage, but the signal is plenty large without a boost.

To delete the buffer, remove R16-R20, C8-C9 & Q4. Pin 2 of the LEVEL pot is the output.

 

[music6000]

Does that mean you could edit your Schematic & not really notice the change & save some money.

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Depends on what comes after the Ripped Fuzz.

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Pretty much, just don't drive a Fuzz Face with it. FF does NOT like being driven from a low impedance-source.

 

[music6000]

So leave it in there & it will work anywhere in the chain.
It a touchy subject as I read years go about Lovepedal & MXR not gelling with other pedals because of impedance issues.

 

[szukalski]

 

[music6000]

View attachment 124070

Lucky for you to get the Tone & Rip right, you realize I have to move my LED now!

 

[szukalski]

Lucky for you to get the Tone & Rip right, you realize I have to move my LED now!

The layout demanded tone and rip to be in those places else it would be messy..

As for the LED, mine's always in the same place You can have the LED in any colour you want, but the location is always 0 mm / 12.7 mm!

 

[music6000]

As Robert is my witness, his Paper Scratcher PCB threw me off!
If I'm being honest, if Chuck's sounds similar to the Original, It's the right name on your PCB!!!

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Those are some interesting transistor footprints.

Why even bother with SMD pads for parts that are so easy to get in thru-hole? Q2 & Q3 can be pretty much whatever you want.

 

[Einzeln]

View attachment 124070

Sounds like the Mad Professor Dutch Oven

 

[music6000]

Those are some interesting transistor footprints.

Why even bother with SMD pads for parts that are so easy to get in thru-hole? Q2 & Q3 can be pretty much whatever you want.

You must have missed the single footprint on the Skull Valley.
I checked to see if sheep had 3 toes!
It's good that the pinout is labelled.

 

[music6000]

Pedal Updated Picture!

 

[szukalski]

It's one transistor footprint to rule them all (Lord of the Footprints). The worst case is a bit of twister with some weird pin-outs on TH. Before, I'd have to have different footprints for EBC, CBE, DGS, DSG.. and even those would cause confusion at times. Now, it's just one with different labels for JFET vs BJT.

It covers SMD and TH and I think it's pretty clear which pad is what. I default to SMD transistors where I can. They're cheaper, and there are a few SMD-only options out there which are interesting.