Powersound Overdrive (Colorsound Overdriver)

[MichaelW]

Build Rating

5.00 star(s)

Well I did manage to squeak in a build this afternoon after all.
I didn't think I would have time today. Busy day of chores, storm cleanup, shopping, hair cut blah blah blah.....

What bit of free time I had today I was planning to just play guitar and enjoy the fruits of my builds this past week.
I don't expect to like all the pedals I build, I can appreciate them but I may not wind up using them. So when I go through string of builds and I love every one, that's when things get really messy on my desk...I have waaaaayyy too many cool sounding pedals I'm playing right now. (Duo-Phase is a BIG sucker....)

Anyway, come this after noon, I had done everything I set out to do (except work on some demo's...but that wasn't happening today....my fingers just weren't cooperating).

So I decided to pick up where I left off with my survey of the world of David Gilmour's pedals and build the Powersound Overdrive that came in a recent order. I don't know much about this pedal or it's predecessor the Colorsound Power Boost. (PedalPCB Powersound Boost).

But taking the advice of my fellow forumites I ordered the Overdrive.

My limited understanding of the history of these is that it was one of the original "boost/overdrive" pedals designed to push big clean amps, like Gilmour's Hiwatt into overdrive. Sounds cool to me!

This is the revised layout version of the board so no build docs yet. But it's a pretty low parts count simple build so I built it off the board silkscreens.

Build went smooth and faster than I anticipated. Thankfully no bone headed moves like I've been doing all week on my builds....

So I didn't get a chance to play with it too much but it's an interesting pedal. I would categorize it as a boost rather than drive. There's a lot of big clean to semi-clean push available to push the front of an amp. Then very interestingly, at the very end of the gain pot rotation it hits this one spot where it become a TOTALLY different pedal. Rotating through that one spot is almost like hitting a toggle switch. It gets kinda spitty, saggy, fuzzy drive that sounds very cool! I tried pushing my Triangle and Green Russian muffs, didn't have too much effect since they have so much gain.
The best sounds I was getting was pushing the Russian with the sustain turned very low. It also sounded good pushing the Mosfet Overdrive I built earlier in the week. Definitely getting some into nice Gilmoreque tones. I think this pedal would shine in front an amp though, something's lost in translation in the digital world I think. Very cool pedal that needs more messing with!

At the risk of doing two back to back build reports with Gold enclosures, I decided to do a "masked" paint job using a new metallic rattle can color I got. It looks gold to me, but the color is actually called "aged copper". dunno why.

I masked off the sides of a Tayda 125b but this time I went a little further down the radius with the tape line to see if I liked it better.
Funny, looking at these two efforts its like I don't even see that the sides aren't painted, the face is really what I look at.

The paint dried quickly to a semi gloss. being able to hold the sides without fear of fingerprints in tacky paint is SOOOO nice.
Decided the delta knobs would work on this build.

 

[swyse]

It's interesting that it looks gold to you, it's almost like fender's bugundy mist metallic on my screen, looks great! Taping off the sides seems like a win all around, looks good and works with your build speed haha. The symmetry of the PCB is really pleasing, I really like how you arranged those big caps in the middle to be perfectly even.

 

[MichaelW]

It's interesting that it looks gold to you, it's almost like fender's bugundy mist metallic on my screen, looks great! Taping off the sides seems like a win all around, looks good and works with your build speed haha. The symmetry of the PCB is really pleasing, I really like how you arranged those big caps in the middle to be perfectly even.

Wow, maybe my color blindness is getting worse....heh. This is the paint I got.

I like it enough as a paint brand that I might try some of the other colors in the series. It came out a little "spitty" and I had to do one "wipe off" with acetone. But otherwise, self leveled nicely and dried quickly.

 

[MichaelW]

Well I did manage to squeak in a build this afternoon after all.
I didn't think I would have time today. Busy day of chores, storm cleanup, shopping, hair cut blah blah blah.....

What bit of free time I had today I was planning to just play guitar and enjoy the fruits of my builds this past week.
I don't expect to like all the pedals I build, I can appreciate them but I may not wind up using them. So when I go through string of builds and I love every one, that's when things get really messy on my desk...I have waaaaayyy too many cool sounding pedals I'm playing right now. (Duo-Phase is a BIG sucker....)

