Critique my circuit

[BuddyBoy122008]

I'm building my first ever circuit and I was hoping to receive some criticism about values, layout, etc. Anything is appreciated, thank you









p.s. if anyone knows how to add a mid scoop that would helpful.

 

[Robert]

You probably want a resistor and coupling capacitor between the opamp output and hard clipping diodes.

 

[falco_femoralis]

You probably want a resistor and coupling capacitor between the opamp output and hard clipping diodes.

I know that the coupling capacitor filters out any DC that may be present in the signal from the op amp, but what does the resistor do?

 

[jubal81]

I know that the coupling capacitor filters out any DC that may be present in the signal from the op amp, but what does the resistor do?

Limit the current from the opamp through the diodes. Start with 1K - 10K and see how you like it.
Also, the feedback resistor in the opamp loop should be at least 10X higher, considering the value of the gain pot.

 

[jwin615]

Yo circuit so fat...
Jk.

Should use or terminate the other opamp.

 

[JTEX]

As drawn, the R2/R3 divider (Vbias) will send half of any noise/ripple from your 9V supply straight into the opamp input. Hope you're using a battery! A better way to do it is something like this:

 

[thomasbe86]

I would add that your potentiometer should be 50k, so at minimum it would be unity, anything above adds gain. or you would need to swap the resistor in the negative feedbakc loop to 500k.
Have a look at how gain is calculated here: https://fr.farnell.com/op-amp-gain-calculator

 

[phi1]

You aren’t cutting any bass before clipping. This can sound flubby and mushy. (Although you might find something you like).

Many pedals cut bass by reducing C3.
Cutoff frequency = 1/(2piRC). Where R is R5 plus RV1.
Since RV1 is changing, it’s not an ideal spot to control the frequency.

You could lower C1 to reduce bass. Or, many pedals have the Gain pot where R4 is, so you can set the bass cut with R5 and C3, and it won’t change when the gain pot changes.

A lot of these suggestions here line up with many circuits like the Timmy. I like the idea of doing something unique from scratch. But, there’s reasons for a lot of the standard circuit structure.


For mid scoop, you could use the Big Muff tone control. The website TSCintheweb allows you to visualize the frequency graph of different circuits.