DEMO Tagboard ST-9 (Maxon/Ibanez Super Tube Screamer)

[owlexifry]

of all the silly builds, this might be the dumbest.

first,
Tayda's metallic candy green. omg.
and it's impossible to capture how deep forest/emerald green it actually is.
the photos almost make it look teal, but it's not even close to teal. its almost like a metallic candy british racing green.


originally drafted the layout for this build last year, and before the layout i did for the tagboard CE-2, which got built immediately.

kinda just left it for a while, and then recently got motivated to do it again.


after committing to a 1590BB2, I discovered it just wasn’t going to fit with a mechanical 3PDT, so i used a PedalPCB basic relay bypass board

was quite a squeeze.




i was originally planning to just use current production TI LF353 opamps, but then i found these NOS national semi metal can LF353 opamps on ebay and gave them a shot - first tested them in my vero ST-9 build after they arrived and they actually sounded pretty good, so I decided to use them in this ridiculous mojo build.




and here’s a demo (evidence of operation)
-> (AionFx Cirrus) PCB vs Tagboard:

i’ll be honest.
yep, the tagboard build isn’t as quiet and has a noticeably higher noise floor. i chased dragons and tried to address this by altering ground routes and going full strict on the star ground with some spots, but it made no difference.
oh well. i’m just glad it works.
i guess in reality, as heard in the demo, at least at reasonable/‘tv loud’ volumes, the higher noise floor doesn’t really matter, but soon i’ll see how it goes at drummer/band volumes

 

[owlexifry]

update:
the tagboard actually goes alright at big volumes.
gave it a good blast today at band practice.


vs. the PCB build it’s got a slightly warmer and thicker character.. works well and sounds even better for some riffs. (i wonder if the higher noise floor can cause that perception?)

overall, a normal person would probably say they sound identical, but if i’m honest, i do prefer the sound of the PCB build, it’s just more articulate.

i wondered if the modern LF353s might have anything to do with that..
looking at bandwidth specs:


- supposedly the metal cans have 4MHz vs. TI's ~3MHz rating... wtf?

 

[Paradox916]

 

[owlexifry]

been breadboarding things, and i’ve finally seen the light and having a great time with the og RAT circuit, so the other day i did a little investigation/tested a hypothesis with this ST-9 pedal to answer the question that i’m sure absolutely everyone is dying to know:

- can a RAT do modern metal?

and it just occurred to me that I haven't even tried red LED clippers yet. keen.

 

[Nostradoomus]

that’s why I put a Ts-> rat combo into a one knob board


but now i might need to give that combo a go..

 

[owlexifry]

that’s why I put a Ts-> rat combo into a one knob board

heck yes. what was the knob doing?

 

[Paradox916]

Everyone needs a rat in their arsenal

 

[jcpst]

that’s why I put a Ts-> rat combo

For some reason this combo doesn’t stay on my board, but every single time someone mentions it, I go hook them up and have a ton of fun.

 

[Nostradoomus]

heck yes. what was the knob doing?

rat volume. Gain is fixed at like 90% on the rat and trimmers for the TS gain/vol/tone and rat filter

 

[owlexifry]

For some reason this combo doesn’t stay on my board, but every single time someone mentions it, I go hook them up and have a ton of fun.

yep, while the usual TS combo is probably adequate enough, i’m just gonna put it out there again for everyone - a regular old tube screamer ain’t got shit on a ST-9 super tube screamer.
it’s all about that mids control/gain stage - adds this glorious aggressive bite that you just don’t get in a TS.
i guess it’s like the difference between a soft sloppy turd and a crisp freshly toasted croissant.
they kinda look the same but they’re not

rat volume. Gain is fixed at like 90% on the rat and trimmers for the TS gain/vol/tone and rat filter

ahhh yep, that makes sense.
crikey 90% gain

 

[Nostradoomus]

I mean for what I play it works , not going for extreme clarity

 

[owlexifry]

I mean for what I play it works , not going for extreme clarity

for the mountain top demon-summoning wizard riffs i would expect nothing less

 

[Nostradoomus]

Oh and I used the schematic for the hot mode from a TS-7 so the TS is gain city too

 

[owlexifry]

Oh and I used the schematic for the hot mode from a TS-7 so the TS is gain city too

alright, so i'm attempting to understand what TS7 hot mode does.

source:

http://www.matsumin.net/diy/bunkai/Ibanez_ts7/Ibanez%20TS7_sch.BMP

- 720 Hz high pass filter at the input (-) of opamp/clipping stage (4.7K/47nF) becomes a 338Hz high pass filter (1K/470nF) + more gain.
- 720 Hz passive low pass filter at the output of opamp/clipping stage (1K/220nF) becomes a 1061Hz low pass filter (1K/150nF).

so basically it gets a flatter EQ and more gain?

 

[Nostradoomus]

Pretty much yeah. I think it sounded better with a 1k/100n but I keep the rat filter pretty dark. Making a board with the st-9 wouldn’t be too hard as it’s already mostly laid out haha, probably worth a try.

 

[owlexifry]

Making a board with the st-9 wouldn’t be too hard as it’s already mostly laid out haha, probably worth a try.

are dual gang trimpots even a thing?

 

[Nostradoomus]

Ha crap I didn’t really look at the schematic that closely. When in doubt, fix it with resistors . An external mids knob might be a good idea though.