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In this Discussion
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Tubescreamer Scrapheap challenge
I've recently been gig'ing Fender amps with a borrowed Tubescreamer and loving the tones ..... I've never been a fan of pedals before with Marshalls and Blackstars but there's something about a Fender amp and pedals that go together really well. Anyway a quick look around and I could see the Tubescreamer I had borrowed was about £100 to buy, probably worth it and all, being well built etc but I opened it up and had a gander at the circuit and wondered how cheap could I build a copy ...... Or, could I build one from scrap bits of electronics laying around the house ?
First up I need a box to put it in. I could have used a Tuna can, or similar food type enclosure but I fancied something a little classier. Fishing around on my Wife's dressing table I struck gold .... she had a tin with some posh soap in it! .... So I took the tin from that
Next up I needed a bit of vero board, a dual opamp, 2 diodes, some various value resistors, a couple of transistors, a bunch of caps and either a DPDT switch or some FET's to copy the flipflop switching circuit. Oh and 3 pots for the drive, tone and volume. Hunting around in the shed I struck gold, an old computer speaker which actually contained (in thru hole component form) a 4560 opamp, a stereo 22K pot (didn't need a stereo one but it will do fine ) I could use for the tone, some of the 10K resistors I needed and most of the caps. It also contained 4 discreet diodes in a bridge rect formation but unfortunately they were fried where someone had connected the wrong power adaptor at some point
Pulling the PCB out of that and salvaging the components reminded me of how easy working on electronics used to be before lead free solder and SMD took over.
The other parts caused a bit of a struggle before I found a channel strip from an old Japanese mixing desk which got me another pot and the transistors ... although identifying these was a bit of a nightmare ... in the end I settled for some obscure NPN ones with illegible markings ... all I can say is they are small signal NPN, about 30 years old .... and they work as buffers in this circuit fine.
The diodes were easy, almost every DC mains adapter wall wart contains at least 2 and normally 4 .... like most people we had loads lying around in drawers and cupboards, before long I had quite a few. I lucked out on the FET's so those were ordered , being much cheaper (and more reliable ) than a good quality DPDT switch .... the actual switch I'm using for the FET's is a 240V LIT switch so that side of things doesn't work but in all honestly I could never see the light on the Tubescreamer I borrowed anyway.. it's like they used the wrong LED or drop resistor ! The other frivolous expense was a piece of £1.90 Veroboard which I only used a quarter of
One jack socket is out of a Warwick bass, one came from the input of a Maplin's amp. The knobs are from an old Studiomaster desk.
Pretty much everything value wise is the same as the original circuit although there are a few subs value wise on coupling caps and a couple of resistors used for biasing etc.
And here we have it ...the scrapheap challenge Tubescreamer or as I like to call it
"The Shea Butter Soap Drive"
Here's a gut shot from building it, note the choc block so I could easily audition different diodes for clipping ... including the LED's in the pic (they didn't pan out well)
I have to say, with the exception of the tone control which I wired back to front unintentionally (so turning clockwise decreases the treble ) ... and can't be arsed to correct it ... this operates and sounds exactly like a Tubescreamer so very happy with it. Obviously I know you can probably buy a kit with a real PCB and nice box for £30 ish but this was just an experiment to see how near I could get while spending as little as possible
This is actually the first effects pedal I've built for myself as well
First up I need a box to put it in. I could have used a Tuna can, or similar food type enclosure but I fancied something a little classier. Fishing around on my Wife's dressing table I struck gold .... she had a tin with some posh soap in it! .... So I took the tin from that
Next up I needed a bit of vero board, a dual opamp, 2 diodes, some various value resistors, a couple of transistors, a bunch of caps and either a DPDT switch or some FET's to copy the flipflop switching circuit. Oh and 3 pots for the drive, tone and volume. Hunting around in the shed I struck gold, an old computer speaker which actually contained (in thru hole component form) a 4560 opamp, a stereo 22K pot (didn't need a stereo one but it will do fine ) I could use for the tone, some of the 10K resistors I needed and most of the caps. It also contained 4 discreet diodes in a bridge rect formation but unfortunately they were fried where someone had connected the wrong power adaptor at some point
Pulling the PCB out of that and salvaging the components reminded me of how easy working on electronics used to be before lead free solder and SMD took over.
The other parts caused a bit of a struggle before I found a channel strip from an old Japanese mixing desk which got me another pot and the transistors ... although identifying these was a bit of a nightmare ... in the end I settled for some obscure NPN ones with illegible markings ... all I can say is they are small signal NPN, about 30 years old .... and they work as buffers in this circuit fine.
The diodes were easy, almost every DC mains adapter wall wart contains at least 2 and normally 4 .... like most people we had loads lying around in drawers and cupboards, before long I had quite a few. I lucked out on the FET's so those were ordered , being much cheaper (and more reliable ) than a good quality DPDT switch .... the actual switch I'm using for the FET's is a 240V LIT switch so that side of things doesn't work but in all honestly I could never see the light on the Tubescreamer I borrowed anyway.. it's like they used the wrong LED or drop resistor ! The other frivolous expense was a piece of £1.90 Veroboard which I only used a quarter of
One jack socket is out of a Warwick bass, one came from the input of a Maplin's amp. The knobs are from an old Studiomaster desk.
Pretty much everything value wise is the same as the original circuit although there are a few subs value wise on coupling caps and a couple of resistors used for biasing etc.
And here we have it ...the scrapheap challenge Tubescreamer or as I like to call it
"The Shea Butter Soap Drive"
Here's a gut shot from building it, note the choc block so I could easily audition different diodes for clipping ... including the LED's in the pic (they didn't pan out well)
I have to say, with the exception of the tone control which I wired back to front unintentionally (so turning clockwise decreases the treble ) ... and can't be arsed to correct it ... this operates and sounds exactly like a Tubescreamer so very happy with it. Obviously I know you can probably buy a kit with a real PCB and nice box for £30 ish but this was just an experiment to see how near I could get while spending as little as possible
This is actually the first effects pedal I've built for myself as well
www.2020studios.co.uk
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Comments
I am just about to build a TS clone too. I am missing a few capacitors so a trip to Maplin is on the cards (I know they're not always the best source but convenient and without the postage costs for just a few components).
Do you have a recording to demo it?
Can I have the pedal when the inevitable happens? Don't need it now that I have the Helix, but it'd be a nice reminder of why we now have an empty forum account...
normally in these threads I'd say i've tried that pedal and it's great (and I have tried a tubescreamer, and it is).
but I'm sure I've tried that soap too
It's not often I read something that actually inspires me to get off my backside and make something, but sometime over the next week I may well be rummaging through clutter looking for some components. However, one thing is for sure - whatever I come up will not look as good as what you have done.
Impressed anyway.
Seriously though, good job!
There are loads more you could do.....
Pears - Transparent Overdrive
Wrights coal tar - Fuzz
Dove - Chorus
Fairy - EQ
Loreal for men - Buffer
Body Shop - Treble Booster
Imperial Leather - KOT
There's probably more.