Distortion 250 build notes

[cylnplnt]

Before you roast my build let me explain. The purpose of this build was to refine my building skills, experiment with vintage style components, and be able to try mods and variations without soldering(I don’t have a breadboard). This is my fourth build and I feel pretty good about it.

Some conclusions I’ve come to:

1)The vintage style components are a preference of mine. I based my parts acquisitions on an internal photo of a vintage Distortion+ on electro smash.com. I specifically noticed the use of ceramic and tantalum caps. As the pcbs aren’t exactly the same I did still use electrolytic in C6 and C7. In my current limited understanding I believe these are just functioning in the power supply section and are not effecting audio. Since I socketed the caps I’ve been able to compare to box caps. Even if it’s just imaginary mojo, I definitely like the way the old style parts look.

2)I definitely prefer the the sound with C1 absent, like in the 250. I like the clearer high end.

3)Most importantly I love the sound of the pedal. It will definitely have a place on my board. I like using it with the distortion rolled back from full just a little. Super thick, kind of fuzzy, overdrive. A nice addition next to my go to; the RAT.

I’m looking forward to experimenting with switching out the couple caps, and diodes that differ from 250, and seeing if I feel inclined to do a separate build with all the values as they are in that version of the circuit.

 

[jwin615]

Nice job. Congrats on #2!

 

[VanWhy]

Nothing to roast here. My conclusion: you nailed it. The build and the report. Good stuff.

 

[Coda]

Very nice. Nothing to be ashamed of…nice to see a pedal around here without some dumb super hero on it…

 

[drgonzo1969]

Hell yeah! Nice work. I’m building a 250 on tag board right now with vintage components.

 

[cylnplnt]

I thought I’d get flak for having so many sockets, as I often see them advised against. Also chasing mojo with with less recommended part choices.

 

[cylnplnt]

Very nice. Nothing to be ashamed of…nice to see a pedal around here without some dumb super hero on it…

I’m partial to the minimalist aesthetic. I like subtle nods to the original design. Like the knobs. And of course the yellow LED being a nod to the original D+ enclosure.

 

[cylnplnt]

Hell yeah! Nice work. I’m building a 250 on tag board right now with vintage components.

Nice! All the parts I used were new besides the NOS Op Amp and the diodes. I’ve just been trying to see if using parts like the old pedals would yield any particularly desirable results.

 

[Feral Feline]

Cool pedal and build report.


SOCKETS: There's nothing wrong with sockets, they have their place in the DIY-Build World. Especially good for ICs and transistors, so you don't fry said components.

If you're going to do a lot of experimenting with one circuit, IMO it's worthwhile to socket a PCB — I found I could more easily swap parts and keep track of what's what doing that.
Yanking every component from the socketed-PCB and starting from scratch is also easier than breadboarding from scratch.

For the MXR Dist+/DOD 250 (before I started breadboarding at all) I went whole hog and put it in an easily-opened candy-tin:




There's a bunch of other similar circuits in addition to the Ross and other ones mentioned in your variations thread.


Fuzz Central's Liquid Drive
GGG's Adamu
Hao Sole Pressure
MXR Micro Amp / BBE Boosta Grande / Mark Hammer Mods
BFFX's Janus
Dan Armstrong's Blue Clipper
BAT's Quantum Mystic
Wampler's Dist+ Mods
HGAmps' Red Light Distortion
VFE's Red Wolf & VFE Dist3
Penny Pedals' Finger Print
EQD's White Light
AMZ OverDrive Pro
...

 

[cylnplnt]

Cool pedal and build report.


SOCKETS: There's nothing wrong with sockets, they have their place in the DIY-Build World. Especially good for ICs and transistors, so you don't fry said components.

If you're going to do a lot of experimenting with one circuit, IMO it's worthwhile to socket a PCB — I found I could more easily swap parts and keep track of what's what doing that.
Yanking every component from the socketed-PCB and starting from scratch is also easier than breadboarding from scratch.

For the MXR Dist+/DOD 250 (before I started breadboarding at all) I went whole hog and put it in an easily-opened candy-tin:

View attachment 69736


There's a bunch of other similar circuits in addition to the Ross and other ones mentioned in your variations thread.


Fuzz Central's Liquid Drive
GGG's Adamu
Hao Sole Pressure
MXR Micro Amp / BBE Boosta Grande / Mark Hammer Mods
BFFX's Janus
Dan Armstrong's Blue Clipper
BAT's Quantum Mystic
Wampler's Dist+ Mods
HGAmps' Red Light Distortion
VFE's Red Wolf & VFE Dist3
Penny Pedals' Finger Print
EQD's White Light
AMZ OverDrive Pro
...

