bearfoot dyna red distortion

[falconfan]

Working on offboard wiring for my dyna red distortion clone.....just need some input for anyone who might could help....

Im using the following schematic



I need to know where the ground from the board goes and the ground from the volume control.....

Im using a 3pdt board for wiring the switch

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[falconfan]

Here is the switch schematic im using

[rocket88]

hey bro. remember, ground is ground, and basically all grounds should go to the same place i the end, the enclosure. now if you look at that PCB switch board you'll notice that all the black wires are ground, so you have a ground from the main board, a ground from the DC jack, and a ground from the input & output jacks, which make contact with the metal enclosure grounding the effect. you can see what i mean when i say they're all connected when you look at the offboard wiring from the site



notice how all the grounds are tied together and will go to the enclosure.

you'll need to connect the ground from the volume pot somewhere in that ground loop. you can make you're life a little easier by connected it to the bottom row opposite the ground connection that goes off the vero, that entire row is ground.

btw, i just use the above offboard wiring. it's never let me down.

[Frank_NH]

I would connect the volume ground to one of the spare ground connections on the 3PDT board (all grounds should be connected).

[falconfan]

This makes perfect sense...I will try this and let you guys know the results. I started working on this unit a few weeks back, but stopped because I was trying to finish another project pedal - the Arctic White Fuzz clone.

I bought these 3pdt boards because I don't have to worry with over-soldering the switch and messing it up. I'm hoping this will work much easier and be cleaner in my builds.

Thanks for you input!

[Muadzin]

I hate 3PDT boards. I just don't see any valid reason to use one. Plus they're a PAIN in the ass to desolder if you ever have to reuse the switch.

[falconfan]

Hello all,

I just wanted to thank each and everyone that has helped me learn so much about my first encounter with building guitar pedals. There has been several weeks of frustration, but I believe everything is starting to click and finally I have my first working pedal. I will say that using a 3pdt board for my switch was the best thing I’ve done since starting this project off. It helped reduce the amount of confusion and was easier to solder.

Ok, so I’ve got my first build working, but I do have some further questions. This build was the Bearfoot Dyna Red Distortion clone. The volume and distortion knobs are working as they should, yet the treble knob doesn’t seem to have much of a change in tone. Also, the distortion seems a little muddy and generic. Not quite what I expected. I almost feel like maybe there is something not quite right with the build and thus the reason for the muddy sound.

When I plugged up my Dean Soltero with two humbuckers, it just sounded muddy……distorted, but not clean and no good attack. It almost sounds fuzzy. I hope I’m making since to you guys.
So my question is this: Has anyone else had any of these types of issues with this build or other builds and what should I be looking for to fix?

On a side note, I’m not sure how the LED is supposed to be connected on the 3pdt wiring board.

[Frank_NH]

There is thread here with my experience with the Dyna Red.  The main points:

Tonight I did some experimenting with my BJF Dyna Red and found that it sounds much better (to me) without the 1N4001 diodes hard clipping.  So I may put those diodes on a switch or change them out to LEDs.  Lots of options there.

It also occurred to me that you could put in a bass cut control just like the Timmy.  I won't do that for my build, but you could redesign the layout to accommodate it.

Edit:  I also removed the 22 nF cap to ground after the treble control.  Now it sounds perfect!  No hard clipping diodes and slightly brighter without the 22 nF cap, and the tone control has a better sweep (though still more subtle which is OK).  So I'll call this the Dyna Red Overdrive (DRO) - simple, basic, but
good-sounding high gain overdrive!  

So remove the 22 nF cap to ground just after the treble control for a better sweep, and consider removing the hard clipping diodes (or putting them on a switch).  (Note - there are two 22 nF caps - don't remove the series one or there will be no signal at the output!  ).

I've recently done some experimenting with another circuit that had both soft and hard clipping.  It seemed to me that if the output signal from the op amp stage is being voltage limited by the soft clipping diodes in the feedback network, then hard clipping doesn't make a lot of difference, or can be too harsh.  My experiments were with hard clipping to a reference voltage rather than ground, so you may hear subtle differences in the Dyna Red.  In any case, I liked it better without hard clipping (YMMV).

Here's the schematic for reference:

[heuermh]

falconfan wrote

On a side note, I’m not sure how the LED is supposed to be connected on the 3pdt wiring board.

I actually like those 3PDT wiring boards!  Are you planning to use single color or bi-color LED?

[falconfan]

I have single colored LEDs..

[falconfan]

Thats kind of what I'm experiencing....seems like it sounds like a real flat bottom end and some clipping...I will try this and come back and let you know if it worked

[falconfan]

So pulling both diodes out will not make the board stop working? Also, which one is the 22nf........the one connected to ground? Show me in the above diagram I posted.thanks for the input

[Frank_NH]

Here you go.  Hopefully it's clear.  Pulling the diodes is optional, and it won't affect the signal since the diodes are parallel to the signal path and just serve to clip the signal @ +/- 1V.

[falconfan]

You were right.......this made a huge difference in overall sound and attack. It must have been the diodes making it clip too much.....I am much happier with this build now. Thanks so much for the input.
I really appreciate it.

I still haven't figured out the LED mystery.......

[Frank_NH]

I think this is the way to hook up your LED to the 3PDT board.  Solder some extension wires to the LED so you can secure it to your enclosure where you want.  I use a 4.7K resistor, but anything from 2K (brighter) to 6K (less bright) will work.  

[Frank_NH]

One more mod, which I think makes sense here.  If you wanted to have the option of hard or soft clipping, you could wire a DPDT switch so as to select either the LEDs soft clippers OR the 1N4001 hard clippers.  By themselves, each clipping style should give you about the same output (LEDs a little more) but a different sounding distortion.  It would take some heavy modding of the existing layout, but I can see how it could be done.

[falconfan]

I will try this tonight......Frank......you've been a great help. Thank you!

[falconfan]

Frank,

What worked for me was not wiring up the cathode to the white hole position but the middle position. it worked after I did that. Thanks for your help. The pedal is done.

I do have an unusual amount of volume though. Even when my amp is set to a low volume, when I turn the volume up on the pedal it acts like I truned up the amp to 4 .....it's super loud.....is that unusual?

I can have the volume on the pedal set to 1 but there is a huge volume swell from say 1-2. It's super sensitive and loud. I'm not complaining, but it would be a bit hard to lock in your volume with such a big difference with the volume knob.

Let me know what you think.

[Frank_NH]

Try using a 50K log or audio taper pot for volume.  Hopefully that will give you a smoother sweep.  If you want to reduce the volume even more, then substitute a 10K or higher resistor for the 3K at the top of your vero.  Modding / customizing pedals is one of the reasons I like this hobby.

(And yes lots of pedals can give your signal a hefty boost - loud is bad??? )

[falconfan]

Frank,


So I go back and plug in my Dyna Red I built and the more I play with it, the more it sounds real generic sounding.....when I play a string hard it still sounds a little muddy....not like a real distortion pedal.....and I do notice sometimes I can be playing and it seems like there something that makes the volume go up and down just slightly.......weird.....I notice it, but anyone else might not....

The overall sound just doesn't sound like you think it should....as a guitarist.

Any thoughts?