Anyway, come this after noon, I had done everything I set out to do (except work on some demo's...but that wasn't happening today....my fingers just weren't cooperating).

So I decided to pick up where I left off with my survey of the world of David Gilmour's pedals and build the Powersound Overdrive that came in a recent order. I don't know much about this pedal or it's predecessor the Colorsound Power Boost. (PedalPCB Powersound Boost).

But taking the advice of my fellow forumites I ordered the Overdrive.

My limited understanding of the history of these is that it was one of the original "boost/overdrive" pedals designed to push big clean amps, like Gilmour's Hiwatt into overdrive. Sounds cool to me!

This is the revised layout version of the board so no build docs yet. But it's a pretty low parts count simple build so I built it off the board silkscreens.

Build went smooth and faster than I anticipated. Thankfully no bone headed moves like I've been doing all week on my builds....

So I didn't get a chance to play with it too much but it's an interesting pedal. I would categorize it as a boost rather than drive. There's a lot of big clean to semi-clean push available to push the front of an amp. Then very interestingly, at the very end of the gain pot rotation it hits this one spot where it become a TOTALLY different pedal. Rotating through that one spot is almost like hitting a toggle switch. It gets kinda spitty, saggy, fuzzy drive that sounds very cool! I tried pushing my Triangle and Green Russian muffs, didn't have too much effect since they have so much gain.
The best sounds I was getting was pushing the Russian with the sustain turned very low. It also sounded good pushing the Mosfet Overdrive I built earlier in the week. Definitely getting some into nice Gilmoreque tones. I think this pedal would shine in front an amp though, something's lost in translation in the digital world I think. Very cool pedal that needs more messing with!

At the risk of doing two back to back build reports with Gold enclosures, I decided to do a "masked" paint job using a new metallic rattle can color I got. It looks gold to me, but the color is actually called "aged copper". dunno why.

I masked off the sides of a Tayda 125b but this time I went a little further down the radius with the tape line to see if I liked it better.
Funny, looking at these two efforts its like I don't even see that the sides aren't painted, the face is really what I look at.

The paint dried quickly to a semi gloss. being able to hold the sides without fear of fingerprints in tacky paint is SOOOO nice.
Decided the delta knobs would work on this build.

View attachment 35930

View attachment 35931

View attachment 35932

I bought a big bag of those Panasonic film caps when I was first starting out and didn’t know to read component dimensions…..hahah. Been slowly using them up wherever I can fit them. Those are the 10nf caps.

 

[MichaelW]

One question for you guys that have more familiarity with this circuit. I used 3 Bc109s with gains between 370-400. Does this circuit react to higher hfe transistors? I have a couple of BC109c’s with much higher gains.

 

[Guilherme Collateral]

Well I did manage to squeak in a build this afternoon after all.
I didn't think I would have time today. Busy day of chores, storm cleanup, shopping, hair cut blah blah blah.....

What bit of free time I had today I was planning to just play guitar and enjoy the fruits of my builds this past week.
I don't expect to like all the pedals I build, I can appreciate them but I may not wind up using them. So when I go through string of builds and I love every one, that's when things get really messy on my desk...I have waaaaayyy too many cool sounding pedals I'm playing right now. (Duo-Phase is a BIG sucker....)

Anyway, come this after noon, I had done everything I set out to do (except work on some demo's...but that wasn't happening today....my fingers just weren't cooperating).

So I decided to pick up where I left off with my survey of the world of David Gilmour's pedals and build the Powersound Overdrive that came in a recent order. I don't know much about this pedal or it's predecessor the Colorsound Power Boost. (PedalPCB Powersound Boost).

But taking the advice of my fellow forumites I ordered the Overdrive.

My limited understanding of the history of these is that it was one of the original "boost/overdrive" pedals designed to push big clean amps, like Gilmour's Hiwatt into overdrive. Sounds cool to me!

This is the revised layout version of the board so no build docs yet. But it's a pretty low parts count simple build so I built it off the board silkscreens.

Build went smooth and faster than I anticipated. Thankfully no bone headed moves like I've been doing all week on my builds....

