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potentially not a problem at all... I have been using this pedal (or the original) for years, but it was more about whether the sound could be improved by reducing clipping. I will try fiddling with R6 tomorrow and see what that does.

Ok, must be a weird circuit indeed. The voltage divider for VREF is 100k/1m, so I paralleled a 120k resistor on the 1m so the divider is now 100k/107k. VREF now 15.45v, VCC still 31v. Sound is very gated, distorted, and quiet. changed to 500k parallel with the 1m (value now 333k), now...

Sorry I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to biasing (and much other stuff), I have just measured VCC as 31.40v, and VREF as 27.96v. Should VREF then be lower, closer to 15v, to avoid clipping?

Hi guys, I have an Integral Pre (TC Integrated Preamp) that I built a while ago, the only problem I have with it is I get some op-amp clipping with my loudest guitar when I wang on the strings hard (which is most of the time). I know the build is fine as my original TC integrated preamp, as...

That natural coloured neck-thru on the right reminds me of a very similar (or the same?) looking guitar I borrowed from a friend soon after I started playing guitar (I only had an acoustic then). Some old Japanese made guitar from the 70’s that I think said ‘Memphis’ on the headstock, that was...

If you want to avoid special switches (that would be my preference as the backs of my cabs are hard to reach and switches can get bumped), you can do this with three switching jacks. you could also go ‘easy mode’ and just buy the ‘plug and play’ jack plate (but where’s the fun in that). Here...

That top row of pots on the KOT looks like a real time waster from an assembly point-of-view. I’m a cheap-ass and I will buy the cheapest pots for my builds, often solder-lug or short pcb pin, I just solder solid core wire to the pot and bend it to wherever it needs to go. Never let me down...

I hope this doesn’t mean no FZ-2 Waza on the horizon :(

Don’t forget to sand off the part numbers for extra mojo

Speaking of tech videos, here’s a good 3 part series on a repair to a catastrophic failure in a triple rectifier. He goes over some of the questionable design and construction decisions made in the amp. I have a dual rectifier from the same era, absolute beast of an amp and my favorite...

It looks like the build docs spec an LT1054 which according to the data sheet absolute max supply voltage is 16v. Keep in mind that if it is doubling voltage, it would double 9v to about 17v to 18v, and it would double 12v to 22v to 24v. Once again as long as all the other parts downstream...

Pretty much anything that doesn’t have a charge pump, as long as the electrolytic caps (the ones that see full supply voltage at least) are high enough voltage. I like to order 50v electros as they usually are small enough to fit on the board (sometimes not the 100ufs though) so I can...

I never used breakout 3pdt boards since I never bothered to order them. I got some for free from a pcb order with a different company and they do seem to slightly speed assembly, so in the future I’ll use them if I have them but doubt I’ll go out of my way to order them. I always socket IC’s...

Mosfets seem to be fragile, I killed the bs170 in mine by swapping guitars with the boost mode engaged, (‘fuzz’ side off) as soon as I plugged in the other guitar, boost mode was as you describe, until I swapped bs170’s. Must have been some static or something? Dunno, but now I make sure it’s...

I built a jfet copy of an orange graphic mk II preamp. It sounded great the day I made it, then dark and farty the next day. I found changing the j201’s used seemed to make it sound good for a minute or so then it went back to sounding farty. Turns out changing the jfets didn’t make it sound...

I built a high voltage tube buffer once using one of those cheap high voltage boost converters off eBay, it worked for about 20 minutes until one of the filter caps on the boost converter exploded. What a smell. I never did bother getting it working again, kinda scared me off those cheap...

Depends how you’re running it, the grind/33 modes cut a ton of bass which will reduce overall output. They are also very similar, to my ears the 33 sounds slightly brighter, like the treble knob fixed at a slightly higher value. try comparing them to the Tc preamp mode with bass at 0 and treble...

I like the parenthesis but I was under no illusions that it was anything other than three already-established circuits in one box. I quite like having a clean boost there for whenever I need it. Sure does save space. it’s a good example of how you rarely become a successful pedal builder by...

I’m not sure how much of a sound difference it would make, I don’t have the isocoles but I did build the integral pre as it has an on/off switch unlike the original integrated preamp. They pretty much sound the same (allowing for pot taper differences), the integral being maybe slightly higher...

Maybe doesn’t help but my real tc integrated preamp has a bc413c for that transistor. it also has a bc547b for the constant current source (schematic specs bc548b) but that part is excluded from the isocoles schematic. Apparently that part was wired incorrectly in the original 33 pedal (and...