MichaelW
Well-known member
This is one I was not planning to build. I'm generally not a big fan of JFET based overdrives but @bluedmc777 twisted my arm so hard that it popped out of the shoulder socket. Once I jacked it back in place by slamming myself against the wall, I ordered the board.......
So despite my low expectations, I really like this drive! Note: that I did NOT like how it sounded in the demo's I listened to.
But in person it's got a really cool vibe to it.
It's designed to be stacked with other drives or push an amp into overdrive. And it does that well.
The BOM called for the jfets to be 2SK208-R's. I have a ton of 2sk208-G's.
The difference being that the G suffix denotes higher IDss.
I toyed with the idea of ordering some R's or going through my stash of JFETS to find one with matching specs but in the end I decided to just roll with it with the 2SK208-G's. I don't believe that differences in gain between the two JFETS makes a lot of difference as the gain range I'm hearing on my build is about the same as the demo's.
I was originally planning to socket the transistors and try some different ones but I just got rolling and forgot and soldered the SMD JFETS directly to the board, so I'm committed....hahah.
As a standalone overdrive, it's a light gain drive and has an old school vibe to it.
It definitely has a lot of overlap with the Chop Shop. So if you're a fan of that drive then you'll like this one.
It's a cool build and recommended.
The higher gain JFET's biased very easily.
So despite my low expectations, I really like this drive! Note: that I did NOT like how it sounded in the demo's I listened to.
But in person it's got a really cool vibe to it.
It's designed to be stacked with other drives or push an amp into overdrive. And it does that well.
The BOM called for the jfets to be 2SK208-R's. I have a ton of 2sk208-G's.
The difference being that the G suffix denotes higher IDss.
I toyed with the idea of ordering some R's or going through my stash of JFETS to find one with matching specs but in the end I decided to just roll with it with the 2SK208-G's. I don't believe that differences in gain between the two JFETS makes a lot of difference as the gain range I'm hearing on my build is about the same as the demo's.
I was originally planning to socket the transistors and try some different ones but I just got rolling and forgot and soldered the SMD JFETS directly to the board, so I'm committed....hahah.
As a standalone overdrive, it's a light gain drive and has an old school vibe to it.
It definitely has a lot of overlap with the Chop Shop. So if you're a fan of that drive then you'll like this one.
It's a cool build and recommended.
The higher gain JFET's biased very easily.