Right on! Thanks for sharing. It’s been really encouraging and validating seeing others who’ve tracked along my same line of thinking. I’m familiar with a few on that list. I’ll have to look into the others. I could pin down most of the major difference I was interested in between the D+ and 250. I’m very partial to the Ge clipping. I’ll probably spend a little time with the Si swapped in. If I end up liking it enough I may build a dedicated 250 version. If I socket the diodes in that one, I could have the best of both worlds. In the future I am interested in exploring the concept of adding a tone knob. Perhaps finding a way to and a RAT style filter. Definitely a lot to explore with this circuit.

 

[Feral Feline]

Right on! Thanks for sharing. It’s been really encouraging and validating seeing others who’ve tracked along my same line of thinking. I’m familiar with a few on that list. I’ll have to look into the others. I could pin down most of the major difference I was interested in between the D+ and 250. I’m very partial to the Ge clipping. I’ll probably spend a little time with the Si swapped in. If I end up liking it enough I may build a dedicated 250 version. If I socket the diodes in that one, I could have the best of both worlds. In the future I am interested in exploring the concept of adding a tone knob. Perhaps finding a way to and a RAT style filter. Definitely a lot to explore with this circuit.

Solder the Ge diodes on one side of a switch (DPDT on-off-on) and socket the other side; leave the centre switch position as OFF for sampling some op-amp distortion when you roll some different ICs through it. Then you've got the best of all worlds. Your favourite Ge diodes on one side and then the ability sample any other diode combination you want on the other:

Ge asymmetrical
Si
Schottky
Transistor-as-diode
LEDs
4xGe symmetrical
etc.


Looking forward to your findings of the circuit paired with a Rat-style filter! Great idea.

 

[cylnplnt]

Solder the Ge diodes on one side of a switch (DPDT on-off-on) and socket the other side; leave the centre switch position as OFF for sampling some op-amp distortion when you roll some different ICs through it. Then you've got the best of all worlds. Your favourite Ge diodes on one side and then the ability sample any other diode combination you want on the other:

Ge asymmetrical
Si
Schottky
Transistor-as-diode
LEDs
4xGe symmetrical
etc.


Looking forward to your findings of the circuit paired with a Rat-style filter! Great idea.

Figuring out how to integrate switches is definitely high on my list of things to learn.

 

[Feral Feline]

Figuring out how to integrate switches is definitely high on my list of things to learn.

Here you go, might help a little...

Good lookin' build, whatever the PCB inside.


Not sure if this is too basic or if it will help you understand diode-clipping switches...

View attachment 45202


The green LEDs have the highest Forward Voltage ("Fv" on DATASHEETS), so they go in the middle "OFF" position. Then put whatever lower Fv diodes you want on either side. Don't populate the PCB's diodes, choose one diode's set of holes and run the wires from the switch to them.

I've shown 3-diodes in the UP toggle position (which in the diagram is the bottom of the switch), giving asymmetrical clipping if the combined Fv of D6 and D7 are not greater than the Fv of the LED. If the combined Fv is NOT greater, then the LED for that direction wins and the two diodes in series may as well not be there at all — the good news is the clipping will still be asymmetrical given the different voltages of the outer diode (1N914, 1v, for example ) vs the Green LED's 2v. So if you have two 1N914s in series, that's 2v — same as the Green LED. If it's two Schottky diodes in series (0.3Fv each for a total of 0.6Fv) then the Green LED is effectively ignored and you'll have the desired asymmetrical clipping without the Green LED getting in the way. There are plenty of DATASHEETS, diagrams and info online that give a good rough guesstimation of Fv for various diodes commonly used to clip signal in effects).

In my diagram, basically the signal always goes to the highest Fv of the bridged DPDT's centre pins, unless an easier path is found (flipping the toggle UP or DOWN out of the middle "OFF" position.
This is true of hard-clipping (ie to ground) as in a Rat, or soft-clipping (ie in an op-amp's feedback loop) as in a Tube-Screamer.




So if a PCB's build-guide specs an on-on and provides two different clipping options, I'll often [EDIT: USE an ON-OFF-ON and] stick in diodes of my choice and solder LEDs right across pins 2 and 5 of the onboard-soldered [ON-OFF-ON] switch...

 

[cylnplnt]

Here you go, might help a little...

I think I I understand. A couple questions; Everything still works leaving the second diode space empty? How are the diodes actually attached to the switch? Apologies if these questions are elementary. I’m only a few months into all this.

 

[cylnplnt]

Took some time to just turn up and jam out on my Distortion 250 and Muroidea builds. I could not be happier with the tones I’m getting from both. The Muroidea holds up against my vintage RAT. While I don’t have an original D+, the tones I’m getting from the D. 250 are amazing and inspiring. It’s unbelievably gratifying to be achieving the tones I’ve been seeking, from pedals I’ve built. While I feel like I’m just getting started on this pedal building journey, I am definitely savoring this peak.