An oscilloscope with a sine wave on vertical and horizontal used to be called an octopus circuit. A fast diode on the vertical will show a sharp bend at the zero volt a "softer" diode would show a more rounded line at cut off. With no diode (just a short circuit) you get a diagonal line. That might show the difference in those Germanium diodes, but I couldn't tell by hearing.
Nifty ! I did similar experiments LONG ago. My hands down favorite distortion effect box had always been the MXR Distortion / Distortion +(Dunlop I think). I had copied them a few times. It is such a clever & quite simple circuit. Just one op-amp(an OG 741 I think) & only about half the components(at most). At the time, It was before I ever even studied EE, so I really had very little Idea of what I was doing. But aside from cap types & values, I do indeed remember experimenting with the "2 clipping diodes" & the big clear glass Germaniums Vs. silicon made a pretty clear audible difference(in that circuit anyway). Odd you would even test fuzz/overdrive/distortion on just single coils though. Cool vid though, total Deja vu. 👍
Thanks for watching and welcome to the channel! Yes, the Distortion + is a great pedal, both in its simple beauty and tone! And as you mentioned, in a pedal like that, silicon vs germanium diodes would make a significant difference! I used single coils in this video because a humbucker or P90 would start clipping the op amp early on, and I wanted to make sure that the op amp stays clean. 😃
I'm going with 10; they sound identical. I really believe it was frequency shaping that made the difference in both those classic pedals, and today's clones of those classic pedals. All of the circuits were virtually identical. What made the difference was how sensitive the tone, gain, and other frequency controls were.
The ED60 and SD46 were my favorites. The tone differences between all the Diodes were small, and I would consider them relatively inconsequential. Guitar pick material and thickness make a difference orders of magnitude bigger. Very well constructed test, comparison, and demo. I'm a first time viewer of your Channel, and will be watching more of your videos. Good job. 👍 Thanks
Thanks for watching, and welcome to the channel! And thank you for sharing your favorites! Yes, absolutely as you mention, there are so many more things that would make a huge difference in tone. The pick is a great one, as it is sometimes overlooked, but influences the guitar tone so much. My uploads are somewhat spaced out, but please check out my other videos if you liked this one! 😃
At First I thought they all sounded the same apart from 6 and 8 I thought maybe 4 sounded different then on the last riff I decided they all sound different my favourite is 6 it had more tone. I like the sound of 4 also reminded me most of old transistor amps.
Thanks for watching! And thank you for sharing your thoughts and impression! It's really interesting what everyone is hearing and the tones they prefer :)
As they say in business, where there's uncertainty there is profit. (Largely with regards being vague when quoting but equally it applies to purportedly magical anonymous diodes :) )
Thanks for great video. Should be cool to measure and show complete VA characteristics, as Vf is really only one point of it, and the whole curve matters.
Thanks for watching! You are absolutely right! (by VA character, I'm guessing you are talking about the I-V curve) But, it would be soo much work to test, measure and plot the I-V curve for all 9 diodes... Also, I don't want to go too deep into electrical engineering, as I am definitely not an EE, and want my videos to be more about guitar tones. 😊
@@arito there are testers, like Peak DCA75, measuring it in one shot. It's on my wishlist still 🤩 But I'll probably never be able to collect diodes you have available. Anyway, thanks a lot again.
The switching frequency between diodes was excellent! I was able to comprehend much more. Another excellent video. I can see your videos are going to be stealing time from many other things...
Germanium is so wildly inconsistent trying to manufacture with them must have been hell. For modding you can pick and choose. How asymmetric do you want it? On which part of the wave?
Hi Justin! Thanks for watching! It would be fascinating to interview or hear stories from people involved with those early electronic component manufacturing!
At ten minutes in, you mention that the clipping diodes HAVE to go to reference ground, as opposed to 0V ground. Why is that? I hear this stated often and (other than as a bias) I don’t understand the logic. Great video!!!
Your signal is an AC voltage swinging back and forth around some reference. If you clip to below your 0v point or "reference" (0v is always relative) you're biasing the signal towards the negative side. Same for the other way. Voltage is all about difference (potential.) Having a signal swing between 498v and 502v carries the same information as -2 to +2.
