Maleficent Mids low headroom

[Diego]

I just built this and was just testing it out. I can get unity gain with volume at 12 o’clock. As I increase the mids, my amp goes into a soft overdrive, which I think is working as intended. It’s a “Strat fixer” type of pedal, I like it a lot. The switch doesn’t seem to affect the tone too much for me, not sure if it’s very subtle or I goofed.

I made sure its not amp OD by testing over the Direct Montitor on my audiointerface. Also the distortion it produces sounds way more unpleasant
Maybe my pickups are just way hotter than yours. With my Humbuckers I cant even get to unity gain when I want to increase the mids by a good amount (on 9V that is). Scooping works better.
Also I am runnig it on 18V now as suggested, which works better.

But I am glad it serves you well! Lets hope it still works when you fixed your switch

 

[Diego]

I don't think it's your amp that goes into overdrive.

EDIT: Also saw a guy on Facebook simulate why the hell C102 is there and apparently all it does is ADD noise.

What do you mean with C102?

 

[HamishR]

Pshhh live on the edge!

You know, I've tried that. He keeps telling me he'll call the police if I don't stop.

 

[giovanni]

I made sure its not amp OD by testing over the Direct Montitor on my audiointerface. Also the distortion it produces sounds way more unpleasant
Maybe my pickups are just way hotter than yours. With my Humbuckers I cant even get to unity gain when I want to increase the mids by a good amount (on 9V that is). Scooping works better.
Also I am runnig it on 18V now as suggested, which works better.

But I am glad it serves you well! Lets hope it still works when you fixed your switch

Replaced the switch. The pedal works as expected. And I really like the way it sounds! As far as headroom goes, I think there is plenty. If I keep the volume to 9 o’clock I can turn the mids up almost all the way before hearing any saturation. And I’m still convinced that the saturation comes from the amp: my TK is basically always at the edge of breakup and I haven’t tried it with an amp with a lot more headroom. Is it possible that there is something off in your build causing the distortion?

 

[Diego]

I first suspected that there is something wrong with my built until some said it is just how this pedal behaves. Now that you state the opposite, I probably should go back to debugging...
Did you try yours with Humbuckers?

 

[giovanni]

I first suspected that there is something wrong with my built until some said it is just how this pedal behaves. Now that you state the opposite, I probably should go back to debugging...
Did you try yours with Humbuckers?

I did not. I don’t have a guitar with humbuckers

 

[giovanni]

Do you have a sound clip of your pedal?

 

[Diego]

Sorry, I missed your post! I cant record a clip of decent quality now. I changend my pickups in the meantime though and this helped a bit as they are not as powerfull as the old ones.