Blue Note/Animal: Are both layouts swappable?

[traktop]

Last year I built the Rockett Animal od which I love, (never abandoned my pedalboard since). I tweaked its tone stack a little and now I can say that it is the most transparent od I ever tried in my Hiwatt DR-103. So this time I was looking for a kind of lower gain/same transparent thing, so the blue note seemed to be the obvious option. I even built two, but it wasnt what I was looking for at all. This thing sounds beautiful, but kind of stiff and is not transparent at all. It seemed to naturally add a TS mid bass bump, even when the fat pot set to zero. I even matched the tweaked Animal tone stack, but still felt same way.
So I took a look at both layouts and schematics and to my surprise they were 99% identical. The only differences were a resistor value on the snarl switch and a higher value gain pot on the animal layout, (the voltage divider on my animal built ended being 470k/470k, so its the same like the blue note and the clipping diodes are the same in both as well). Bass pot on the Blue Note has lugs 1/2 linked though...
So I tried changing the switch resistor and the pot, but still its not like the animal at all.
I dont mind building another animal, but this thing intrigues me badly cause the layouts are the same...
Can anyone confirm if both layouts are swappable?
Cheers, Gilberto.

[Frank_NH]

I looked at both schematics and yes they appear to be virtually identical!  Assuming the power section differences don't change the sound (though the current flow will be different) you ought to be able to get identical sounds from both effects if the gain is set appropriately and the Hot/Snarl switches are turned off.  Is that not the case?  There is a difference in the parallel RC network if the Hot/Snarl switch is engaged that could result in more midrange in the Blue Note (the 1.2K/.22uF RC gives a boost above 603 Hz, hence the midrange bump).  Try changing the 1.2K in the Blue Note to 470 Ohms and see if the transparency returns.  But then, why build the Blue Note???  Just use the Animal at low gain.

[traktop]

The only difference on the power path is the 10 ohms(blue note) and the 56ohms(animal) resistors just at the beginnind, but I think they are there for protection or something...
The differences in sound and feel remained the same with both switches off.
Im trying to build and animal on an already built blue note vero layout. Different layout configuration, but same parts.
Cheers, Gilberto.

[Frank_NH]

OK.  Just swap the 1.2K for 470R and change the gain pot to get the Animal.

Interesting that Rockett would market two pedals like this which are virtually identical circuits.  Could have just put a "Blue Note" switch on the Animal!

[traktop]

I already did it, but when I compared it with the animal at same gain, they dont sound and feels the same. The only difference layout related is that the Bass pot on the Blue Note has lugs 1/2 linked, (the schematics left lug 1 open as the animal layout).
And you are right about the switch, jejeje

[traktop]

There was a mod, suggested on the freestompboxes blue note thread, that recommends swapping the input 220pf cap for a 1k resistor+ 1n cap, but I dont think of that making a big difference...

[traktop]

Another thing that comes to my mind is that I used a JRC 4558 for the animal and Tayda NJM 4558s for both blue notes...

[traktop]

Looking around I found another jrc, (I bought a couple of them from Banzai when planning the Animal I think), and guess what... It was the IC. Now the blue note sounds and feels 99% like the animal. I left the parallel RC network of the blue note cause in it had more impact in the sound in my opinion; so clearly we have a "blue Animal" here...
The Banzai IC´s were jrc4558-eu48a, and the ones I got from Tayda were jrc4558-f018f.
Cheers Gilberto.