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PostPosted: Tue Jun 16, 2015 3:29 am 
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Hi there,
I built the Classic Compressor kit and I'm loving the sound. However I think the output level is a bit too low. Unity is at around the 4 o'clock position on the level knob so there isn't much room for boosting. Is there a way to mod the circuit for more output?
Thanks.


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PostPosted: Tue Jun 16, 2015 5:59 am 
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That doesn't sound right--IIRC, unity gain should be right around the midpoint of the level control. I'd suggest double-checking all your resistor placements and make sure that you didn't swap the level and sensitivity pots. Feel free to post photos here, if you'd like us to look it over for you.

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PostPosted: Thu Jun 18, 2015 4:03 am 
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Thanks duhvoodooman.
I finally got around checking things yesterday.
So, the resistors, caps, pots and everything seems to be in place. I did reflow some suspicious-looking joints and I plugged in afterwards to check if anything changed. I didn't have my main guitar around at the time, so I used a crappy bass. And it was flawless. Unity is around 1 o'clock, so I could dial in a huge boost. Happy happy happy, right? :)
Well not so fast. I checked the pedal with my guitar this morning and it's the same as before. Unity at 4 o'clock, and not much of a level boost above that. Sounds kinda overdriven compared to the bass, too.
Now, the one big difference between the bass and the guitar besides the obvious is that the bass has passive pickups and the guitar has actives (EMG 57-66).
I checked the specs and the EMGs' output impedance is 10kOhms, and the compressor's input impedance is 470kOhms. Could this be a problem? Or is it just that the pickups are too hot for the pedal? If it's the impedance mismatch, should I change R1 in the pedal to a different value? And if not how do I solve this?
Thanks!


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 18, 2015 12:57 pm 
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With that much signal, you may need more headroom in the compressor. One easy way to do this is to use MORE POWER - oh, sorry, I mean higher volts. Try a 12v or even 18v power supply and see if that helps.


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 18, 2015 1:49 pm 
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I will try that thanks.
I'm curious though, is there a way to lower the input sensitivity? Like adding an input level knob maybe?


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 18, 2015 2:03 pm 
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janner wrote:
I'm curious though, is there a way to lower the input sensitivity? Like adding an input level knob maybe?

There's one of those on your guitar....

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