More gain and bass from Awful Waffle?

[BurntFingers]

I built this up, it doesn't sound very much like the hot cake. It's a light od but the gain seems to run out quite early on maximum and it's a very bright pedal whereas the original is a big fat wooly thing.

I was looking to increase the gain on tap and shift the sound to a more bassy tone to fatten it up.

Any ideas of what can be changed?

 

[falzhobel]

Don't want to "challenge" you but I've had my take on this built 6-7 times already and they all sounds great, beefy and way enough gain. Are you sure that all components are of the good value ?

 

[BurntFingers]

As far as I recall everything is as it should be. I've owned 5 of the original pedal and this isn't like them. Maybe my cloned pedal sounds like yours too, but it doesn't sound like the original.

 

[falzhobel]

You're probably right, never had the chance to try an original.

I have a small clip there, at 3:15 with gain around noon :

 

[BurntFingers]

Yep it sounds just like yours. The original is sort of a cross between a wooly carpet and an OD. More thick and fuzzy than this PedalPCB version is.

 

[Robert]

There are schematics for two different versions of the Hot Cake, a 1977 version and a 2003 version.

The Awful Waffle is based on the 2003 version, which one are you comparing to?

They're both "similar", but there are a few differences between them.

 

[BurntFingers]

I presume I've only had the reissue since I bought my first around 2012.

 

[benny_profane]

I'd suggest providing images of your board and maybe troubleshooting. This circuit provides a lot of low-end and something seems off here.

 

[BurntFingers]

Looks like that. As far as I recall all is as it should be and it sounds similar to the one posted above in the video.

 

[Nostradoomus]

Any clearer pictures?

 

[BurntFingers]

Alrighty. Confession time ish.

I pulled the ic and sprayed everything with deoxit just in case. Then I recalled that the cake operates sort of like a fuzz. You need to dime the crap out of the volume for it to open up. So that's what I did and it sounds like I remember.

Now I recall why I never kept them. The volume feeding into the gain means it becomes very difficult to balance it with a clean channel if you're using the cake as your main drive.

Crisis averted. User error strikes again.