I'm about to source parts for the Gerkin fuzz and noticed the Swollen Pickle MkIII has toggles for the crunch and scoop instead of pots. From the videos I've watched of the Swollen Pickle MkII, you'd only ever have those pots all the way up or all the way down, so replacing them with toggles makes sense. Would anyone be willing to explain to me how I could mod this for toggles? Or is it not worth it with the way the pcb is designed?
Gerkin Fuzz with toggles
- Thread starter Clayton
- Start date
BuddytheReow
Breadboard Baker
Can you show schematics of each?
jesuscrisp
Well-known member
To be "that guy", why not save yourself the trouble and just build it with the knobs? Without a trace nobody can tell you what the respective values were for the earlier version. Pots are usually also more durable and less prone to breaking mechanically than toggles. Plus maybe you find yourself not liking either min/max positions, despite what you think you hear from demos.
Feral Feline
Well-known member
I'm not sure what you mean by "...1pdt toggles with a 50K / 470K resistor on one pole and the center and opposite pole wired straight to the board?"
My understanding is you want separate SPDT switches, one for the SCOOP and another for the CRUNCH — so there is no "opposite pole".
To clarify, TTBOMK...
A switch that is a 1PDT is a "1-Pole Dual-Throw", otherwise known as a SPDT (Single-Pole Dual-Throw). A pole being a column,
lugs for a SPDT would be numbered thusly:
1
2
3
The centre-lug is the COMMON, ie:
When the toggle is up, lugs 2&3 are connected.
The toggle-switch down, lugs 1&2 connect.
If it's an on-off-on switch, the middle toggle position would be no connection between lug 2 and either outside lug.
So, to achieve the all or nothing approach instead of pots for SCOOP & CRUNCH, here is what I would do...
SCOOP:
The easiest way for me to look at it is to
Solder a wire from the PCB SCOOP-1 pad to LUG-2 of the SPDT (on-on);
Then solder a 50k resistor to the outside lugs (1 to 3);
Then solder a wire from ONE of the outside lugs to PCB SCOOP-3 pad.
You'll have two SCOOP settings, the minimum and the maximum.CRUNCH:
Even though this control is wired opposite of the SCOOP, ie signal enters the pot via PCB's CRUNCH-3, we can wire it up just as we did the SCOOP. Either way, the result is the same, but for this control I'd personally use an SPDT on-off-on.
SO...
Solder a wire from PCB CRUNCH-1 pad to the centre-lug of the SPDT.
Then solder the 470k resistor from one outside lug to the other, just like was done on the SCOOP with the 50k resistor.
Then solder a wire from ONE of the outside lugs to PCB's CRUNCH-3 pad.
You'll have three settings:1) MAX CRUNCH 470k
2) DIODE LIFT (turning your Muffickle into a pseudo Jumbo ToneBender [the JTB had a neutered first clipping stage as opposed to 2nd])
3) MIN CRUNCH 0k
Personally, I'd keep the much more versatile pots, 'cause you can still set it (in the sweet spot) and forget it.
Here's yet another way to go about it — a two channel configuration:
Find the sweet-spots for both controls (or just have the min-max thing going) and use a multiple-poled switch, ie a 3PDT-stomper:
A B C poles
1 4 7
2 5 8
3 6 9
Wire up CRUNCH to pole "A" [I'd do the diode-lift setting and whichever 2nd setting I preferred, ie 470k or straight-through]
Wire up an LED/CLR to pole "B"
Wire up SCOOP to pole "C"
Now you've got a "Dual-Channel" Gherkin, the LED telling you when "Channel-B" is on.
You could get really fancy and wire up separate toggles for both the CRUNCH and SCOOP and run those through the 3PDT-stomper, providing maximum flexibility in your Dual-Channel Gherkin.
