Tyrian Distortion - Volume Difference Between Bypass vs Effect is Unusable

[reynolds087]

I just built the tyrian distortion, and it sounds amazing, but the problem is that it's ridiculously loud even with the volume set to almost zero. It sounds best with the volume around 12 o'clock, and the gain up reasonably high, but at that level, the clean bypassed tone is probably at least an order of magnitude or two quieter. Is this pedal only meant to be used as a standalone preamp? I am running it through the front of my amp because I don't have an effects loop, but it's completely unusable at the moment. I have to strain to hear the clean tone when the distortion effect is at correct volume level.

Attaching pictures of the build just in case I screwed something up, but I checked every component and I'm fairly confident it is assembled correctly.

 

[Betty Wont]

Are you saying that you can't turn the volume down below unity? Or that your bypass signal is being quieted by something?

 

[reynolds087]

Are you saying that you can't turn the volume down below unity? Or that your bypass signal is being quieted by something?

The first one I think. The bypass signal is not attenuated, it's just that the amplified signal is way too loud in comparison.

 

[BuddytheReow]

I've got the sanguine distortion (G4, you've got the G3) and it's really loud. This tricked me for a long time (really until the past few days) thinking I need to keep my amp turned down since it was one of the first builds I ever did. A few other builds I did had the volume maxed out just made unity and naturally I thought it sucked and needed a boost after it

 

[TravisM]

To restate, I believe he is saying that pedal doesn't sound good at unity volume, but only when the volume and gain are both turned up on the pedal. Then the volume drop when bypassed is very great. Is the correct? I believe it is fixable with a small tweak to a resistor or pot value, but I don't know enough to be of any use besides restating the problem. My guess would be to raise R34 or lower R35 but I could be way off base.

 

[TravisM]

Looking at the schematic, I believe the final gain stage is a non-inverting op amp and the gain is controlled by the ratio of R34 and R35. Where Gain = 1 + Rf/Rin with Rin being R34 and Rf being R35. If you have alligator clips, you could clip a resistor in parallel with R35 and see if it lowers the volume for you. I'd start with another 470K which should drop the gain in half.

 

[BuddytheReow]

Looking at the schematic, I believe the final gain stage is a non-inverting op amp and the gain is controlled by the ratio of R34 and R35. Where Gain = 1 + Rf/Rin with Rin being R34 and Rf being R35. If you have alligator clips, you could clip a resistor in parallel with R35 and see if it lowers the volume for you. I'd start with another 470K which should drop the gain in half.

Lowering R35 will reduce the opamp gain and make it quieter. I would socket that component and experiment.

 

[reynolds087]

Thanks, guys I will try that!!

 

[reynolds087]

That fixed it, I'm at like 10 o'clock now on the output and it sounds great. I appreciate it!

 

[giovanni]

Is your volume pot linear or logarithmic? If linear, that would explain the volume being always super loud.

 

[reynolds087]

Is your volume pot linear or logarithmic? If linear, that would explain the volume being always super loud.

It's a Log pot. Actually, I had the gain and volume backwards because I forgot it's a mirror image once it's mounted in the enclosure. But I think I might still keep the lower value for R35 because it makes the volume pot more usable.

 

[giovanni]

Oh so you had the volume maxed before?

 

[reynolds087]

Yea