Cream pie leds

[Mentaltossflycoon]

Hey, I just tested out this cream pie fuzz and it is massive sounding as expected. When I dime the gain only 2 of the 4 leds light up. Is that a sign that something is up or is that just how those function in the circuit? It certainly sounds good.

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

It's normal. Unless you hit your creampie hard with a booster, there won't be enough current to light up D1 & D2. You can use superbrights, but they have a higher Vf and will alter the tone and compression.

This pedal has an input impedance around 8KΩ, so loads whatever is driving it very heavily. Are you running it straight off of your guitar?

Do you get much hiss when you dime FLUFF?

 

[Mentaltossflycoon]

No, it's hooked up to one of these.

Ultra Tester

...or if you prefer the full name - Ultra Mega Testing Contraption. More often than not, all you'll need is the simple tester. Plug in your nice newly-built circuit, find out it works, off you go. Now and again things go wrong, and its time to start fiddling. That's where this beauty comes into...

shop.pedalparts.co.uk

Thanks, I hadn't seen leds in a circuit light up so brightly so it had me suspicious. Didn't notice much hiss but I haven't played it at full volume yet. Your help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Mentaltossflycoon]

Just played through my big amp and there's definitely a jump in hiss with fluff dimed but just in the last 5% of the sweep. This is normal?

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Yes. 4558 is a noisy opamp. You can try different dual opamps. The LEDs make the clipping, so the biggest diff you will hear with other opamps will be the noise floor. Try TL072, NE5532, LM833. You can even try OPA2134, but IMO a high-fidelity opamp like that is wasted in a dirt pedal.

 

[Mentaltossflycoon]

The hiss is no deal breaker but I'll play around with it, though I don't think I have an opa2134 on hand. Thanks!

 

[Mentaltossflycoon]

I only had the tl072 but there's definitely less hiss now. Thanks again! Might order some of the others out of curiosity.