BJFE Blueberry Bass Overdrive

[YerayM]

It's been a month since this got traced on freestompboxes and nobody has posted a layout yet, so I will post mine. It's verified and boxed.

I like my to keep my veros as small as possible so I tend to use standing resistors and shared holes, but I'm sure a lot of people here can make it more "standard" layout.

[rocket88]

nice job man. i tweaked the Bearfoot BBBOD i made to fit the BJFE schematic. it's not verified yet, but i'm 99.9999% sure it will fire right up, since the Bearfoot version i made is. this fits the typical idea of having no standing resistors, well except that one damn 5.6k that's at a slightly elevated angle.



i will be building this soon, probably either tomorrow after work, or this weekend.

[rocket88]

caught a 2 stupid errors, and made corrections to my layout. the one above is built and verified.

i built this and the bearfoot, and this is the one to have IMHO. there is no midbump like there is with the bearfoot. both are good, but i think this is the better of the two. btw, i both have been boxed as they are both worth boxing.

[traktop]

I´m going to build this. I could only find CA3130 IC´s, (not CA3130EZ), so hopefully that will do. The same with the 370k log drive pot, so I will try a 250k. I guess LONG means "longer pot run".
Cheers, Gilberto.  

[Silver Blues]

The -EZ suffix only means that the part was manufactured using a lead-free process so you functionally have the exact same part, don't worry about it. I think "long" was just a typo, the correct pot to use here would be an A250K (log taper). 370K is not a standard pot value by any stretch of the imagination.

I have yet to build this myself but I'm going shopping a bit later now that Tayda has a new coupon up

[rocket88]

Oop. Correct it should be long. Can't believe that typo . I'll fix it.

Yea I'm shopping at tayda now too for a few products I need her I'm low on.

[traktop]

[traktop]

Building on progress, but I´ve got one problem. Lug number 1 of A50k tone pot came broken from Banzai... I´ve got a B50k pot, so I guess that a different  pot response should be expected.
The A50k lug is completely lost, but its track is already there, so maybe I could try soldering straight on the track... What do you think? (I know its a matter of just trying, but this must be finished for tomorrow, so any time saving is welcome... )

[Silver Blues]

The potentiometer track is just a film of carbon which you can't solder to, so no. You'll need a new pot.

[traktop]

You´re right thanks. Let´s see how does the linear pot behaves...

[traktop]

I finally finished, and this thing sounds great! Turned the ampeg ba300 into a different beast for sure, (dinamics and harmonics). There´s a significant increase on low mids, but that´s the nature of tubes when pushed that this thing seems to emulate, so no complaints.
The only thing is that I find it a tad dark, even when cranking the tone knob. I´m waiting for banzai to send me a replacement of the 50k log tone pot that came broken, so a linear is in there at the moment; anyway, I don´t thing that´s causing trouble.
Is there any cap to play with in order to get a little more air up there?
(Maybe lowering the 22nf cap between tone 3 and volume 3...)
Cheers, Gilberto.

[rocket88]

I would think the 22uF on the left side attached to tone 1 could be the culprit, try lowering it and see what happens.

[Silver Blues]

Yeah I just got my order from Tayda in, hopefully I'll be following suit on the train of finished Blueberries.

I hate how long it takes me to make a pedal.

[traktop]

Finally tried with a 10uf cap. Didn´t really get more presence up there, just got more hi mids, so I think that´s the nature of the pedal. Maybe I will try something more drastic, but made a line recording and this thing sits really well on the mix; Just feels dark when playing on a band context and comparing it with the original amp sound, but this thing could be perfectly on all the time with a mild drive setting. It really transforms a cheap amp into something much more expensive. It reminds me a lot to a svt classic with the gain maxed.
Best regards, Gilberto.

[rocket88]

you might want to build the Bearfoot version then, as it definitely has more mids, it might be more of what you're looking for. it's very similar to the BJFE version, but has some major differences that really changes the characteristic of the pedal. for me i love the BJFE, i turned it on and was just floored. the Bearfoot was good, but for my taste had a little too much mids.

[Silver Blues]

Second that analysis. I have a finished Bearfoot one as well and it has a snarl that the original doesn't.

[traktop]

That seems interesting. Does the bearfoot feels darker that the amp itself as well? What It happens with mine I can fix it with a little more treble on the amp, but I love the character of the bjfe.

[rocket88]

to make a long story short the biggest difference is how the nature/tone control works, as there's a few extra components that i believe is what causes the BJFE to be much darker or warmer to my ears. and before you ask, there are a bunch of caps in the BJFE that are double what you'll find in the Bearfoot, which will increase the amount of lowend. the way i have my BJFE set i have more of the LEDs in the circuit then the Si. in my build i used 1N4007 diode, 3mm red diffused LEDs, and a BF244A transistor. not sure if you used the same or if you used sub parts, which may make a slight difference, but shouldn't be much.

now, yes you can increase the treble and even mids in the amp to get it where you want, but i think that this pedal really works best when it enhances the sound you like about your amp. i set my amp where i wanted it, then tweaked the blueberry to where it did its job. to me what good is a pedal if you have to tweak your amp to get it to sound good, then when you turn it off your amp isn't where you like it. know what i mean?

anyways, here's what i said about the Bearfoot in the build thread about it:

"also, I feel that there's either a midrange bump or some low end loss when it's engaged. Now, I'm saying this because I like massive, and I mean massive low end, and when this's is engaged you get much more string definition, as in you actually hear the things being hit, as opposed to it being in the background. I was able to get it to sound more to my liking by switching the Si diodes for some russian d9 diodes,but I took them out, and I'm looking to see if I have a solder bridge somewhere causing an issue. I also, tried a different ca3130ez and 2n5952, but the sound stayed the same. I'm thinking maybe playing around with some of the values and the JFET to see what happens. "

it's a great pedal pedal and worth a build if you're trying to get a great bass OD, and that little extra midbump may be what you want with that Ampeg. you can even try the trick i did by using Ge diodes in place of the Si ones to warm up the bearfoot a little more, i definitely dug it that way too. but again, i think every knows that i'm a bassist who can never have enough low end.

[traktop]

Thanks for the extended reply.
Maybe the bearfoot with ge diodes would be interesting to try, but the description of that infamous midbump sounds like a "cheaper sound" to me, and I dont want to lose any bass frequencies by any mean.
Anyway the bass amp we were using was borrowed for a couple of weeks to see if it would fit on our band, but this one is not staying. We are after an ashdown evo II combo now, and heard that is a darker amp. Maybe It gets along with the pedal better.
I will report when we get something.
Cheers, Gilberto.
 

[Silver Blues]

I wouldn't say it sounds "cheap" by any stretch of the imagination, and it's definitely not lacking low end. I just find it has more high-mid content than the BJFE version and the Nature sweep is a bit different, like Rocket said.