Build Your Own Clone Message Board

I just built the British blues OD as my first build and am thinking about mods at this point. I overall liked the stock sound. My only issue is I want to have more volume on tap so I can push my tubes a bit harder. I don't see that in the modification lists in the instructions. Any ideas on what could get me more overall volume??

Please and thankyou!

This is a very common observation about the BBOD/Bluesbreaker circuit. It is just not a very loud overdrive. Two things to consider:

1. If you, like me, get a little unsettled that unity volume is not at 12 o'clock, one thing that will help that is changing the level pot from the stock logarithmic taper (A100K) to a linear taper (B100K). The maximum available volume won't change, but it will roll on more quickly in the initial portion of the pot sweep, and more gradually near the end. This may make it "behave" more like your expectations. Once I got used to the idea that I have to turn the knob up a lot more than on, say, a Tube Screamer, it didn't bother me much.

2. You can change the clipping diodes to LEDs, which will clip less of the signal (and thus make the output louder), but it changes the character of the overdrive—and not for the better, in my opinion.

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Scott

My band, Austin Hollow

1. Thanks for the information!! It doesn't really bother me that unity isn't at noon. I have a handful of pedals where the unity isn't at noon. I was just surprised how quiet the overall quiet this circuit was.

2. I really like the flavor of the OD so I think I'll leave it the way it was designed!!

How about a transistor or op amp gain stage between the tone and volume controls? You'd probably have to mount the added components on a piece of perfboard and find the space inside the BB enclosure to mount it. Shouldn't be too hard, though.

I did something similar in this DIY project a while back, employing the unused half of a dual op amp already installed on the PCB. This necessitated a "creative" approach to tapping in to that half of the op amp, but you wouldn't need to do that here. Using a 741 single op amp would be the logical way to go. Or a simple bipolar junction transistor gain stage.

Below is the schematic for the project linked above. I've circled the added gain stage between the tone and output volume controls. The IC pin numbers would be different for a single op amp, but the concept is the same.

P.S. I'm moving this thread to the "BYOC Mods" subforum where it more properly belongs....

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“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

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