Gauss Drive

[HousTom]

I usually breadboard a pedal circuit to see if
a) It sounds like something I want
b) It can be tweaked to sound more like something I want

Occasionally, I'll buy a board and then breadboard it. A couple of times I have decided I didn't want to build the PC board because the breadboard didn't work for me and no amount of tweaking was gonna get it there.

I fully took this idea and ran. Built myself a really nice little breadboard/proto rig and it is SO USEFUL. In fact I'm so proud of it I'm gonna start a separate thread about breadboard setups and post a photo.

 

[HousTom]

Less compression: replace D2 & D3 with resistors.
...

So rookie me figured "I'm sure ChuckD just meant replace D2 & D3 with jumpers. Four diodes (2 series pairs in back-to-back) equals lots of clipping so TWO diodes (back-to-back) should equal less clipping/more headroom, right?" WRONG. I now understand that a pair of diodes in series has twice the Vf as one alone, so simply shorting D2 & D3 actually lowered my clipping threshold making the pedal sounds even grittier. And I think I now grasp that having a small resistor in series with a clipping diode can "soften" the clipping. I'm playing with this in an MDMA (Euphoria) right now as well.

Only thing is I'm unclear on the value for said resistors. Are we talking like 500R?

Thanks

 

[Danbieranowski]

So rookie me figured "I'm sure ChuckD just meant replace D2 & D3 with jumpers. Four diodes (2 series pairs in back-to-back) equals lots of clipping so TWO diodes (back-to-back) should equal less clipping/more headroom, right?" WRONG. I now understand that a pair of diodes in series has twice the Vf as one alone, so simply shorting D2 & D3 actually lowered my clipping threshold making the pedal sounds even grittier. And I think I now grasp that having a small resistor in series with a clipping diode can "soften" the clipping. I'm playing with this in an MDMA (Euphoria) right now as well.

Only thing is I'm unclear on the value for said resistors. Are we talking like 500R?

Thanks

You may also want to consider throwing a switch in there and switching to LED clipping to give even more room to breathe (depending on your clipping diodes of choice).

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

Only thing is I'm unclear on the value for said resistors. Are we talking like 500R?

Thanks

Given the values of R7 and the GAIN pot, I'd say somewhere between 1K and 10K is a good place to start. You could also try a trimpot. Remove D2 & D3, jumper D2-K to D3-A and connect the trimpot from D3-A to D3-K. Dan's LED suggestion is also a good one.