Derailer Troubleshooting

[rmjlmartin]

Hi!

I am troubleshooting a Derailer V1 build for a friend, and I'm looking for a build document/schematic for it. I have the V2 one that's on the website, but the layout is obviously a little different...

Thanks!

 

[rmjlmartin]

Does anyone have a copy of the build document for the earlier version of the Derailer?

 

[Robert]

https://docs.pedalpcb.com/project/Derailer.v1.pdf

 

[rmjlmartin]

Awesome, thank you!

 

[ambusch85]

I just finished mine, but just curious if others are getting similar response to the demo videos from Mike Hermans:

Mine sounds like it has twice the overall gain and not nearly as much treble. The cab switch has a massive jump in volume from none to either the 4x12 or 2x12 options. The gain seems like its either all on or all off and doesn't appear to respond particularly well with volume knob roll off on the guitar. The Hi-cut i tend to have to keep below 12:00 to get some presence out of it (unless the presence switch is in high mode). I've checked everything over, and will do so once again to make sure everything is correct, but wanted to see if anyone has similar response or confirmed the taper of the pots, or if mine might have something incorrect.

I tried uploading the picture of my build but the file is too large.

 

[mywmyw]

keep in mind the bright switch is pre gain, the presence is post gain, so the effect of the latter will be much more drastic. if you watch the pete thorn demo where he sweeps the gain knob while playing, the high end rolls off as the gain goes up, so adjust accordingly. the volume knob cleanup will be more useful if you have a treble bleed on your guitar volume pot.

there is a big volume jump as you switch in the 212 and 412 settings. thats normal.

yes it's an exceedingly gainy pedal. the gain goes up quickly from 0-halfway, then after that point the design "begins to mimic power tube saturation" according to ethos, so the "feel" changes. i keep the gain just below halfway usually.

did you make sure to buy your opa2134 from a reputable source? i dunno how critical it is, but the opa2134 is known for its high fidelity and low noise, so it might help keep the highs over other dual opamps.

 

[ambusch85]

Thanks for your response mywmyw!

Pretty sure mine is operating as designed then. Yeah my 2134s are fairly old but if I recall they came from mouser digikey or small bear from a bulk parts purchase I did probably 5 years ago (or more). Just played with it a bit more this afternoon & the guitar volume roll off seemed to work a bit better (I may have had the gain excessively high previously when testing and messing with parameters). All the controls are fairly interactive with each other. It just seemed much treblier in the demos at different hi cut positions than what I was experiencing, and the gain levels seemed different @ different levels which is why I was questioning the pot tapers. Doesn’t really make any difference in the overall flexibility. I think I actually prefer the less bright sound, but wanted to double check others experience to see if something might be wrong with my build. I might eventually change the gain pot to an audio taper for better control for me, but overall, I dig it.

Thanks again!

 

[Gordo]

Isn't this pedal pretty dependant on being the first in your chain? Mine sounds great at home but on my live rig it sits behind a wireless receiver and doesn't sound anywhere near as good.

 

[mywmyw]

Thanks for your response mywmyw!

Pretty sure mine is operating as designed then. Yeah my 2134s are fairly old but if I recall they came from mouser digikey or small bear from a bulk parts purchase I did probably 5 years ago (or more). Just played with it a bit more this afternoon & the guitar volume roll off seemed to work a bit better (I may have had the gain excessively high previously when testing and messing with parameters). All the controls are fairly interactive with each other. It just seemed much treblier in the demos at different hi cut positions than what I was experiencing, and the gain levels seemed different @ different levels which is why I was questioning the pot tapers. Doesn’t really make any difference in the overall flexibility. I think I actually prefer the less bright sound, but wanted to double check others experience to see if something might be wrong with my build. I might eventually change the gain pot to an audio taper for better control for me, but overall, I dig it.

Thanks again!

np. its a unique pedal. despite its ridiculously over the top gain, it still retains some stringiness and spank, esp with single coils. I often find that I have a hard time getting enough gain out of overdrives for my strat bridge pickup when i'm soloing or playing heavier rock. this pedal has more than enough gain and it still sounds nice and stratty underneath all that liquid sustain.

also keep in mind, that playing at bedroom volume will necessitate a different eq than playing at stage volume - guitar speakers respond differently when they arent getting goosed by a strong signal.

 

[acobberson]

I too am having the same issues as ambusch85. The presence control is practically unusable unless it is in the bright position, at around 11 o'clock the hi-cut control is so muddy that I can't go any higher and the gain control goes from none to about 100% at around 9 o'clock. Overall it just doesn't seem to have enough hi-end treble response unless the hi-cut is set incredibly low and the presence switch is set to bright.
At these settings it does sound GREAT, but it just makes me wonder, if this is operating correctly, what's the point of having those controls if they are nearly unusable? I really think my pedal must have an issue somewhere. I will go over it again and make sure caps and resistors are all correct, especially in the presence and hi-cut sections.

Like I said though, the pedal sounds freaking fantastic in those few positions.

 

[ambusch85]

acobberson, were you able to figure it out? I'm still thinking about changing all the pots to audio taper to easier dial in sounds. I didn't see anything incorrect in mine except I used poly's almost everywhere instead of MLCC since its what I had. Shouldn't change anything though.

 

[ambusch85]

Acobberson, I think I accidentally stumbled on the answer... Can you tell me what amp you were testing/using it on? In my tests with this pedal, in smaller wattage amps it doesn't seem to have as much high end content and I end up using both bright and high presence. In higher wattage amps, I tend to keep the presence on either middle or low position in addition to turning the high cut up. What's cool about this pedal is the controls that you can use to tailor the tone to the amp that you are using.