Hyperion 2. Great but trebly/harsh at high fuzz settings

[nonost]

Hi guys. I've just built a Hyperion 2 and I'm quite impressed. This thing has a lot of gain. The Intense pot is very interactive. It reminds me of the Voice pot in the Zendrive, since it increases gain and treble as you turn it clockwise. I really like that huge amount of fuzz but I'm not completely happy with the lack of bass at higher settings. So I was wondering if any has tried other cap values in order to make it less trebly. I would change the input cap, but I'm not sure if changing just one is enough. If anyone has experimented or has any idea about what to do I would really appreciate some advice. I'd like to try.

BTW, I've tried a couple 2N2907 TO-92 and I liked more the TO-18 (metal can). Here some pics if anyone is interested. It's unfinished, I have to decide the art/led...

The blue caps are Epcos MKT and the big yellow one is a Nichicon Foil Type Polyester Film(it looks like the ones used in the Boss SD-1 made in Japan time ago), which is quite expensive.







pd: As you can see I added a diode for polarity protection, I only lose 200mV. The pedal works exactly the same. I've even tried it with an almost dead battery (7.5v) and it worked surprisingly well.

[traktop]

In my experience, that's where all the fun is.
You crank the intense pot and roll backup the guitar volumen just a little. You'll see how the bassy muff sound returns. Then just crank the guitar volume for that barky superfuzz-esque Octave sound for leads.
The intense pot doesn't add much gain when you rich a certain point anyway...

[Fuzz Prince Of Bel Air]

The short answer is the circuit is simple enough for you to breadboard in 5-10 mins and hear for yourself.

But from my experience messing around on a breadboard with Devi's circuits, increasing the caps at input and between gain stages increases the volume, which increases the saturation, which increases the treble. i.e. Turning the 'Intensity' knob from zero you'll reach the stock maximum intensity at, say, 90% rotation, then surpass it at 100%.

Also, from running a Soda Meiser/Vintage Fuzz Master into Ableton and checking out the low end on EQ8's frequency spectrum, the 100nf caps let through enough low end and increasing the output cap's value makes very little-to-no difference.

My advice is if you want low end at the highest gain setting, don't try to increase the low end but instead decrease the high end.

One way to do this is to put a cap to ground just before the output cap a la Devi's Dark Boost (which forms the first half of the Hyperion) to produce a low pass filter that'll cut the high end. Throw a resistor between the cap and ground and you'll produce a low shelf that'll essentially turn the high end down.



You can even combine the two by replacing R2 in the above schematic with a pot, allowing you to slowly decrease the high end via a shelf until resistance is zero and the low shelf has become a low pass.

Or put it on a switch—e.g. a SPDT between the resistor and ground. (No ground connection = no cut; ground connection = cut.)

[Fuzz Prince Of Bel Air]

But then again...

"The Hyperions made during our tenure used 1uf caps instead of .1uf. It is a significant difference."

[traktop]

The thing is that I use all fuzzes on an edge of the break up amp, so I don't usually have problems with low end or treble, but is true that it can sound harsh on something like a twin reverb.
I seemed to remember that increasing all cap values didn't do much for getting more lowend; it just reduced the barky octave sound.
The low pass filter at the end sounds  like a good idea.

[nonost]

Ey traktop! Rolling back a little bit the guitar volume is a quite smart way to go, but you lose some sustain and gain doing that. Anyway, after a while I've realized that you can have the best of both worlds with the pots cranked. This circuit is pretty sensitive to the pick attack, so when I want to play more that one string at the same time I hit the strings very carefully and I get all the bass back. That way I solve the problem.

To sum up: if you crank the intense pot you get a lot of gain and sustain when leading but when you hit a chord it can sound very thin and trebly. In order to solve that you can roll back a little bit the guitar volume(like traktop said) when not leading or hit the strings carefully.