Build Your Own Clone Message Board

I've been in love w/ the TS circuit since first hearing my '83 TS9 on my Mesa Tremoverb's dirty channel. I've since made several 808 clones to nice results.

Today at band practice, I was really disappointed by the OD2 on the dirty channel. On the clean channel, it sounded great! But when I kicked it on for leads on the dirty channel, it was not round and smooth like TS's are supposed to be. It sounded decent, but not smooth. The initial hit was OK, but as I let it ring out, it got a little harsh.

I have a BYOC muff clone on my board and that pedal and my amp's dirty channel definitely DO NOT play nice. But I'm fine w/ that - I just use it on my clean channel for fuzzy goodness. I'm really bummed about the OD2 right now!

Details:

Amp: Mesa Tremoverb. 2x12 open back Mesa cab.
Pedal: Mosfet specs w/ trannie output buffer. BB 2134 opamp. Every setting sounds not-so-good on the dirty channel (be it Mos or diode clipping); full/norm/fat/etc.
Guitar: ES-335 copy w/ GFS Mean90 pups.

Anyone else having this problem?

Maybe you prefer the 4558?

Thanks FF. I actually prefer the TL082. It adds a little more snarl that I like. But now that I have my rig back home (just had my Epi Valve Jr. before), I can swap out the opamp and see if the 4558 or TL082 respond differently to the dirty channel of the Mesa. This is the first time I've used the 2134.

I'll let you know how it goes. Not sure if I'll get to it this week, though - gonna be out of town - so don't anyone think I forgot to get back to y'all.

How are your trimpots set up on the OD2?

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

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

i have found that screamers don't really sound that good with a overdriven amp. anything past "just starting to break up" on an amp and the screamer will make the tone sound thin and muffled.

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safe? who said anything about safe? of course He isn't safe! but He's good. He's the king i tell you!

Yeah, I've found that too. Except you can take the Overdrive knob all the way down and crank the level knob, adding tone to taste. This really drives a distorted amp nicely, much like a boost would.

Interesting. As mentioned above, I've had an '83 TS9 on my board as well as a GGG and BYOC 808 clone on there and I really liked the added oomph they add to an overdriven amp.

duhvoodooman, I didn't put the DMM on the trimmers, but I have the Loud set pretty low, the Min pretty low (just a little grit) and the Max probably about 75%.

Not to be redundant, but on the clean channel, the pedal sounds fine, but on the dirty channel, it reacts similar to my Muff. Like it's overloading the amp or something. I had the Drive knob in various settings low to high. I've yet to put in the other chips though, so we'll see. I guess I could also tweak the trimmers. I'll be able to do all of that probably next week (fingers crossed on good results).

I have found that my overdrive BYOC all sound better through my Fender ChampII than my Marshall JCM900. The Marshal has 2 overdrive controls and is not as clean as the Fender. I have just finished the OD2 with the Mosfet kit so we will have to see which amp suits it best.
In general particularly with the older semi conductor devices there is a limit to how much drive you can use before the sound goes to rats.

Cheers
FEZ

Ok, here's where it's at... I didn't change the opamp, but figured it out at practice today. I had the gain cranked too high. That was messing up my lead tone. Having the gain around 9:00 or slightly less was the ticket. So far I'm preferring the MOSFET clipping on either the Full or Fat setting for singing leads.

Whew! I really thought I might have to make a choice between this pedal and my OCD - and I was leaning towards keeping the OCD b/c it sounds better as a stand alone OD pedal (no midhump). Crisis averted!

Keep in mind that when you dial up the maximum gain setting via the MAX trimpot, you change the bass response of the OD2 substantially. You can read the details in THIS POST.

You mentioned that you have the pot set around 75%, which is about where I keep mine set, too. I've compensated for the bass loss in my pedal by changing the three caps in the "Fat" toggle section of the circuit from 0.047-0.047-0.150 to 0.1-0.1-0.33. If you find the Normal toggle setting excessively thin, or aren't getting enough bass on the Fat setting, you may wish to consider this change.

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

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

duhvoodooman, yeah, I followed that advice a while back so thanks for following up. Here's what I have now (I posted this statement somewhere else too): I didn't have a .33 cap, but I did have the foresight to socket those holes (luckily!), and I now have a .1, .1, and a .22 (it was that or a .47). I also took your advice and did some offboard wiring of 3 different clipping options. I put sockets for each so I can swap 'em out.

Thanks again man!