So I didn't get a chance to play with it too much but it's an interesting pedal. I would categorize it as a boost rather than drive. There's a lot of big clean to semi-clean push available to push the front of an amp. Then very interestingly, at the very end of the gain pot rotation it hits this one spot where it become a TOTALLY different pedal. Rotating through that one spot is almost like hitting a toggle switch. It gets kinda spitty, saggy, fuzzy drive that sounds very cool! I tried pushing my Triangle and Green Russian muffs, didn't have too much effect since they have so much gain.
The best sounds I was getting was pushing the Russian with the sustain turned very low. It also sounded good pushing the Mosfet Overdrive I built earlier in the week. Definitely getting some into nice Gilmoreque tones. I think this pedal would shine in front an amp though, something's lost in translation in the digital world I think. Very cool pedal that needs more messing with!

At the risk of doing two back to back build reports with Gold enclosures, I decided to do a "masked" paint job using a new metallic rattle can color I got. It looks gold to me, but the color is actually called "aged copper". dunno why.

I masked off the sides of a Tayda 125b but this time I went a little further down the radius with the tape line to see if I liked it better.
Funny, looking at these two efforts its like I don't even see that the sides aren't painted, the face is really what I look at.

The paint dried quickly to a semi gloss. being able to hold the sides without fear of fingerprints in tacky paint is SOOOO nice.
Decided the delta knobs would work on this build.

View attachment 35930

View attachment 35931

View attachment 35932

Awesome looking build as always! In the last picture the painting looks copper-ish! I LOVE the painting just at the top of the enclosure, gotta try my hand at this at some point!

 

[Synchrony Pedalworks]

Well I did manage to squeak in a build this afternoon after all.
I didn't think I would have time today. Busy day of chores, storm cleanup, shopping, hair cut blah blah blah.....

What bit of free time I had today I was planning to just play guitar and enjoy the fruits of my builds this past week.
I don't expect to like all the pedals I build, I can appreciate them but I may not wind up using them. So when I go through string of builds and I love every one, that's when things get really messy on my desk...I have waaaaayyy too many cool sounding pedals I'm playing right now. (Duo-Phase is a BIG sucker....)

Anyway, come this after noon, I had done everything I set out to do (except work on some demo's...but that wasn't happening today....my fingers just weren't cooperating).

So I decided to pick up where I left off with my survey of the world of David Gilmour's pedals and build the Powersound Overdrive that came in a recent order. I don't know much about this pedal or it's predecessor the Colorsound Power Boost. (PedalPCB Powersound Boost).

But taking the advice of my fellow forumites I ordered the Overdrive.

My limited understanding of the history of these is that it was one of the original "boost/overdrive" pedals designed to push big clean amps, like Gilmour's Hiwatt into overdrive. Sounds cool to me!

This is the revised layout version of the board so no build docs yet. But it's a pretty low parts count simple build so I built it off the board silkscreens.

Build went smooth and faster than I anticipated. Thankfully no bone headed moves like I've been doing all week on my builds....

So I didn't get a chance to play with it too much but it's an interesting pedal. I would categorize it as a boost rather than drive. There's a lot of big clean to semi-clean push available to push the front of an amp. Then very interestingly, at the very end of the gain pot rotation it hits this one spot where it become a TOTALLY different pedal. Rotating through that one spot is almost like hitting a toggle switch. It gets kinda spitty, saggy, fuzzy drive that sounds very cool! I tried pushing my Triangle and Green Russian muffs, didn't have too much effect since they have so much gain.
The best sounds I was getting was pushing the Russian with the sustain turned very low. It also sounded good pushing the Mosfet Overdrive I built earlier in the week. Definitely getting some into nice Gilmoreque tones. I think this pedal would shine in front an amp though, something's lost in translation in the digital world I think. Very cool pedal that needs more messing with!

At the risk of doing two back to back build reports with Gold enclosures, I decided to do a "masked" paint job using a new metallic rattle can color I got. It looks gold to me, but the color is actually called "aged copper". dunno why.

I masked off the sides of a Tayda 125b but this time I went a little further down the radius with the tape line to see if I liked it better.
Funny, looking at these two efforts its like I don't even see that the sides aren't painted, the face is really what I look at.

The paint dried quickly to a semi gloss. being able to hold the sides without fear of fingerprints in tacky paint is SOOOO nice.
Decided the delta knobs would work on this build.

View attachment 35930

View attachment 35931

View attachment 35932

I like that color. I haven’t been painting my enclosures, but now you have me thinking about it. Looks fantastic. Always enjoy your build reviews.

