Oroku compared to original Shredmaster

[posarelli]

It's a nice design and sound very well, with a a caviat: the tone control is a way less effective than the original pedal...
On the original shredmater (I have one as a reference here fomr 90's) the tone control has more impact on the signal on this oroku PCB is less interactive and don't seems to impact well on the sound...

Anyone here do have try this PCB a doable solution on this behaviour already?
Tnx in advance!

 

[posarelli]

I opened my shredmaster: central pin of treble (RV2) goes stright to Operational Amp OC1 while in Oroku Board (despite the circuit draw) goes in a resistor (R101)...
That's strange...

 

[posarelli]

This is the original circuit and the path of the central pin of the treble: it goes straight to OpAmp.

 

[Laundryroom David]

I think you’ve circled pin 2 of the countour pot on your Oroku board, so not sure whether you’re talking about issues with the treble or contour controls on yours - or both?

FWIW I built an Oroku and find bass, treble and countour quite interactive and usable on it. It’s always tricky comparing similar pedals - tolerances on the potentiometers alone can make an audible difference.

 

[Robert]

Lug 2 of the Treble pot goes directly to pin 5 of IC2.2.

Lug 2 of the Contour pot goes to VREF, that's the connection you're seeing to R101.

 

[posarelli]

Yes you're both right, I was pointing in the wrong potentiometer.
My mistake: sorry about that.
But the issue on treble is real, comparing to the real pedal, Oroku is quite less aggressive and I'd say less usable, on treble.
I try to change value of capacitor in C16 from 1nF to 470pF and I think I prefer this way althought is not present in the original circuit.

 

[Bricksnbeatles]

Changing c16 would have an impact on the tone as a whole, but it’s not related to the tonestack at all. did you double check that you have all the right values in the tonestack section (r7 and 8; c7-9, and both pots)?

 

[posarelli]

C16 is reported in the Aion solstice PCB (it's the same design) as one of the point to bright the whole pedal:

"Many people feel that the biggest flaw with the stock Shredmaster is the steep treble cut introduced near the end. C16 is a 1nF capacitor that forms a low-pass filter right before the volume control and is solely responsible for this cut. The common consensus is that the circuit will perform much better if this capacitor is dropped down to 330pF or 470pF to allow more treble through this stage."

I'm well aware that this can affect the whole pedal but I tried and the overall sound and character it's still there...
For the correct values: I double check and I'm pretty sure that it's the right ones.
Plus the values are written direct on the PCB it's very difficult to miss them

 

[music6000]

I would like to see the PCB with clear pictures of the Resistors before making comment?
That is a sure way to know if it is built to the correct specs than assuming it is!

 

[HamishR]

It is a known issue that the Shredmaster is a little dark. I used a 220pF cap at C14 when I built mine. Is your original Shredmaster one of the new ones? Maybe they have fixed this problem now.

 

[cdwillis]

Late to the party here, but did anybody try replacing C10 with a smaller cap? I'd maybe try 220pf there instead. It's cutting a ton of high end in that volume recovery gain stage.