@@justovision That all makes sense and thanks for the quick answer! I guess the part that still doesn't totally add up for me is this- In a lot of pedal designs using 9V DC power, the hard clipping diodes DO go to 0V ground, but sometimes it is 4.5V reference- what am I missing? Is it because in certain cases, the opamap/transistor/jfet was biased to 4.5V and there is no DC-blocking cap before said clipping diodes? or...would it be safer to say that when there is a reference voltage, other than 0V in the circuit, use the ref voltage?...Thanks for your patience in advance!
@@jonweil4493 Just to add to Justin's reply, in most pedals we are running the signal between 0 to 9Volts. So in order to keep the signal swinging up and down between that "floor" and "ceiling," we "raise" it's center by +4.5v. Which is why "reference voltage" is often referred to as "virtual ground." And yes, as you have guessed, when you see hard clipping diodes go to "true ground" it is because it has passed through a capacitor. That topology would most likely happen when the diodes come towards the end of the circuit and there is no further amplification stage after it. Hope this helps, and thanks for watching!
More Shootout Videos: ruclips.net/p/PLuGyFi1zEmqbyeXcyZgBuAb3NBJP4mzTH
Those see through diodes are so cool up close. Awesome video btw
Thank you! I was worried that I was the only one weird enough to find these beautiful 😂 And thank you for your continued support!
I didn’t hear any discernible difference so I pick 10. I guarantee no one could pick any of these out blindly against each other. Cool shootout!
Thanks for watching! And thank your for sharing your thoughts and impressions! Great to hear you enjoyed the shootout!
An oscilloscope with a sine wave on vertical and horizontal used to be called an octopus circuit. A fast diode on the vertical will show a sharp bend at the zero volt a "softer" diode would show a more rounded line at cut off. With no diode (just a short circuit) you get a diagonal line. That might show the difference in those Germanium diodes, but I couldn't tell by hearing.
Thanks for watching! And thanks for sharing your experiences!
Nifty ! I did similar experiments LONG ago. My hands down favorite distortion effect box had always been the MXR Distortion / Distortion +(Dunlop I think). I had copied them a few times. It is such a clever & quite simple circuit. Just one op-amp(an OG 741 I think) & only about half the components(at most). At the time, It was before I ever even studied EE, so I really had very little Idea of what I was doing. But aside from cap types & values, I do indeed remember experimenting with the "2 clipping diodes" & the big clear glass Germaniums Vs. silicon made a pretty clear audible difference(in that circuit anyway). Odd you would even test fuzz/overdrive/distortion on just single coils though. Cool vid though, total Deja vu. 👍
Thanks for watching and welcome to the channel! Yes, the Distortion + is a great pedal, both in its simple beauty and tone! And as you mentioned, in a pedal like that, silicon vs germanium diodes would make a significant difference! I used single coils in this video because a humbucker or P90 would start clipping the op amp early on, and I wanted to make sure that the op amp stays clean. 😃
Thanks for your clear explanation.
Best regards from Indonesia 🇮🇩
Thanks for watching! Welcome! Great to see a visitor from Indonesia! I hope you enjoyed the video!
I'm going with 10; they sound identical.
I really believe it was frequency shaping that made the difference in both those classic pedals, and today's clones of those classic pedals. All of the circuits were virtually identical. What made the difference was how sensitive the tone, gain, and other frequency controls were.
Thanks for watching! And thanks for sharing your thoughts and impressions!
The ED60 and SD46 were my favorites. The tone differences between all the Diodes were small, and I would consider them relatively inconsequential. Guitar pick material and thickness make a difference orders of magnitude bigger.
Very well constructed test, comparison, and demo. I'm a first time viewer of your Channel, and will be watching more of your videos. Good job. 👍 Thanks
Thanks for watching, and welcome to the channel! And thank you for sharing your favorites! Yes, absolutely as you mention, there are so many more things that would make a huge difference in tone. The pick is a great one, as it is sometimes overlooked, but influences the guitar tone so much.
My uploads are somewhat spaced out, but please check out my other videos if you liked this one! 😃
I though the ED60 was pretty good to. It was my second pick.
@@brysonhughes6187 Thanks again! The ED60 has been one of my go-to germanium diodes, although they are getting harder to find...
At First I thought they all sounded the same apart from 6 and 8 I thought maybe 4 sounded different then on the last riff I decided they all sound different my favourite is 6 it had more tone. I like the sound of 4 also reminded me most of old transistor amps.
