Celebrating the Autumnal Equinox with another pedal - The Mojito

[Chuck D. Bones]

This Overdrive is heavily based on the BJFe Honey Beest, a Honey Bee with a JFET booster up front. It was a collaborative effort with HamishR. In his honor, I've cracked a tuber of Foster's Lager (yeah, I know, it's that wallaby-piss export stuff). HamishR had been advocating his modified version of the BJFe Model G; he sent me a copy of the schematics for that and the Honey Beest. I finally got around to breadboarding his Model the G and liked it immensely. It's a fairly mild medium-gain overdrive with a nice fat vintage tube amp sound. When I stuck on the Honey Beest's JFET boost up front, it took on a whole new personality. The PRE-GAIN controls the booster gain, from 6dB to 28dB. Dialed-down, it's very close to the Model the G tone. Crank it up and it roars. PRE-GAIN was modded from the Honey Beest for more range. It crackles a bit when turned. The BASS & DRIVE controls are pretty much unchanged from the Honey Beest. Turn the BASS down with humbuckers, up with single-coils. We wanted more range out of the TREBLE control, so it was rewired as both a boost and a cut. The boost side of rotation is really more of a Mid Boost, but that's ok, it sounds good. I used MPF4393 FETs, but anything with Vp between -1.5V and -2V will work (J201s need not apply). Like the initial design, the BA482 diodes were imported from Oz. They have virtually the same V-I curve as the gate-source junction on a 2N5952. At full-tilt, this sucker will push all three stages into saturation. Or turn PRE-GAIN down to zero and pull back on DRIVE for a mild breakup. Got some TS tones in there as well. In keeping with my potent potables theme, I named this one The Mojito. Cool, smooth and not too sweet, not too fizzy. Vero layout available on request. Check the date code on the vintage RCA CA3130. That IC was manufactured in March 1977.

 

[Barry]

Very nice Chuck, many more of these and you may need a stint in rehab!

 

[jubal81]

And the cool, crisp font to go with it.
Gonna have to give this a go.

BTW, where do you source those DC connectors? I could really use some of those.

 

[Barry]

And the cool, crisp font to go with it.
Gonna have to give this a go.

BTW, where do you source those DC connectors? I could really use some of those.

Amazon.com: smseace 25Pair 22AWG 2.54 2PIN Female/Male Connections plug 200mm Red and black 2pin jst connectors JST-XH2.54-25.: Home Improvement

Amazon.com: smseace 25Pair 22AWG 2.54 2PIN Female/Male Connections plug 200mm Red and black 2pin jst connectors JST-XH2.54-25.: Home Improvement

www.amazon.com

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

The Big A. Search for:
JJRC H36 H67

I was gonna send a URL like Barry, but Amazon had imbedded too much info in the URL, including my blood type and shoe size.

Get the ones Barry recommended, better deal.

 

[HamishR]

Chuck really knocked it out of the park, to use a US sporting analogy. This thing is a MONSTER! I have built my own and can vouch that it is very much like a Model The G if you keep Pregain down. Raise Pregain and yep, gritty midrange goodness roars from your speakers. It's a lot like stacking a boost and overdrive to get your sound.

Thing is, in the Honey Beest the extra gain stage is there mainly (I suspect) because the original Honey Bee has such a modest output. The Pregain the Beest is just a way of getting more level out of the pedal. The G already has plenty of level, so the Pregain takes the G from low-mid gain OD to almost a full-blown distortion pedal. Or you can use just a little Pregain to fatten up the G for a Strat.

Wonderful, Chuck.

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Thanks, Man. Team effort.

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

BTW, where do you source those DC connectors? I could really use some of those.

I should mention that the female side of the pair is small enough to pass thru the 5/16" hole for the power jack. I solder the connector to the jack and then pass the connector thru the hole, then thru the 5/16" nut and tighten it all down. I also put clear heatshrink over the terminals and solder joints.

 

[HamishR]

"Thanks, Man. Team effort."

Yup, there's no Me in team. Hang on a sec, yes there is, kind of....

 

[HamishR]

BTW if you think Fosters is bad you should try Emu Export. I don't think Fosters is even sold here any more - I never see it at the Bottlo. (Bottlo= bottle shop=liquor store) But strangely Emu is becoming trendy among the hip young things - my son drinks it. Emu is what tradies would have on a Friday arvo back when there was little else here in Western Australia. It's ok if icy cold but because they use sugar in the brewing (too tight to use proper malted barley for the sugar content) it can give you a mighty headache the next day if you overdo it.

I suspect the popularity of Emu is a reaction against the boutique beer thing. It would make sense if Emu was cheaper than the imports but it's not! Emu is kind of Western Australia's Budweiser but it still tastes vaguely like beer.

 

[cooder]

Excellent and a very mouth watering write up....! Great stuff!

 

[zgrav]

BTW if you think Fosters is bad you should try Emu Export. I don't think Fosters is even sold here any more - I never see it at the Bottlo. (Bottlo= bottle shop=liquor store) But strangely Emu is becoming trendy among the hip young things - my son drinks it. Emu is what tradies would have on a Friday arvo back when there was little else here in Western Australia. It's ok if icy cold but because they use sugar in the brewing (too tight to use proper malted barley for the sugar content) it can give you a mighty headache the next day if you overdo it.

I suspect the popularity of Emu is a reaction against the boutique beer thing. It would make sense if Emu was cheaper than the imports but it's not! Emu is kind of Western Australia's Budweiser but it still tastes vaguely like beer.

Pabst Blue Ribbon beer seems to have a similar arc with folks that are tired of seeing how many hops can be brewed in a microbrew IPA.

 

[zgrav]

And I would really like to see the Vero layout for this board.

 

[jjjimi84]

Very cool, your write up is amazing and i love your work but I want to hear it!!!!

 

[Barry]

And I would really like to see the Vero layout for this board.

Me too!

 

[Barry]

Pabst Blue Ribbon beer seems to have a similar arc with folks that are tired of seeing how many hops can be brewed in a microbrew IPA.

I don’t know how people drink IPAs I’m a Stout or Porter fan myself

 

[zgrav]

also seems like a few test builds with great feedback might suggest this would be a nice PedalPCB board.

 

[Nostradoomus]

I don’t know how people drink IPAs I’m a Stout or Porter fan myself

Same. There’s a select few IPAs I can down comfortably (usually wheat or citrus styles) but stouts and porters are where it’s at. My favourite is a local Ice Bock that comes out in fall time...clocks in at 10%abv, delicious.

 

[daeg]

Nice. I traced the Beest but never got around to building one for myself -- too much tinkering and overthinking.

I kept wanting to use a quad opamp and use the first 2 opamps for input buffer and parametric EQ (to dial in TS style mid-hump), the 1 stage for clipping, then the final stage as the output buffer. It turns out that JFET amplifier at the end is really what adds that soft touch and sparkle to the sound. Without it you just have the the stiff feeling Mad Professor SHOD.

The Treble and Bass controls you did are very interesting. I'd love to hear it.

 

[Barry]

I should mention that the female side of the pair is small enough to pass thru the 5/16" hole for the power jack. I solder the connector to the jack and then pass the connector thru the hole, then thru the 5/16" nut and tighten it all down. I also put clear heatshrink over the terminals and solder joints.

I've some fit through and some have to be trimmed, which is basically snipping a flange off