Jekyll and Hyde Schematic

[erikbuzz]

Anyone have a source for schematics for this thing? I have exhausted my resources and cannot come up with one. It has a nice sound and would do nicely for a mod/build.

Thanks,
Erik

[Arthur B.]

I believe the Jekyll is based on an Ibanez Tubescreamer (TS-9?) and the Hyde is based on a Marshall Guv'nor.

[Mark Hammer]

This is a production pedal from a medium-sized "boutique" company. The odds of a schematic "floating around" are slim to none.

That being said, if you have specific needs for modding the thing, you can always consider sending a note to their tech support address, stating what you want/need it to do differently, and inquiring what specific parts you should change to what values.

That's probably less than what you are asking for, but probably a good deal more than you might expect from a larger company.

[Matt T.]

FWIW, I have an old silver one and traced the green (Jekyll) side and it is indeed TS-808. I've compared it side-by-side with some other Tubescreamers (some were even boutique TS-808 clones) and for most things it's my favorite Tubescreamer.

But I just can't leave anything alone so I went inside to do some simple Tubescreamer mods (which Mark will tell you takes it further and further away from the goodness of a Tubescreamer...and I would agree with him by the way ).

My mods were very simple and easy to explain...and they're very common or typical TS mods, here they are:

Changed the .047uF input cap to .1uF. A little more bass (or less bass cut)...seems some TSs benefit from this and others don't...I thought this unit did benefit from it.

Changed the 51K resistor in series with the Drive pot to 10K. This just makes low Drive settings have...less drive. But high Drive settings (which I never use) are pretty much unchanged.

Added a germanium diode in series with one of the existing silicon diodes. Makes the clipping assymetrical, but not as much as adding a silicon diode. It also reduces distortion a tiny bit.

That's it...and it's still my favorite Tubescreamer...but by an even bigger margin now.

As for the red (Hyde) side, I've heard others say it's based on a Guv'nor but IIRC a Guv'nor uses LEDs for clipping and there are no internal LEDs in the Jekyll & Hyde (and you can clearly see the reversed regular diodes in there for clipping). It doesn't sound like a Guv'nor either IMO. But I never traced that side so it may be the exact same circuit but just with regular diodes (and that's IF an old Guv'nor even uses LEDs...it's been a while and I can't remember).

I don't know what they changed on the newer red ones, never played one.

One last thing: I don't think trying to get 4-channels (clean, green, red, red+green) is the best way to go with these. Either ditch the red side alone or ditch the cascaded red+green but IME/IMO you can't really have both and have the levels even close. I always preferred setting it so I could use the green side alone and then cascade the red side but you have to set both sides pretty low on the Drive (which I did anyway).

One more: the switches are known for failing...mine had one fail but I gigged with it for years.

[tele_guitarist]

Anyone have a source for schematics for this thing? I have exhausted my resources and cannot come up with one. It has a nice sound and would do nicely for a mod/build.

Thanks,
Erik

do a search at http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/ -- it is a marshall shredmaster clone into a tubescreamer clone.

[tele_guitarist]

FWIW, I have an old silver one and traced the green (Jekyll) side and it is indeed TS-808. I've compared it side-by-side with some other Tubescreamers (some were even boutique TS-808 clones) and for most things it's my favorite Tubescreamer.

But I just can't leave anything alone so I went inside to do some simple Tubescreamer mods (which Mark will tell you takes it further and further away from the goodness of a Tubescreamer...and I would agree with him by the way ).

My mods were very simple and easy to explain...and they're very common or typical TS mods, here they are:

Changed the .047uF input cap to .1uF. A little more bass (or less bass cut)...seems some TSs benefit from this and others don't...I thought this unit did benefit from it.

Changed the 51K resistor in series with the Drive pot to 10K. This just makes low Drive settings have...less drive. But high Drive settings (which I never use) are pretty much unchanged.

Added a germanium diode in series with one of the existing silicon diodes. Makes the clipping assymetrical, but not as much as adding a silicon diode. It also reduces distortion a tiny bit.

That's it...and it's still my favorite Tubescreamer...but by an even bigger margin now.

As for the red (Hyde) side, I've heard others say it's based on a Guv'nor but IIRC a Guv'nor uses LEDs for clipping and there are no internal LEDs in the Jekyll & Hyde (and you can clearly see the reversed regular diodes in there for clipping). It doesn't sound like a Guv'nor either IMO. But I never traced that side so it may be the exact same circuit but just with regular diodes (and that's IF an old Guv'nor even uses LEDs...it's been a while and I can't remember).

I don't know what they changed on the newer red ones, never played one.

One last thing: I don't think trying to get 4-channels (clean, green, red, red+green) is the best way to go with these. Either ditch the red side alone or ditch the cascaded red+green but IME/IMO you can't really have both and have the levels even close. I always preferred setting it so I could use the green side alone and then cascade the red side but you have to set both sides pretty low on the Drive (which I did anyway).

One more: the switches are known for failing...mine had one fail but I gigged with it for years.

no, not a guv'nor clone, a 100% shredmaster clone. The red ones add a simple clean boost circuit, non-inverting opamp.

There is a schem floating around at http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/