Fun new zener tweak!

[Dave H]

... I don't know how much clipping happens at that mixer stage in the BF design, but if it's enough to give the PI some relief then that could be one reason for the vibrato channel preference. Anyhoo... Just thinking out loud now.

The vibrato channel has an extra recovery gain stage but its max output looks like it will be limited to less than the Normal channel's max output by the loading of the 50k Intensity pot.

[Chuck H]

The vibrato channel has an extra recovery gain stage but its max output looks like it will be limited to less than the Normal channel's max output by the loading of the 50k Intensity pot.

Yes. That's why I questioned how much clipping might occur there. When researching reverb circuits I actually ran some simulations on the "vibrato" channel output vs. the "normal" channel output and found that the gain in the reverb and vibrato circuits (3.3M series with roughly 150k load (averaged depending on reverb pot setting), recovery stage, 50k trem load, etc.) is about 3db higher than the "normal" channel. I do think the mixer output would clip a tad. With the output padded from the 50k trem pot then putting a more tame level into the PI. That signal into the PI is, perhaps, clipped at higher volume settings. Where the signal from the "normal" channel output is not. I'd need to get one on the bench and do some testing beyond simulations to be certain of this.