Hermida Zendrive Black Magic, Red, gold and other variants

[Drayve85]

It would be AWESOME if we could get some of the Zendrive variants in the pedalPCB stable. I know at least one of the variants have more than just a different set of diodes in them, but I don’t know what the mods are. I’ll keep looking for more info and schematics for them tho.

 

[coltonius]

The GC exclusive (black body, red face) is the same as the Alf Signature (gold with white screen print).

OPA2604
A1M gain pot

That’s it for those two.

EDIT: These.

 

[Drayve85]

Cool, thank you! I know the black magic has one or two transistors in it, not the regular mosfets in the clipping arrangement, tho.

Edit: there are no midgets in a Zendrive. Damn autocorrect!lol

 

[coltonius]

Cool, thank you! I know the black magic has one or two transistors in it, not the regular midgets in the clipping arrangement, tho.

As far as I’m aware, they all have some kind of MOSFET clipping in the first gain stage. Unfortunately, the part numbers are usually sanded off these and the IC when it comes to Lovepedal builds.

If I had to take a wild guess on the low gain Vanilla (based on the OD11 mod pattern), I’d say an A250k Gain pot is in play. I’d really love to know the recipe for the red w/ silver plate Zen though. That thing is a high gain monster.

 

[Drayve85]

As far as I’m aware, they all have some kind of MOSFET clipping in the first gain stage. Unfortunately, the part numbers are usually sanded off these and the IC when it comes to Lovepedal builds.

If I had to take a wild guess on the low gain Vanilla (based on the OD11 mod pattern), I’d say an A250k Gain pot is in play. I’d really love to know the recipe for the red w/ silver plate Zen though. That thing is a high gain monster.

Yeah, I know about the mosfets in them, but I seen that one dude traced out a black magic and it had at least one JFET in it. So there’s something different going on. What it is, I have no clue.lol

 

[coltonius]

Yeah, I know about the mosfets in them, but I seen that one dude traced out a black magic and it had at least one JFET in it. So there’s something different going on. What it is, I have no clue.lol

Every version is built on the same PCB, so I strongly doubt he'd go through the trouble of re-designing to incorporate JFETs as a gain stage for one version. It undermines the "path of least resistance" ethos of Lovepedal: new recipe, new color enclosure, new pedal. If JFETs are used, I'd bet a dollar it's for clipping.

 

[Drayve85]

This is the trace that guy did, and the site that he talks about it. https://www.tdpri.com/threads/school-me-on-the-black-magic-zendrive.798622/page-2

 

[Drayve85]

He said he didn’t know what JFET it was, because it was sanded off, but he just put a bs170 into his spice program to use as a place holder.

 

[coltonius]

He said he didn’t know what JFET it was, because it was sanded off, but he just put a bs170 into his spice program to use as a place holder.

I guess I owe you $1 then.

 

[Drayve85]

I guess I owe you $1 then.

You’re damn right you do!hahhajk

 

[coltonius]

This is the trace that guy did, and the site that he talks about it. https://www.tdpri.com/threads/school-me-on-the-black-magic-zendrive.798622/page-2

The Gain value was missing, so I'll quote him here for anyone interested in building one:

"The IC is a JRC 4560D. Volume pot is A250K, Drive is B500K, Tone is B50K and Voice is B10K."

You’re damn right you do!hahhajk

Based on that thread, it sounds like the Black Caucus hails from the tubeless Zen II re-design? All of that happened long after I fell off the wagon. I traced a lot of the early SNS pedals (Aqua Balance, Burst Boost, Champ, cream Tchula, Ghost Super Six, brown Deluxe, etc...) and found the expected amount of overlap. There are a few I liked the sound of, but by and large I've moved on.

 

[Drayve85]

Based on that thread, it sounds like the Black Caucus hails from the tubeless Zen II re-design? All of that happened long after I fell off the wagon. I traced a lot of the early SNS pedals (Aqua Balance, Burst Boost, Champ, cream Tchula, Ghost Super Six, brown Deluxe, etc...) and found the expected amount of overlap. There are a few I liked the sound of, but by and large I've moved on.

Yeah, you definitely know more about it than I do. And that makes sense that it’s basically a tubeless Zendrive 2. I haven’t dug too deep into Hermida/lovepedal that much yet. I get the ‘gist’ of it. I think I vero’d a tchula a long time ago tho!lol