Thanks for watching! And thank you for sharing your thoughts and impression! It's really interesting what everyone is hearing and the tones they prefer :)
As they say in business, where there's uncertainty there is profit.
(Largely with regards being vague when quoting but equally it applies to purportedly magical anonymous diodes :) )
Thanks for watching! The mythical "magic" diode is a really interesting phenomenon :)
Thanks for great video. Should be cool to measure and show complete VA characteristics, as Vf is really only one point of it, and the whole curve matters.
Thanks for watching! You are absolutely right! (by VA character, I'm guessing you are talking about the I-V curve) But, it would be soo much work to test, measure and plot the I-V curve for all 9 diodes... Also, I don't want to go too deep into electrical engineering, as I am definitely not an EE, and want my videos to be more about guitar tones. 😊
@@arito there are testers, like Peak DCA75, measuring it in one shot. It's on my wishlist still 🤩 But I'll probably never be able to collect diodes you have available. Anyway, thanks a lot again.
@@vlastimilelias Never heard of the DCA75, looks like a great unit, thanks for the info! I'll put it on my wish list as well! 😃
There's a decrescent level of crunchiness, but IDK if it could be compensated by increasing the gain before the diodes.
Thanks for watching! And thank you for sharing your impressions!
Ed60 sounds so vintage and warm.. But if you want clarity I'd choose 1S426 or 1S108 or 1S188...but for all rounder 1N34 😆
Thanks for watching! And thank you for sharing your detailed analysis and impressions!
@@arito you're very welcome👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿
@@ronnydevina 😄👍
I liked the ED 60
Thanks for watching and welcome to the channel! Thanks for sharing your vote! Looks like the ED 60 is the most popular of the bunch.
The switching frequency between diodes was excellent! I was able to comprehend much more. Another excellent video. I can see your videos are going to be stealing time from many other things...
Thanks so much! Great to hear you enjoyed this shootout! I hope I didn't distract you too much ; )
@@arito I'll never get enough!
@@t.c.494 LOL! Thanks!
Germanium is so wildly inconsistent trying to manufacture with them must have been hell. For modding you can pick and choose. How asymmetric do you want it? On which part of the wave?
If you have an oscilloscope the clipping curve between SI and GE is very visible. LED is mostly SI with just a much higher clipping voltage.
I also can't tell the difference between "modern" GE diodes (still made for radio I think...) you can buy fairly cheap and NOS stuff I have.
Hi Justin! Thanks for watching! It would be fascinating to interview or hear stories from people involved with those early electronic component manufacturing!
In all the samples the 1S1008 had a sassier richer tone. It sounded more musical all around.
Thanks for watching, and joining in on the vote! It's great to get some feedback and thoughts on what everyone is hearing from these sample clips.
At ten minutes in, you mention that the clipping diodes HAVE to go to reference ground, as opposed to 0V ground. Why is that? I hear this stated often and (other than as a bias) I don’t understand the logic. Great video!!!
Your signal is an AC voltage swinging back and forth around some reference. If you clip to below your 0v point or "reference" (0v is always relative) you're biasing the signal towards the negative side. Same for the other way. Voltage is all about difference (potential.) Having a signal swing between 498v and 502v carries the same information as -2 to +2.
@@justovision That all makes sense and thanks for the quick answer!
I guess the part that still doesn't totally add up for me is this- In a lot of pedal designs using 9V DC power, the hard clipping diodes DO go to 0V ground, but sometimes it is 4.5V reference- what am I missing?
Is it because in certain cases, the opamap/transistor/jfet was biased to 4.5V and there is no DC-blocking cap before said clipping diodes? or...would it be safer to say that when there is a reference voltage, other than 0V in the circuit, use the ref voltage?...Thanks for your patience in advance!
@@justovision Thanks for your help and replying to the question Justin! 😃
@@jonweil4493 Just to add to Justin's reply, in most pedals we are running the signal between 0 to 9Volts. So in order to keep the signal swinging up and down between that "floor" and "ceiling," we "raise" it's center by +4.5v. Which is why "reference voltage" is often referred to as "virtual ground." And yes, as you have guessed, when you see hard clipping diodes go to "true ground" it is because it has passed through a capacitor. That topology would most likely happen when the diodes come towards the end of the circuit and there is no further amplification stage after it. Hope this helps, and thanks for watching!
@@arito that totally answers it!