Treble booster vs Boost with 3-knob EQ

Cookiemonster

Brian May I think had a germanium TB first and then a silicon after that. The first one was lost and so I’ve read, his dad built him a replacement but that was silicon 

merlin

I have a Magnetic Effects Electron Enhancer that I took a bit of time getting to understand. It's Ge, super flexible, super tweakable and generally super everything. And it works amazingly well with my tweedyluxe. 

Yorkie

Cookiemonster said:

Yorkie said:

Thanks, @Cookiemonster ! 

Any good places to source Ge transistors? I think all the eBay ones are very low gain? 

Build a silicon so you can try the circuit and then on eBay you can look for the Russian germs. They often are available from the Ukraine. If you type in HFE Germanium Transistor into eBay you will see some listed that way. Often they are more expensive though and watch the pin outs. 

I would definitely say try the silicon first though, you will probably have most of that parts and you might find that circuit isn’t for you, but if you do like it, I would then suggest building the germ. 

Also add a switch for the input cap, then put a 4.7nf one side and something like a 100nf the other. 

Sounds like a plan. 

Cookiemonster

Yorkie said:

Cookiemonster said:

Yorkie said:

Thanks, @Cookiemonster ! 

Any good places to source Ge transistors? I think all the eBay ones are very low gain? 

Build a silicon so you can try the circuit and then on eBay you can look for the Russian germs. They often are available from the Ukraine. If you type in HFE Germanium Transistor into eBay you will see some listed that way. Often they are more expensive though and watch the pin outs. 

I would definitely say try the silicon first though, you will probably have most of that parts and you might find that circuit isn’t for you, but if you do like it, I would then suggest building the germ. 

Also add a switch for the input cap, then put a 4.7nf one side and something like a 100nf the other. 

Sounds like a plan. 

You can get these solderable breadboards on Amazon that means you can make your layout more permanent

Cookiemonster

EPLZON Plated Mini PCB Solder-able Breadboard for Electronics Projects Compatible with Arduino Soldering Projects 2.0"x1.5" mixed color(pack of 12pcs) https://amzn.eu/d/4FakmZo

Yorkie

Cookiemonster said:

Yorkie said:

Cookiemonster said:

Yorkie said:

Thanks, @Cookiemonster ! 

Any good places to source Ge transistors? I think all the eBay ones are very low gain? 

Build a silicon so you can try the circuit and then on eBay you can look for the Russian germs. They often are available from the Ukraine. If you type in HFE Germanium Transistor into eBay you will see some listed that way. Often they are more expensive though and watch the pin outs. 

I would definitely say try the silicon first though, you will probably have most of that parts and you might find that circuit isn’t for you, but if you do like it, I would then suggest building the germ. 

Also add a switch for the input cap, then put a 4.7nf one side and something like a 100nf the other. 

Sounds like a plan. 

You can get these solderable breadboards on Amazon that means you can make your layout more permanent

Yup, I've got a few of those lying around from the last time I built something for my local primary school. Although I didn't think they were that expensive? Mine were more like 12 for £4 on eBay. Although they bend easily, so might be low quality. 

VeggieShark

Cookiemonster said:

Brian May I think had a germanium TB first and the. A silicon after that. The first one was lost and so I’ve read, his dad built him a replacement but that was silicon 

Yeah his original range master was germanium but after that he's been silicon all the way 

VeggieShark

My one germanium TB doubles up as a fraction radio at times. None of my silicon ones do that..  

And to the OP...AC15C1 will love a TB on the normal channel.  The Marshall...depends on what Marshall...the modern ones hate TB's even rolling the presence and treble controls very low they're still shrill n ice picky. The older darker non master volume ones though...

rze99

A slightly different take....  I couldn't make the Treble Booster thing work for me the way I liked but I am chuffed to bits with my Drybell Unit67 pedal, which is a booster, upper mid-rangemaster, eq and compressor pedal in one. It's fab.

The Pete Thorn demo is excellent

https://youtu.be/P8pgByNOWo8

Sassafras

Stacking a TB through an overdrive tends to smooth out any spikiness they can have through some amps.

Cookiemonster

If the TB is Ice picky then change the input cap. So start with a 10n and go upwards from there. I prefer 10n to the 4.7n and again I think the later Brian May and Cornish ones use the 10n 

if you put a switch in the input cap you can go from thin 4.7n to more bass at 10n to a much fuller sound with a 100n 

For the radio. Keep leads short and put a 100pf or higher on the base and collector and that should solve the radio issue

Cookiemonster

rze99 said:

A slightly different take....  I couldn't make the Treble Booster thing work for me the way I liked but I am chuffed to bits with my Drybell Unit67 pedal, which is a booster, upper mid-rangemaster, eq and compressor pedal in one. It's fab.

The Pete Thorn demo is excellent

https://youtu.be/P8pgByNOWo8

That’s the one with a compressor as well? 

rze99

Cookiemonster said:

rze99 said:

A slightly different take....  I couldn't make the Treble Booster thing work for me the way I liked but I am chuffed to bits with my Drybell Unit67 pedal, which is a booster, upper mid-rangemaster, eq and compressor pedal in one. It's fab.

The Pete Thorn demo is excellent

https://youtu.be/P8pgByNOWo8

That’s the one with a compressor as well? 

Yes.
It's honestly the best thing I've but before amps in that space and I've tried a bunch.
It has replaced comp+EQ+boost separate pedals on my board. I just use that and an overdrive pedal for solos now. 

Cookiemonster

rze99 said:

Cookiemonster said:

rze99 said:

A slightly different take....  I couldn't make the Treble Booster thing work for me the way I liked but I am chuffed to bits with my Drybell Unit67 pedal, which is a booster, upper mid-rangemaster, eq and compressor pedal in one. It's fab.

The Pete Thorn demo is excellent

https://youtu.be/P8pgByNOWo8

That’s the one with a compressor as well? 

Yes.
It's honestly the best thing I've but before amps in that space and I've tried a bunch.
It has replaced comp+EQ+boost separate pedals on my board. I just use that and an overdrive pedal for solos now. 

It does look fantastic, would be perfect for my needs as well

have you tried an EB 10 that really impressed me 

Cookiemonster

For OP a simple boost would be a Zvex SHO i wonder if you could a big muff style tone control to that perhaps 

bohemianbuoy

Referring back to the Beavis Treble Boost that's been mentioned, I built one a few years back. I've tried to attach a vero layout I did - it's nothing fancy, and bigger than it needs to be, but it's still tiny in a 1590B.

I did trial different capacitors for C1, and I'm not sure if I left it as 4.7n or not. I need to have a look for the pedal, because I remember thinking it was fairly noisy, and not really using it much afterwards.

Super easy to breadboard though, so worth playing around with.

bohemianbuoy

Yorkie

What do you guys use to produce those super neat diagrams? 

bohemianbuoy

I use DIY layout creator http://diy-fever.com/software/diylc/

Really easy to use and open source.

Yorkie

bohemianbuoy said:

I use DIY layout creator http://diy-fever.com/software/diylc/

Really easy to use and open source.

Thanks for the suggestion. This is a game-changer for me.