Overloader! (6 Transistor Big Muff)

[Morbidpale]

BEHOLD! The OVERLOADER!
Just a big muff that was tweaked and tweaked until it was great. Then I started experimenting with a way to blow it out more effectively than a boost in front. I put a Bass Boost in between clipping stages with a blend. Gain and Overload(Bass Blend) are very interactive with each other. This muff can sound crackly, gated, doomy, broken. It all depends in the positions of those two controls. Led clippers at Q2 are essential to getting enough signal to the overload section, Si essential at Q3 to squash it back down.

The tone stack is almost flat. The button on the side changes the Low Pass side a little and brings back some of the Muff scoop. Its subtle but it works well for me. Using the push button over a toggle seemed like a good idea to keep things looking simple but it was more trouble than it was worth.

The layout is not my favorite but I needed to fit into a 125B. Still, it looks pretty tidy.

Credit where credit is due.
The art is a beer label I peeled off.
Artist: Ibay Arifin Suradi

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Brewery: There Does Not Exist
Beer: South of Nelson (Delicious)

I hope some people try it out for themselves. The pedal and the beer. Let me know.

 

[jimilee]

Wow, how about an audio sample. It looks like it kicks many asses.

 

[almondcity]

This is a cool idea

 

[VanWhy]

Awesome. I'm going to have to build one of these.

 

[prsman]

I have a question, in your schematic near the 1n914 diodes you have R16 with a value of R27. Is that supposed to be 27k?

 

[Morbidpale]

I have a question, in your schematic near the 1n914 diodes you have R16 with a value of R27. Is that supposed to be 27k?

Thanks for catching that error. Its supposed to be 22K.

I fixed it on the schematic so its clear.

 

[rossbalch]

Why these particular transistor choices?

 

[Morbidpale]

Why these particular transistor choices?

5088 is a solid transistor for just about anything and most of us have plenty on hand. I wish I had a technical reason I could give for the bc549c but it really was what sounded best to me. I tried a ton of choices and things worked best when Q2/3 were different from the others. It brought some more flavor to the clipping stages and definitely helped the overload feature work better. Bc549c were the winners after lots of tinkering.

 

[dot matrix madness]

Which transistors from the BC series would work as alternatives to the 2N5088, because these are much
more expensive than e.g. the BC547C ?

 

[CheapSuitG]

6 transistors? That is a lot of muff. Like 70s era.

 

[Erik S]

Which transistors from the BC series would work as alternatives to the 2N5088, because these are much
more expensive than e.g. the BC547C ?

Smallbear will sell you 100 2n5088 for $1.00 if you can find $50 worth of other stuff you want.

PARTS FOR A PENNY- See Below for Current 'Penny Part' Offers!

New England's source for guitar pedals, pedal parts and electronics.

smallbear-electronics.mybigcommerce.com

 

[prsman]

Thanks for catching that error. Its supposed to be 22K.

I fixed it on the schematic so its clear.

Nice. Thanks. I also noticed at least one of the R numbers being used twice, for instance there are 2 R16. I think there were a few more but can't remember. Working on my first cup of coffee lol.