Recent content by mkstewartesq

Very cool - and consistent with my own experience that the KAT Push is almost indistinguishable in sound from the Cornish BC149 (save for a tiny, almost negligible bit of extra brightness, as you noticed - im my case, it was so light I just chalked it up to component tolerances)). But that...

I actually still have the plush TB set up on my breadboard as that is the last project I worked on a few weeks ago. When time permits, and if @ac30irons hasn’t already done so and reported back, I’ll try adding the extra resistor and any other differences to the schematic to my build to see if...

And the Cornish BC149 booster schematic I posted upthread also came from Paul. Since the term "orange label" just refers to the fact that one of the boosters on Brian's board at one time had the word "IN" written in Sharpie on an orange label to make sure the input cable wasn't inserted into...

Interesting. I certainly no expert but I’ve never heard of a Dyna using Opto electronics. And I can’t find any layout for one on the Internet that says otherwise. Edit add – goddamnit, now I think I get the joke. Don’t pull things that require reading comprehension on me without warning.

I do have an RS (two actually - a Dansan RS and a low-serial-number Burns RS that I had converted to be more accurate by RSConversions in New Jersey). I haven't tried the Superpot - either the "official" one or building my own. For me personally, I just haven't found the need. My "preferred"...

I would need to pull the transistor for my build to see exactly what I settled on for my BC109, which is essentially the BC149 in a different form factor. But it was lower than you would expect as the ideal range is in the 400s - if the gain is much higher, you lose the chime when rolling off...

Not a layout per se, but here's a good schematic. BC149 are hard to come by, but BC109 and BC549 work well and are essentially the modern equivalent in a different form factor. I think I finally settled on a BC109 with an HFE around 450 - but fair warning, I was testing with a multimeter, so...

Very nice. As some may recall, I am a huge Brian May fan, and on my board I have DIY versions of the Cornish BC149 booster (mid 1970s through 1980s era), Rangemaster (first album), and the Fryer Deluxe (late 1990s/early 2000s era). I breadboarded the KAT Plush schematic and it is extremely...

Well, let yourself win some of the time. You’ll thank yourself later.

Well, paused, not reversed. But the effect for the time being is the same – the tariffs are still on.

Was it a Morning Glory or a BluesBreaker? My understanding of the history of the Morning Glory is that the original BB was pretty low output, so JHS added the JFET stage at the end specifically to bring the volume back up. In other words, I thought that the morning glory was actually meant to...

Thanks! The positions of the knobs are basically where they are currently set right now to get at least close to the sweet spot I like. I get unity just a little past noon. But of course, changing the drive control can affect it in either direction. Where it’s set right now as pictured with...

So I’ve kind of been on a “transparent overdrive” kick of late. I think that, despite years of trying to convince myself otherwise, light overdrive is just my jam as far as my own personal playing style. So, while I’ve built a lot of higher gain stuff like the Carl Martin Panama, Kraken, Rat...

It appears that, for shipments under $800, now the White House is now saying that the tariff will be 54% (or the $100 flat fee). Which still sucks and will probably change within a couple of hours anyhow. Interesting that the article notes that it is the export companies who choose whether...

Purely for the record, I bought my Wima caps for this build (and pretty much every other build I have used them on) from Tayda. They have carried them for several years now and I’ve never had an issue with them. However, because they are a little more pricey, I tend to save them for the builds...