What's going on in the Actual Overdrive Jr?

[brightlight]

This thing is pretty great! Curious what's going on in terms of clipping in the middle position of the right toggle switch. Up is obviously traditional symmetrical TS style clipping with some of the clean signal blended in. All the way down definitely inserts the red clipping LEDs. That middle position escapes me though. Sounds almost Guv'nor-ish to me so I'm guessing the middle also inserts the red clipping LEDs, it's just less aggressive than the down position.

@Robert
@Chuck D. Bones

Thank you!

 

[Robert]

Center and Down are both LED clipping.

Up is 1N4148. Technically the LEDs are always in the circuit but the threshold of the 1N4148's is lower so the LEDs have less (if any) effect in the Up position.

C3/R6 alters the gain / frequency response in the Down position as well.

 

[brightlight]

Center and Down are both LED clipping.

Up is 1N4148. Technically the LEDs are always in the circuit but the threshold of the 1N4148's is lower so the LEDs have less (if any) effect in the Up position.

C3/R6 alters the gain / frequency response in the Down position as well.

Perfect, thank you! What a killer little box!

 

[HamishR]

I was curious after reading this little exchange so went to look at the schematic - which isn't there yet. But by looking at the components lists it seems that it's YATS? Apart from the clipping, what makes it different from the average TS?

 

[brightlight]

I was curious after reading this little exchange so went to look at the schematic - which isn't there yet. But by looking at the components lists it seems that it's YATS? Apart from the clipping, what makes it different from the average TS?

There's a 3 way toggle for EQ. Center is standard TS mid-hump, bass and treble cut. Up adds some bass back in. Down adds high mids.

Then there's a switch for the clipping options. Up is the standard TS diodes with clean signal blended in. Middle adds a lot more volume and openness, more like a standalone overdrive that can be on top of a clean tone rather than just pushing an amp with signal. Down is the most aggressive and high gain option, a really good standalone distortion if that's what you need it to be.

The description of the Ghoul Jr on KHDK's website is better than mine lol, but that about sums it up. I like this circuit so much I've built 4 of them and have 5 more boards waiting to get built

 

[Robert]

That's an older doc that I'll have to recreate to add the schematic, but in the meantime:

https://docs.pedalpcb.com/project/Schematic-ActualODJr.jpg

 

[HamishR]

So it is quite tubescreamerish... Oh well, if it sounds better for the changes why not?