 

[MattG]

Nice work as always!

It's an interesting circuit, I haven't really encountered anything quite like it.

The originals had no volume control. The "gain" knob on a modern build/clone is what served as the volume knob on the originals.

So just for kicks, on your build, turn the volume all the way up and the gain all the way down. This was the minimum setting on the originals - it's a few dB above unity! And it only gets louder from there. You can imagine the crazy loud volume the old school guys must have put up with to use this pedal back in the day, particularly on a non master volume amp. Speaking of Gilmour, Hiwatts do have a master volume (and I good one, IMO), but I feel this pedal is at its best at a non-family-friendly volume.

Looks like the PedalPCB board calls for a 10k gain pot, which is what the originals used; that's a big reason why that knob does very little until the last quarter of rotation. The Aion board suggests a 1k, and I think that gives it a much more intuitive sweep. On my own builds, I use 5k, just so I can still have a little bit of the "charm" of the originals (even if 1k is arguably a much more practical value).

Also, you've probably heard it already - if you use the pedal as a light/edge-of-breakup overdrive, there is the "splatty" noise when the notes decay. I think that turns a lot of people off (the Boss BD2 does this too), but I also file that under the "charm" of this pedal. You can't hear it in a mix anyway.

 

[MichaelW]

Nice work as always!

It's an interesting circuit, I haven't really encountered anything quite like it.

The originals had no volume control. The "gain" knob on a modern build/clone is what served as the volume knob on the originals.

So just for kicks, on your build, turn the volume all the way up and the gain all the way down. This was the minimum setting on the originals - it's a few dB above unity! And it only gets louder from there. You can imagine the crazy loud volume the old school guys must have put up with to use this pedal back in the day, particularly on a non master volume amp. Speaking of Gilmour, Hiwatts do have a master volume (and I good one, IMO), but I feel this pedal is at its best at a non-family-friendly volume.

Looks like the PedalPCB board calls for a 10k gain pot, which is what the originals used; that's a big reason why that knob does very little until the last quarter of rotation. The Aion board suggests a 1k, and I think that gives it a much more intuitive sweep. On my own builds, I use 5k, just so I can still have a little bit of the "charm" of the originals (even if 1k is arguably a much more practical value).

Also, you've probably heard it already - if you use the pedal as a light/edge-of-breakup overdrive, there is the "splatty" noise when the notes decay. I think that turns a lot of people off (the Boss BD2 does this too), but I also file that under the "charm" of this pedal. You can't hear it in a mix anyway.

Awesome info Matt! I'll give those settings a try. I do have some B1k and B5k pots. Would these work or would log taper be better?
I may just leave it the way it is as historical piece as opposed to anything that I would practically use. But yah I hear you, it seems like these really shine in a situation where you can CRANK it in front of a tube amp. Everything I do, particularly with my amp-less rig is a "simulation" by comparison. In fact one could argue it's the the whole point of any overdrive or distortion pedal...... 😛

 

[Harry Klippton]

I have this on my wishlist. One day I'll get to it. In the meantime, I can live vicariously through you. Now if only you had some clips 🤔

 

[MichaelW]

I have this on my wishlist. One day I'll get to it. In the meantime, I can live vicariously through you. Now if only you had some clips 🤔

Ok, here's a quickie sound check demo clip JUST FOR WILL!!
Signal chain is the rats nest on my desk right now....13 pedals that I'm messing with in the chain hahaha.

Reverb is the Gravitation
Delays are the AquaBaby into the Tourbus.
Guitar - Les Paul Junior - Wolftone P90. Both controls on 10.
Amp - Running into my Apollo using the Friedman Buxom Betty amp model. (and yes it was turned on..... )

Starts with clean sound.
at :06 I'm turning on my General Tso Compressor in it's "always on" setting. It's in the "Blend" setting at about 1 o'clock.

Then turning on the Powersound Overdrive, checking unity gain, and some knob tweaking on that pedal.
at :50 you can see that one spot on the gain knob where the overdrive kicks in. It's an abrupt shift, not a gradual ramp.
at 1:55 I'm turning on the Green Russian and tweaking the Sustain knob a bit.
at 2:16 (off camera) I'm turning on the Mosfet Overdrive, gain set to about 9 o'clock.
(There's a slight sound drop out around here, I have a wiggy patch cord somewhere in my chain that I haven't tracked down yet)
at 2:28 (off camera) I'm turning on the Byzantium Flanger all knobs set to 9 o'clock.

