Chalumeau
- Thread starter Goose
- Start date
Chuck D. Bones
Circuit Wizard
Thr distortion comes from overdriving the LM386. Some people discuss reducing the gain of the LM386 here:
http://effectslayouts.blogspot.com/2016/02/mid-fi-electronics-clarinot.html
http://effectslayouts.blogspot.com/2016/02/mid-fi-electronics-clarinot.html
Just to clarify this, is this a SPDT On-On switch? And the middle pin goes to the bent leg 1 and either of the outer pins gets soldered to the corresponding pad on the pcb?
Your drawing is pretty clear but just wanted to confirm.
Thanks!
Yeah that's how I did it. You could use pretty much any switch. An spst on-off could be even smaller but I just used the simplest option I had on hand.
Also another thing I noticed recently while messing around with it is that because it's so volume sensitive, if you put a boost in front you get really pronounced modulation. I'm thinking of adding a little boost into it as well if I can squeeze it in somewhere.
Great, thanks! I'm just starting this build and this a mod I definitely want to include.
Chuck D. Bones
Circuit Wizard
If you want more modulation without the distortion, then the LED needs it's own driver, separate from the rest of the signal path. Something like two LM386's running in parallel, one for the signal to the PT2399 delay and Blend control, another for the LED. Leave the gain set high for the LED path and variable gain for the delay drive. It's a little more complicated, but what the Hell!
Most people recommend a vactrol vtl5c3, but it's up to your preferences. I decided to try a few different options, I ordered some fake chinese vactrols for like 3 bucks and also made some of my own. I ended up going with a 5mm red LED and this LDR from pedalpcb https://www.pedalpcb.com/product/gl5528/, but I tried all of the LDRs they have here and all had similar results. I might swap it out for a real vactrol if I get one as part of an order so I'm not paying 5 bucks shipping on a tiny component; or if I find myself using the pedal more often.
I may get some heavier use out of it soon. I've been toying around with it more this past week since the LDRs just arrived and I swapped my old one for the Gl5528 and found some really good settings I found that if you keep the fuzz on and turn the depth and tracking knobs all the way to the highest modulation setting , it actually cancels out the delay and the blend no matter what you have delay and blend set to. So you get a weird, random wobbly, lo-fi vibrato type effect in almost realtime (it's delayed a few milliseconds)
I may get some heavier use out of it soon. I've been toying around with it more this past week since the LDRs just arrived and I swapped my old one for the Gl5528 and found some really good settings I found that if you keep the fuzz on and turn the depth and tracking knobs all the way to the highest modulation setting , it actually cancels out the delay and the blend no matter what you have delay and blend set to. So you get a weird, random wobbly, lo-fi vibrato type effect in almost realtime (it's delayed a few milliseconds)
Cool. Thanks for the link! Looking forward to getting this completed and playing around with it.
Nostradoomus
Well-known member
The Tayda LDRs seem to work nicely in most builds too.
the_grumpy_gnome
Active member
I love this picture. It's perfect.
pigeonpedal
New member
Hey, I'm very new to this board but recently built the Chalumeau (first PedalPCB build and third overall build after doing a couple of Madbean PCBs)
Had it working fine until I tried the Fuzz mod. After wiring up the switch, I get no sound. Not sure what I did to mess it up! For context, I tried just bending pin 1 and that worked fine to take the fuzz out, but once I wired up a 1pst switch, I get nothing from the input to the circuit. I tried to desolder the hole for pin 1 in the socket but that's giving me trouble so I'm going to try and desolder the whole socket and replace it. Would it make sense to cut a pin off of a busted IC I have laying around and solder a wire to that and just put it in the socket as I would with the pin on the lm386?
pigeonpedal
New member
Hey, thanks for the quick response. I'll give it a shot this weekend!
neiltheseal
Active member
I have this in the mail. Someone gave me the schematic because I had the same question as you. Can’t verify that it works but I can see no reason why it wouldn’t.
I’ll let you know how it goes if you like.
I’ll let you know how it goes if you like.
pigeonpedal
New member
Yeah, I did the mod without the switch and it worked fine, just modding it to take out the fuzz. But as soon as I wired the switch up I lost all sound through the circuit. Bypass still works of course. Really not sure what happened. Haven't had a chance yet to revisit but will have some time to work on it tomorrow.
