Barber LTD Silver

[HamishR]

I made this for a friend today. I am so surprised at just how good it sounds! Only a few mods to the original, mainly diodes and output cap - nothing major. It's a great circuit and such a different experience from the ones I had when I first tried Barber pedals. The schematic is on Barber's site. I am spoilt with some fantastic overdrives right now.

The knobs are Volume and Gain on the first row, and Bass/Mids/Tone on the second. The tone is apparently one of those more bass to the left/more treble to the right things and it's subtle but it works. The Bass and Mids are usually trimpots inside I believe but it's handy to have them on the outside.

 

[music6000]

Looks Great!
Here's a 2 part video with Dave Barber talking about his Pedals:

 

[steelplayer]

Wow, that's a super clean looking vero!

 

[HamishR]

Music 6000 thanks for posting that - it explains a lot about all the various models. I get quite confused by them all but suspect that the LTD Silver was a good one to build.

 

[Barry]

Looks great!

 

[~nick~]

What IC chip did you use (I’m guessing dual op amp of some sort)? The schematic doesn’t say. Thanks ?. What changes did you make and would you do anything differently for a second build?

 

[HamishR]

I think the original used a JRC4558. Pretty sure i used a TL072. Things I changed from stock? I used a 1µF cap at Volume 3 because the 4µ7 is too rumbley for me - and i like a lot of low end. I used 1N4001s and 1N4148s as clipping diodes - a pair each way, rather than just four 1N4148s. Would you hear a difference? Maybe not. But I like 'em.

Things I would change? Maybe I would use an audio taper on the bass pot.

The pedal pictured here is the second one of these I built. I just changed the output cap from 4µ7 to 1µF on my first one to match because it worked so well in this one. It's a subtle difference but worth it to me. Apart from that I can't say - it's a very well voiced overdrive. It has made my single 12 tweed-style combo sound quite Marshallesque. Old school Marshall, not JCM 800.

 

[~nick~]

Ok so... what pedal would you recommend to get that JCM 800 sound, outta curiosity? ?

 

[HamishR]

Direct Drive, Gain Changer... I built a Direct Drive without all the switching. I just chose one switch setting and built that and it sounds even more JMP than the LTD Silver, which has a flatter EQ apparently.

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Nice build! Super clean.