Argentum 1212 Gain/Volume

[mralanmorgan]

I just finished up my build of the Argentum 1212 and it just seems kinda quiet and doesn't have a whole lot of range in the gain knob...idk if I did something wrong? I biased the top j201 at 9v and the bottom 2 at 4.5, should I maybe kick them up just a little bit?

 

[Robert]

Start by biasing all three at around 9V and see if that helps.

 

[Cvoxdog]

I built this one recently and I really the sound. However, when I was biasing the jfets I could get q2 and q3 to 9v but for q1 I think the lowest it would go was 11ish. Is it to due to the jfet itself or could it be due to something else? I used the smd ones.

 

[mralanmorgan]

Start by biasing all three at around 9V and see if that helps.

It definitely helped a lot. I wish I understood more. Do they all 3 work together or does one do volume and the other 2 handle gain? I'm still having a little volume issue. It only goes a little louder than the amp if I crank the gain. It sounds awesome in the 1/3 of the useable range.

Or I could be over thinking it. If I use it more as a preamp it should only be much louder if it's cranked...

 

[coachseeley]

After populating everything, biasing all jfets to 9V, and testing outside of an enclosure... I too also felt the pedal was a little week in gain and overall dB. I tried 3 different J201 (measuring a little higher on my cheap meter) and I could get any of them biased to 9V. Swapped out with 3 more J201's, and biased them by ear... sounds great now. Signal went from low dB --> higher dB --> broken (severely clipped). I stopped at the highest dB right before it clipped. Not sure if that helps, but this pedal now sounds more like what a 1484 sounds like when I played one a few years ago. The 1484 is my all-time favorite amp, and I remember that sound very well.

 

[mralanmorgan]

After populating everything, biasing all jfets to 9V, and testing outside of an enclosure... I too also felt the pedal was a little week in gain and overall dB. I tried 3 different J201 (measuring a little higher on my cheap meter) and I could get any of them biased to 9V. Swapped out with 3 more J201's, and biased them by ear... sounds great now. Signal went from low dB --> higher dB --> broken (severely clipped). I stopped at the highest dB right before it clipped. Not sure if that helps, but this pedal now sounds more like what a 1484 sounds like when I played one a few years ago. The 1484 is my all-time favorite amp, and I remember that sound very well.

I fudged it up and had a wrong value component in one spot. These are fantastic pedals and I'm sorry I ever said anything bad or misinformed about it.