SOLVED Has anyone built the Sliver Overdrive?

R

Route14

Well-known member
I've built two of these and the tone pot has no effect on the sound. On the first one I poured over the entire build trying to find a mistake or issue but everything checked out. Tested the pot and it registered on a DMM fine. Everything else on the build works perfectly. Including trim pots. It sounds good but there is no adjusting the overall tone. The only deviation from the BOM was I used a 22N cap in place of a 20N.

So I built a second one this weekend with all new parts and board and I have the same exact issue. Has anyone had success with this build?
 
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"The manual states that the middle setting is 3 o'clock for bass and 12 for the presence."

Which might help you out? Start there then see what's going on.

After watching a demo, it doesn't sound like the tone control does a whole lot but it's youtube so who knows.

From glancing at the schematic it looks like a big muff style tone control with this sweep:

barber ltf.JPG

rolls off some treble and mids and just touches the bass. I think the answer is in the trimpots but this is a rough guess based on the schematic.
 
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Thanks for the feedback. I did play with the trim pots to see if other settings gave the Tone any kind of sweep. I've tried listening very critically at different level and gain settings to see if it's just a subtle change that I'm not noticing but listening just by ear I'm relatively certain that there is zero effect on the tone of the sound at any position of the pot.

I own every version of the original LTD pedals and on every one the Tone pot has a noticeable effect on the sound.

I've repeatedly checked the build docs against my work and I've done this twice now. I was hoping someone out there has built the pedal and can either confirm that is their experience or let me know that I'm totally missing something. I'm going to unbox it tomorrow night and take some pics of both builds to post.

Thanks again.
 
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This tone control is not going to do much of anything, as evidenced by the TSC results posted by BurntFingers. Changing C6 to 10nF has little effect. If the schematic is correct, then Barber intended this tone control to do very little. Not sure why. We can alter the component values in the tone stack to get more tonal variation, but it won't be a Sliver anymore.
 
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music6000 said:

Sweet Spot tone control, very subtle tone shift that is usable throughout the entire rotational range.

Try C6 - 4N7
R-9 - 68K

Click to expand...
Thanks. I'll try your recommendations. From another post I found out that this was a schematic Dave Barber posted on-line on his site. I looked at it and he suggests 47k, 33k or 15k for R9. I'll probably socket it and see what happens. He also states that R8 should be upped to 3k if you change R9.

I have owned this Barber pedal before and I currently own the V1, V2, SR and GCX of the LTDs. The Tone sweep is subtle but there is at least a noticeable (albeit not a drastic) change in the tone of the sound as you turn the knob. Maybe I remember the Silver model incorrectly but it felt odd to me that I could not detect even the slightest change when turning the Tone. That's not how I remembered the pedal or how the other variations operate.

I certainly do not know enough about electronics to reason what I'm seeing and hearing so I appreciate the help and feedback. It could just be my memory as I get older or my damaged ears!
 
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Tell us what you want the tone control to do and we can make recommendations. Specifically, compared to what it does now...
1. Do you want more or less treble cut when TONE is below noon?
2. Do you want more or less bass cut when TONE is above noon?
3. When TONE is at noon, do you want a mid scoop, mid hump, or flat response?

This type of tone control has limitations, so depending on what you ask for, we may not be able to satisfy all three requirements.
 
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Chuck D. Bones said:
Tell us what you want the tone control to do and we can make recommendations. Specifically, compared to what it does now...
1. Do you want more or less treble cut when TONE is below noon?
2. Do you want more or less bass cut when TONE is above noon?
3. When TONE is at noon, do you want a mid scoop, mid hump, or flat response?

This type of tone control has limitations, so depending on what you ask for, we may not be able to satisfy all three requirements.
Click to expand...
Thanks Chuck. I was looking for any kind of response from the Tone knob to make sure it was working correctly. The sweep had seemingly no discernible effect on the sound. I wasn't sure if I built something wrong. I've owned the pedal in the past and currently own several Barber LTD pedals but this didn't behave as I remembered and definitely not like the versions I currently have. But I certainly could be wrong.

I found this online: http://www.barberelectronics.com/Barber_Electronics_DIY.html

This looks like the schematic this project is based on. At the bottom Dave Barber addressed the tone sweep. I changed the 1.8K (R8) and 150K (R9) and was able to get a noticeable tone sweep. I used a socket for R9 so I'm going to experiment with the values he suggested. At 47k I could definitely start to hear a change in the sweep. It looks like C6 should be 10N as opposed to the 56N listed on the board and original build doc but as you previously noted it did not make any real difference to the sound of the pedal. This was also corrected by PedalPCB.

Regardless of my impression of the tone knob in this circuit, it appears I did build everything correctly. I'm going to play with values for R9 and see if I find something more appealing.

Thanks for everyone's help!
 
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