Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Hello! I recently assembled the Silver Pony 2. Works perfectly. Great kit.

That said I'd like to socket the pcb in some of key places in order to experiment with values of caps and resistors for different tones. I've searched around but it's hard to distinguish which places to socket on the pcb.

Could someone point out the usual components/places that are fun to socket and experiment with on the drive side? Also, values and components that are useful to try out

My goal is mainly to lower the gain on the drive side for more of a low/mid gain dirt sound and then continue to use the boost side as is, super clean.

I'd also like to restore some bass freq and maybe lessen some of the harsh/spikey upper mids to have a more chimey OD tone and usable range on the tone knob.

I've got a few Klon clone circuits from DIY sources but each one has their own nomenclature and with so many out there it's a bit confusing to know how they correlate to this specific BYOC pcb.

Thanks for any help!

The R4/2k resistor is the gain limiting resistor. Making the value of this resistor smaller will increase maximum gain. Making it larger will decrease maximum gain. Not sure what value to suggest here as you might be the first person who's ever asked for less gain. Maybe somewhere between 4k7 and 10k.

C4/82n capacitor is the "bass response" cap. Increasing this will give you more bass. .33uF seems to be pretty good for restoring full bass response.

There are other ways to skin these proverbial cats as well. R6/422k resistor also controls gain. Increasing this value will increase gain and vice versa. The gain knob is a dual gang pot that simultaneously controls the wet gain and dry mix. If you were to use two separate single gang B100k pots, you would have control over both the dry level and gain, which might be a more useful mod for what you are trying to do. But it would also require finding physical space for another pot and drilling a hole for it.

_________________
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Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

Thanks for the response and very useful info! Do I win a prize for being a first?

I realize now I poorly communicated about the gain. What I really mean is that when the drive knob is barely on it seemed like too much gain at a minimum setting of the drive knob.
I've realized since posting that my always on boost pedal, placed before this one in the order, is hitting the front of the silver pony 2 and that's why it seemed like a lot more gain than I wanted as a starting point.

Separating the dual gang b100k pot into a dry and gain pots sounds very interesting.

Is there a diagram or description on how to wire that to this pcb? I do have a slightly larger enclosure I could use to give me a little more space to accommodate that mod.

Thanks again.

It's pretty straight forward. The current pot is simply two pots with one shaft. Remove that pot. Get two B100k pots. Connect one to the first set of pot eyelets. Connect the other pot to the other set of eyelets. You could definitely fit another knob on the same size enclosure, you'd just need to rework the layout and use solder lug pots. Of you can probably find room on the side of the current enclosure to put it. If you used a smaller 12mm pot, you could definitely fit it on the side.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

Right! Duh. Thanks for pointing that out! I forgot this pcb actually has 2 sets of pads for that dual gang pot. I had GGG's klon klone pcb in my brain for some reason.

Now I just need to figure out why the Silicon & LED positions sound exactly the same on the toggle and I'll be sorted out. I prefer the Ge setting anyways. Thanks again

Whoa! I'm definitely loving this Silver Pony 2 more now with having the 2 knobs for blending the clean and gain. It gives me a couple of different shades that weren't accessible before. Thanks for shedding light on these mods.

I had a couple of 9mm B100k pots that fit nicely underneath the pcb in this same enclosure.

I was also able to replace the silicon diodes and that fixed the clipping toggle issue I was having.

Nice work! I've always known about the dual gang thing, but I never thought about separating them. What an interesting idea.

Glad you got your diodes sorted out. Here are a couple more things to consider about those:

1. The LEDs have a higher forward voltage than the other diode types, which means they have higher headroom and they clip a little harder. Many times we hear from builders who think the LED setting isn't doing anything, and that's because it often isn't, because they won't clip at all unless the gain is turned up pretty high. This is especially true on Klon type overdrives where the gain knob is also a blend knob. Silicon diodes have the next highest forward voltage, and germanium have the lowest.

2. My favorite clipping option for the Klon is asymmetrical germanium. It was offered on a previous version of the single channel Silver Pony, and I immediately set it there and left it there. You can test this out by putting two germanium diodes together in series on one side of the pair, and a single diode on the other side.

_________________
Scott

My band, Austin Hollow

Great info! I've done the asymmetrical clipping on some other drives with good results. If it'll work, I may actually replace the silicon diodes with an asymmetrical option for the left toggle option. Then I'd have Ge asymmetrical, LED, and Ge symmetrical.

I think this will work, but I may need to ask the Boss. I know that there is some trick for how BYOC designed the clipping toggle to work so that some settings of the switch actually include more than one set of diodes, but it doesn't use both of them. Specifically, the LEDs may be connected all the time, but it doesn't matter because the other diodes clip the signal before the LEDs would get to them anyway. I don't think that design would come into play for the silicon position, but I'm officially out of my depth at this point.

_________________
Scott

My band, Austin Hollow

Ah! Well, I'll try it and let you know if it blows up Fingers crossed!

Clipping devices can be put in series or parallel much in the way that resistors can. For example, if you put two diodes with a forward voltage of 1.0mV in series, you'll have a total of 2.0mV. And if you put the two diodes with a 1.0mV forward voltage in parallel, you won't get exactly 0.5mV, but you will get a reduced forward voltage. In the case of the SPII and the Mouse, the pair of clipping LEDs are always in circuit, which is why they are the center position of the SPDT on-off-on toggle switch. When the toggle switch adds either Si or Ge diodes in parallel with the LEDs, the device(s) with the lower forward voltage will always clip first, thus negating the LEDs having any effect in the circuit.

So you should be able to replace the "Si" position with an "asymmetrical Ge" setting. If it were me, I'd leave one of the Si diodes where it is and replace the other Si diode with a Ge diode. Two Ge diodes in series will give you a forward voltage relatively similar to a single Si diode. Technically, it will now be a Ge/Si hybrid, but perform the same function as asymmetrical Ge.

_________________
*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com