Current Lover Flanger distortion with hot pickups - remedy?

[franblanc]

I have constructed the Electric Lover flanger pedal from PCB Mania. I have tried it with a stratocaster that contains an onboard pre amp which increases the signal and I cannot seem to rid the pedal of distortion at the end of the sweep. I have also tried the pedal with a les paul that contains hot humbuckers Classic 57 and the problem remains. Curously the pedal functions well with an acoustic guitar passive pickup which has less output signal. So my question is this: what adjustments of modifications can be made to the Electric Lover circuit design to remedy the disortion caused by hot pickups. I think I need to lessen the input signal. So do you believe it is reasonable to adjust any of R1 R2 or R3 to fix the distortion caused by hot pick ups? (P.S. The power IC in the pedal is a LM311N not a LM311P. Neither of those fix the problem.)

 

[Erik S]

I have constructed the Electric Lover flanger pedal from PCB Mania.

I can't vouch for the PCB Mania version, but on my Madbean Current Lover, I noticed some distortion recently when running a hot signal into it. I opened it back up and was able to dial it out with the trimmers.

 

[Alan W]

I still haven’t built mine (have been not buliding any pedals until I decorate the pile of raw pedals I have)—but am wondering how many volts you’re using? The 2023 design can go up to 18v, which typically gives you greater headroom than lower voltages. Might be worth a try.

 

[Erik S]

I'm curious about your grounding scheme on this. Unless I'm missing something I don't see how you're connecting to the DC ground.

 

[Bio77]

Just reiterating some of the earlier posts. Setting the BBD bias trimmer precisely will give you the maximum headroom at the 9V. If that doesnt get you enough then 18V should solve the problem. Would recommend using an 18V power supply and not try to add a charge pump. Those are tricky with flange circuits and usually add clock noise.

 

[JTEX]

BBD biasing for lowest distortion might fix it, if you haven't already done that.

 

[franblanc]

I'm curious about your grounding scheme on this. Unless I'm missing something I don't see how you're connecting to the DC ground.

Thanks to everyone for the tips. (I added the DC ground connection later), I used star grounding to avoid loops. I will try adding more voltage to increase the headroom.

 

[darwin999]

I have tried it with a stratocaster that contains an onboard pre amp which increases the signal and I cannot seem to rid the pedal of distortion at the end of the sweep.

I agree with trying higher voltage for headroom, but if that doesn't work then another path is to give up input signal by making a unity gain buffer followed by a volume pot. I know it's less than ideal to give up S/N, but it will work. Or perhaps you could follow the buffer by a voltage-reducing transformer...

 

[giovanni]

I agree with trying higher voltage for headroom, but if that doesn't work then another path is to give up input signal by making a unity gain buffer followed by a volume pot. I know it's less than ideal to give up S/N, but it will work. Or perhaps you could follow the buffer by a voltage-reducing transformer...

But then one needs to make up the gain no? An easier option would be the guitar volume at that point.