One last one, for tonight.
From RnFR:
well, i came up with another dirt pedal the other day. lately, i’ve
been experimenting with mixing different types of transistors together
to achieve new tones, and this one kind of takes that idea to the
extreme. it’s designed under the premise that the stages increase in
breakup as it goes along in the circuit, but instead of using stages
that increase in gain, different types of transistors are used that
exceedingly distort as the the circuit progresses. for instance, the
first gain stage is a silicon BJT. this is used to get a decent push
going and a very slight amount of drive. next, is a MOSFET transistor,
which like to distort a little easier, and in a bit more pleasing and
richer way than the previous Si transistor. finally, there is a
germanium stage, which of course loves to distort in a very full and
heavy overdrive, especially when driven by the previous gain stages.
the result is a very clear, yet complex crunch, that has a very nice
character to it. to round things out, in the beginning of the circuit
is a JFET buffer, which helps to increase the current, and gives a nice
high input impedance for the guitar pickup to see. so in the end there
is a total of 4 different types of transistors, each of which i tried to
use to their optimum potential. hence the name, the Four Horsemen
Overdrive.
the tone control is a variation on the SWTC, but it has an added pole
for a steeper rolloff. the frequency point where the curve begins is
rather high, so it is really more like a presence control- just taming
the highest of frequencies, keeping the basic tone intact.
