Special Overdrive

[odourboy]

After a minor tweak (replaced the linear taper volume pot with an audio taper), I declare this build complete and I'm pretty happy with the results. When heavily overdriven, there's a grainy, fizzy layer to the distortion that sputters out in a less than pleasing manner if you let a note decay slowly. But this seems to be inherent in the design as I've heard the same behavior in video demos of the Dumbloid, Big Bloom and Holy Grail. That small idiosyncrasy aside, it's a nice overdrive. Recommended!

 

[fig]

Tight build, and it looks great! Are you using any insulator between the 2 top pots and the board? I notice there are no "pot condoms"
Also, I see you bridged the trebles pot with a 100kΩ . What value pot are you reducing?

 

[odourboy]

Tight build, and it looks great! Are you using any insulator between the 2 top pots and the board? I notice there are no "pot condoms"
Also, I see you bridged the trebles pot with a 100kΩ . What value pot are you reducing?

Thanks! There is a sufficient air gap between the pots and the board, but the hidden pots also have a layer of electrical tape on the back just to be safe. The BOM calls for a 20K pot but the best I could do was a 25K. So the 100K in parallel takes care of that. The taper gets a little messed up as a result, but I'm satisfied with the outcome.