 

[Harry Klippton]

Thanks @MichaelW definitely some cool sounds in there and yeah I can hear the weird note decay that @MattG mentioned too, along with some "noise" from the other effects, all not really noticeable while you're playing

 

[MichaelW]

Thanks @MichaelW definitely some cool sounds in there and yeah I can hear the weird note decay that @MattG mentioned too, along with some "noise" from the other effects, all not really noticeable while you're playing

Yah, 13 pedals will do that hahaha. I'd never try to record anything like that. I've got 8 dirt pedals chains up in series.......just messing around with them all. All part of the fun of building them!

 

[cdwillis]

The demo sounds cool. The Black Arts Toneworks Black Forest is a modded clone of this (or the 18v version, I can't remember), but it uses a 470pf cap instead of the 220pf the build docs call for. I wonder if that would help with the fizzy/splatty decay.

 

[MichaelW]

I think that fizzy splatty decay is probably part of the charm. It doesn't really show up when playing it, only when you sit and test and listen for it hahahah. But I probably wouldn't use it as a standalone pedal anyway. Not exactly sure how Gilmour used his (@Big Monk would know!)
But as I recall he was pushing a Big muff with it?

What's fascinating to me is particularly some of the sounds he was getting on Dark Side and Wish you were here, it's almost semi-clean yet its got a push, power, sustain and wailing quality to it. Really tough to nail that sound or reproduce it in a low volume situation with just pedals.

 

[Big Monk]

I think that fizzy splatty decay is probably part of the charm. It doesn't really show up when playing it, only when you sit and test and listen for it hahahah.

When amp volume gets above edge of breakup, or beyond, this starts to go away.

But I probably wouldn't use it as a standalone pedal anyway.

It makes a great clean boost but I personally believe a 2kB Gain pot is the best for these type of tones.

Not exactly sure how Gilmour used his (@Big Monk would know!)
But as I recall he was pushing a Big muff with it?

It was his main overdrive from the Obscured by Clouds period through Animals. In the Fuzz Face era, he would use it for light, medium and heavy drive and in the Big Muff era, to boost the Muff and EQ it to cut a bit more as he rolled off the BMP Tone control.

What's fascinating to me is particularly some of the sounds he was getting on Dark Side and Wish you were here, it's almost semi-clean yet its got a push, power, sustain and wailing quality to it. Really tough to nail that sound or reproduce it in a low volume situation with just pedals.

Keep in mind there is quite a bit of compression on those studio recordings as well, IIRC. His Powerboost would have been a non-master volume unit with a 10kB Gain pot. Without the master, the gain structure is a bit different. Think about how the pedal responds when you crank the master.

I found that I could reporduce the sound you are talking about with the amp at the edge of breakup, Master at around Unity, and the gain control between 7:00-1:30.

At those settings everything gets louder but it's still clean and the whole amp seems to "wake up".

Some of the appeal to some folks about this circuit and it's related circuits is that ferocious fuzz character at the end of the dial, which absolutely has to be heard to be believed but is not very useful.

I'm looking into either building one of the Opamp style versions or simply acquiring an EHX Crayon.

 

[MichaelW]

The Crayon is an adaptation of this circuit?

 

[Big Monk]

The Crayon is an adaptation of this circuit?

I believe the Timmy Xotic BB in some sense but if you look at the schematics, it’s a direct line from these to the opamp versions of these.

I’d have to look at the circuits again but I think my research showed that the crayon has a shared lineage with something like the Cattle Driver.

 

[Coda]

This is a great example of how Gilmour used the Powerboost to boost the Fuzz Face. I believe he has the FF dialed back, and then kicks on the Powerboost for the solo...

 

[MattG]

I'm looking into either building one of the Opamp style versions or simply acquiring an EHX Crayon.

Which opamp style version(s) are you referring to?

The oft-repeated Internet hearsay is that the EHX Crayon is a minimally tweaked clone of the Xotic BB Preamp. (Although people on the Internet also often say the BB Preamp is based on the Bluesbreaker, which it is clearly not; the BB Preamp is a Tubescreamer with Bandaxall tone controls.)