Powersound Gain issue

[Dan0h]

Not sure if this is normal, I build a Powersound Overdriver and the gain nob from 0-9 barley adds any gain but from 9-10 its almost like a switch and the gain is lovely and fuzzy and dirty and wonderful. Is that normal? When the gain in from 0-9 and I crank the volume almost to 10 I do get some nice subtle break up going on. Just wondering if the whole FULL BLAST or nothing is normal or if I might have a bad pot? Only substitution on the build was a 22u vs the 25u caps.

As always, thank you.

 

[benny_profane]

Are you using a 10kB pot? If so, I don't think there's anything wrong with it. That's the original value, but the gain is bunched up in the last 10% of the sweep. Try substituting a 1kC pot if you have one.

 

[Dan0h]

It might just be the nature of this pedal. After spending some more time with it I was able to dial in some great sounds. It just seems odd that there is such a huge bump in gain from 9-10 on the pot.

 

[Dan0h]

Are you using a 10kB pot? If so, I don't think there's anything wrong with it. That's the original value, but the gain is bunched up in the last 10% of the sweep. Try substituting a 1kC pot if you have one.

Yes I’m using 10kb. Cool sounds like that’s the design. Thanks for the confirmation.

 

[AaronW]

Yes I’m using 10kb. Cool sounds like that’s the design. Thanks for the confirmation.

Did you ever try a C1k pot instead of the B10k pot? I just build this and came to post the same issue as you're having. When the gain is on it's great, it'd be nice to be able to dial in different shades of it though.

 

[Dan0h]

Did you ever try a C1k pot instead of the B10k pot? I just build this and came to post the same issue as you're having. When the gain is on it's great, it'd be nice to be able to dial in different shades of it though.

This one of the few builds I did for a buddy. He was cool with it the way it was so I never swapped the pot. If I were to make one for myself I would do a pot swap for sure because the all or nothing seems like a wast of a pot in the first place.

 

[Big Monk]

My Vick Audio Overdriver is like this as well.

Frankly, I keep the Drive all her way off most of the time .

 

[Bobbyd67]

Yup it's completely normal. Many people change the 10k pot to a 5 , 2 or 1k. it becomes way more usable after that . I don't remember what I ended up using when I made that circuit years ago though :x.

 

[Bobbyd67]

Old guitar pedals circuits are usually wonky like that oO

 

[Coda]

I thought I commented this before, but I didn’t: that’s how it’s supposed to work. That’s also why a common mod (including the ones you can get new) is the addition of a master volume. The original got incredibly loud before it actually overdrove. That’s why the Overdriver came out not too long after: same pedal, half the power. It’s also why it was so incredibly loud in the studio when David Gilmour cut Shine On…