Distortion Switch

[dsch]

Hello ^^
I would like to add a distortion switch to my guitar (or at least convert my tone knob to a distortion one, since I never touch the tone)
I've found this scheme, it looks quiete simple and easy but the thing is that I don't know how to read scheme, so if some one could explain me what's to do exactly from that scheme ^^'

http://projectguitar.com/tut/blackice.htm

[52 Bill]

Hello ^^
I would like to add a distortion switch to my guitar (or at least convert my tone knob to a distortion one, since I never touch the tone)
I've found this scheme, it looks quiete simple and easy but the thing is that I don't know how to read scheme, so if some one could explain me what's to do exactly from that scheme ^^'

http://projectguitar.com/tut/blackice.htm

Welcome to the board!

The circuit that you want to use is very simple and depending upon what kind of guitar you have, may be very easy to do.

The circuit basically replaces the tone control capacitor with 2 diodes wired back to back. This way when the diodes are dialed in to the signal path, they will clip the guitar signal. This will work best with high output pickups.

Let us know what kind of guitar you want to modify, and we'll try to help you wire it up.

[dsch]

My guitar is a Ibanez grx170
But I changed the pick ups.
Neck is a Gibson 490r
middle is a fender 62 hot rod
and bridge is a seymour duncan sh-5.

But the power of the gibson is lowered down because my volume knob is a push pull at 250K, too high for the gibson it seems.


So I just have to wire the diodes back to back, and solder the legs left to the tone control ?

I was wondering if I could replace my tone control by a push pull, and keep the old capacitor, so that I could switch from tone to distortion control ?

[52 Bill]

So I just have to wire the diodes back to back, and solder the legs left to the tone control ?

I was wondering if I could replace my tone control by a push pull, and keep the old capacitor, so that I could switch from tone to distortion control ?

The two diodes combination should replace the capacitor on your tone control. Yes you can wire the push pull switch to select either the cap or the diodes.

I would suggest trying the diode replacement first, just to see if you like the sound. I haven't tried this before so I don't know how well it works. Let us know what happens.

[Don Moose]

You should expect it to eat a fair amount of output - the clipping that the diodes do is effectively 'clipping' the tops of the waveform off and shunting them to ground.

Simple diode clipping tends to sound a bit harsh, but that may be what you're looking for.

Good luck!

[dsch]

yeah I'm looking for a kind of ZZ Top/Texan overdrive, in french we say a "dribbling sound" xD
I'm going to buy the diodes today, I'll tell you what it sounds like.

[chipaudette]

Has anyone actually tried this in a guitar before? I'm surprised that this would work in a guitar without a pre-amp first (the link to the schem doesn't work for me). Don't diodes need at least 0.6V before they clip? I don't think that I know any pickups that put out that kind of voltage.

Based on the circuit that it sounds like you all are talking about, I think that there's going to be some serious disappointment once it gets hooked up.

Chip

I

[dsch]

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electron...5.html#details

this is basically the idea, and it works without any pre amp, it's 27 bucks and isn't composed of much more.

[Enzo]

Chip, regular old vanilla diodes have that half a volt junction drop, germaniums about half of that, but Shottky diodes and other more esoteric types have a much lower voltage drop.

[David Schwab]

Has anyone actually tried this in a guitar before? I'm surprised that this would work in a guitar without a pre-amp first

I did it a bunch of times back in the 70's. Jack Bruce even had that circuit in his bass. Dan Armstrong wired that up for him.

It worked just fine with standard output (pre-dimarzio) humbuckers. It's subtle, but it's a cool overdrive tone. I used regular silicon small signal diodes, but germanium would be better.