Electro-Harmonix Tube Zipper Schematics

[Mart1234]

Hey there, I'm new to this forum, but I hope you'll be so kind and help me out.

Since a couple of weeks I'm into modding my Tube Amps. And I'd also like to look into my EHX Tube Zipper and see if I could do some modding to it too, like reducing gain or altering the tone characeristics.

Would anyone be so kind and point me to the schematics of this device, or maybe send me a file?

Thank you very much in advance,

bye,
MArtin

[mozwell]

tube zipper & tube wiggler

[J M Fahey]

Weird

For ages the ROG people started with classic tube amps, and made "versions" of them out of ill matched FETs and tons of trimpots, and feeding them 9V .

Now the last 3 interesting new schematics posted here (T R Squeezer and these 2 EH pedals) take standard normal SS circuitry, which has worked perfectly for ages, and make the Tube version, Unnecessarily) , up to needing over 200V supplies, let alone the filaments, etc.

Crazy

The power of Marketing.

Some months ago there was a lot of excitement about a ridiculous "tube synthesizer" , with all standard finctions of, say, a Moog synthesizer, such as VCA , VCF , log "X volts per octave" keyboard, etc. , seemingly "powered" by 12 or 20 12AX7 or similar .... RIDICULOUS !!!!!!!

1984 and Brave New World which seemed so crazy improbable when they were written, have fallen short of the reality we have around.

Oh well.

[potatofarmer]

The guy who designed the tube zipper is around on some of the forums as "puretube." I don't know the details of his contract with EHX, but I remember seeing his website at one point and I think he pretty much makes all his pedals around tubes. I know he designed the Flanger Hoax for EHX and his original prototype was tube-based - I'd sell my teeth to get to play with that!

I get the impression it's just the way the guy likes to build stuff though. "I'm going to build X and so I start with this tube..." instead of "Okay, we're going to build X. How can we shoehorn a tube in there?" EHX is just crazy enough to box them up and sell them.

[Mark Hammer]

Ton Barmentloo (AKA puretube) is a sweet guy. And while he does tend to like tubes, he is not above working with solid-state designs. The EHX Flanger Hoax, Worm, and reissue Pulsar are all his designs, and you can find plenty of his experiment videos on his Youtube channel; typically they are o-scope closeups.

I gather the form-factor that a number of EHX tube-based pedals conform to is largely his doing. EHX uses a rather interesting back-to-back transformer to provide suitably high voltages for tube circuits. It is essentially a pair of 120->12V transformers, such that you get the requisite isolation, but also get 12VAC at their junction, and a nice 110-120VAC at the other end, for rectification.

[puretube]

J M Fahey: The very first "Auto-Wah", i.e.: envelope-driven wah I ever heard was designed/built by me in the winter of 1970/`71 (!!!) -
a pure tube circuit, and I didn`t hear that sound again until Bootsy Collins popped up with his first solo-album in 1976,
where he played Mike Beigels (solidstate) Mutron.
The circuit was an accidential "spin-off" from my "old ham" experiments with a notch-filter for shortwave radio.
In those times as a schoolboy, transistors were out of financial reach - so I worked with my inherited tubes + related library.
Actually Bootsy was the guy who first played my "Bubble-Machine" ( like I first called it - later: "Tube-Tron", now E-H "Tube Zipper"),
because while tweaking the high voltage circuit, I used my recordplayer instead of a guitar, to trigger it, and it played:
"Sex Machine" by James Brown - withyoung Bootsy on bass. When I soon found out, that a "Sly & The Family Stone"-single triggered the
"Bubbler" even better, I had Larry Graham playing it from the record.
So these 2 great bassplayers played that sound before they even knew or heard it. (and it was "Pure Tube" - including the "Envelope Follower"!)
No wonder I love & worked with all the names in bold letters before and after I patented my circuit ~25 years after having invented it, and went into collaboration with Mike Matthews. As for the Wiggler, I am very glad about the fact that I had the chance to ask the late great Dick Denney for his permission to adapt "his" all-tube Vibrato-circuit (VOX) from the 1950`s for stompbox-use ...

[puretube]

mozwell by the way: that so-called "Wiggler"-schemo contains errors and the posting of the "TZ"-schematic is illegal & infringes my copyright!

[nosaj]

mozwell by the way: that so-called "Wiggler"-schemo contains errors and the posting of the "TZ"-schematic is illegal & infringes my copyright!

The document shows New Sensor as the copyright holder. But If you call EHX They've emailed me just about any schematic I've asked for.
nosaj