Build Your Own Clone Message Board

After hours and hours of troubleshooting, I somehow got my Phase Royal to work!

Sounds great– however I do notice quite a bit of clipping. I saw another thread covering this– can anyone provide any ideas as to how to mod the circuit to reduce this?

There's nothing you can really do about that. It's just part of the phase 90 sound. You could maybe add an input level. But then you need to add a small boost at the end and an output level as well. The simplest fix is just back off your guitar volume a bit when you're playing clean. It probably doesn't matter that much if you're using it with a distortion.

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*patience is a virtue*

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

Fair enough– but is there anything similar I could try, like that of the Phase 90 R28 Mod?

http://www.seymourduncan.com/forum/showthread.php?76505-Attention-Mxr-Phase-90-R28-Mod-Users

The R28 mod doesn't apply to this circuit because it already has a feedback control.

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MasterDelayer/Reverbrador/Ampaholic/TopJacker

If your clipping is in the clean path, you could try the 68k resistor between emitter and base of Q7. You can isolate the clean and phased path with the MIX knob. Turn it full clockwise, slam a chord, and see if you get clipping. If so, then the 68k may help. It worked great for me and I use active EMG pickups. This completely fixed the clean path clipping which was the most annoying to me. It reduced a bit( i think) the phased path clipping also. I have been working on the phased path clipping when I get time, and think using an audio probe along the path might help.

The phased path clipping however doesn't sound as abrasive as the Q7 clipping to my ears and I am thinking that maybe it is IC related? I did not have good luck with NE5532 chips though. Got some motor-boating. The 4558 ICs work well and also have some notoriety in clipping circuits. Even with all that said, I can roll the EMGs down about 25% and be totally clean - as was mentioned. This for me is a workable solution.

The 68k mod is definitely worth a try. Just know that the mod is not a silver bullet; it works for some builds / rig combinations but not others.

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MasterDelayer/Reverbrador/Ampaholic/TopJacker

The addition of the 68K should always have the same effect. It will alter the bias on Q7, moving the DC point at the collector more negative and will therefore reduce positive clipping. However if the zener reference voltage is not close to the expected 5.1V, the 68K may not have the desired effect. In any case, even re-biased the Q7 stage does introduce quite a lot of distortion at higher signal levels.

Could you post a picture of what the 68k resister mod looks like attached to the emitter/base of the Q7? Just want to make sure I am doing it correctly!

One more question– Looks like the closest resistor BYOC has is a 62k resistor...think that'd work?