Diamond Bass Comp
- Thread starter phi1
- Start date
debrad
Active member
I installed a 3mm blue LED (Vf~2v according to Tayda) with a 10k resistor (1/8 watt) and everything worked on a 9v supply.
The LED went out VERY shortly after I switched to my 18v tap and the compressor stopped working. I crossed my fingers that the dying LED just gave those 18v a quicker path to ground and, sure enough, when I de-soldered it and ran the pedal at 18v without an LED, everything worked (to be honest, I was pleasantly surprised by how much BETTER it worked at 18v!).
Looking back, I think the 10k was enough resistance but the calculations show that P would work out to approximately 0.16 watts so that was at least 0.035 too much for the 1/8 watt resistor. I replaced what I had with a 1/4 watt resistor at 15k and that seems to work quite nicely!
The LED went out VERY shortly after I switched to my 18v tap and the compressor stopped working. I crossed my fingers that the dying LED just gave those 18v a quicker path to ground and, sure enough, when I de-soldered it and ran the pedal at 18v without an LED, everything worked (to be honest, I was pleasantly surprised by how much BETTER it worked at 18v!).
Looking back, I think the 10k was enough resistance but the calculations show that P would work out to approximately 0.16 watts so that was at least 0.035 too much for the 1/8 watt resistor. I replaced what I had with a 1/4 watt resistor at 15k and that seems to work quite nicely!
Feral Feline
Well-known member
Good to hear it’s all sorted!
Thanks for the thanks, but Phi1 did all the heavy liftin’ ’cause he knows what he’s talking about. I’m just parroting.
I think a 15k 1/8w would work, as at 18v level it’s more about the k-resistance, but 1/4w is a sure bet.
I like to run comps, EQ, modulation as high voltage as possible for clean headroom; and sometimes upping a dirt pedal from 9v to 12v or 18v can bring back sparkly dynamics to an overly compressed tone.
I've got Box-Film caps up to 2µ2, and IIRC there are WIMA box-film that go up to 4µ7 available at Tayda.
I just haven't been able to justify those 4µ7's cost when I can double up my cheaper 2µ2s in parallel for 4µ4 — close enough!
Thanks for the thanks, but Phi1 did all the heavy liftin’ ’cause he knows what he’s talking about. I’m just parroting.
I think a 15k 1/8w would work, as at 18v level it’s more about the k-resistance, but 1/4w is a sure bet.
I like to run comps, EQ, modulation as high voltage as possible for clean headroom; and sometimes upping a dirt pedal from 9v to 12v or 18v can bring back sparkly dynamics to an overly compressed tone.
I've got Box-Film caps up to 2µ2, and IIRC there are WIMA box-film that go up to 4µ7 available at Tayda.
I just haven't been able to justify those 4µ7's cost when I can double up my cheaper 2µ2s in parallel for 4µ4 — close enough!
