Hello and Noisy Cricket Question

[ham_phist]

Hey all, this is my first post but I have been reading this site for a while and just built my first vero layout, a noisy cricket mark II. I am sure many have been here and I've seen people asking some of these questions, but I haven't seen the answer so I figured I'd say HI and ask!

1) the gain thing- this amp sounds really cool for something I slapped together for so little, but I find myself echoing the same question I've been seeing: It's a pretty clean, but there really isn't any grit, especially compared to the two vids listed on the build page. what's happening there, and what kinds of things can you do to make it more distorted? (that being said, it takes pedals pretty well.

2) the tone thing- as mentioned on the build page, the tone knob doesn't really do much. It's actually pretty trebly and I'm wondering if there's something I could do to mitigate that a bit... even wondering about putting a cap between one of the lugs on the pot and ground like you do on a strat (yeah I'm a n00b). anything I can do to give the tone knob some more teeth?

3) speakers: I'm playing it through my 1960 cab, and yes I am impressed with the volume like many! However, my cab is at 16 ohms and I have another cab at my practice space that I can wire for 8. Will there be more volume there?

Thanks all, and I hope someday I can contribute like some of you. Just trying to learn what does what like everyone else.

Phist

[Frank_NH]

Welcome!

I haven't built a Noisy Cricket but will probably do so as I think I have a 386 chip around somewhere.

Here is an analysis of the circuit:

http://www.electrosmash.com/noisy-cricket-analysis

And here is the datasheet for the LM386.

www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/lm386.pdf

Here are some mods I would try (don't know if they would work but hey...)

* For more gain, put a 1uF - 10uF capacitor in series with the 1K gain pot.  Note that the + side of the electro cap should connected to pin 1 of the LM386.  That is put the - side to lug 3 of the Gain pot and the + side to the Gain 3 wire shown on the vero layout.

* The tone control is reportedly pretty lame and I can see why.  It's just a simple low pass filter, but it seems that it would depend a bit upon the volume pot setting.  I would just eliminate it, but if you wanted to experiment then change the 100nF cap to 470nF and put a 1K resistor between Volume 2 and Tone 1 (normally they are just connected with a wire as indicated on the layout).  This would give you a low pass filter with a roll off at about 340 Hz at the minimum pot setting and little or no treble loss at the max pot setting.  Of course, you could get really fancy here (BMP tone control!) but I would probably want some signal boost before or after the tone circuit.

Have fun and let us know if you mod your Noisy Cricket!  

[ham_phist]

Thanks boss! I already removed my tone control so awesome!

Now here's a question- what is it that placing a cap in series with the gain pot that makes it have "moar gain?" does a cap make it clip more? or does it increase the effect that the pot has? just trying to capture the theory here.

thanks, I am having some fun learning! this is my first foray into pedals/amps. I have done most of my guitars and I racked a couple channels from a yamaha PM-1000 "japaneve" console earlier this year.

phist

[Frank_NH]

Hey Ham_Phist,

Check out the LM386 datasheet link - it has some sample circuits.  It shows three scenarios for the pin 1 and 8 connection:

* No connection = Gain of 20
* 10uF cap alone = Gain of 200 (!)
* 1.2K + 10uF in series = Gain of 50

So a 1K pot in series with a 10uF cap would allow you to go from a gain of about 50 to 200.  Try it and see what you get.

NOTE:  I messed up the polarity of the cap.  The + side should go to pin 1 of the LM386.  I changed my post above to correct that.