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Not exaggerating when I say I have been CRAVING content like this lmao, so happy to see such an educated breakdown presented in an easily understood format, but with the added plus of being edited and filmed well.
In a world of self-interest fed by narcissistic social media, here is an expert in his field using the platform to freely share his wisdom and raise us up instead of keep us down. Gives me some faith we might not be extinct in the next ten years. Thank you, Brian!
Here's an index to compare sounds in different sections of the video: 0:41 - Input to output (bypass) 1:02 - Input filter only 3:00 - OpAmp 1/3 (gain @ 0%) 3:20 - OpAmp 2/3 (gain @ 50%) 3:45 - OpAmp 3/3 (gain @ 100%) 4:18 - Low pass filter capacitor 5:20 - Clipping diodes 7:46 - Tone improvement via bottom capacitor 1/2 (stock, .22uF) 8:00 - Tone improvement via bottom capacitor 2/2 (1uF) 9:15 - Tone control 1/3 (all treble) 9:40 - Tone control 2/3 (all bass) 10:09 - Tone control 3/3 (sweet spot) 11:02 - Tone control bottom capacitor .047uF 1/4 (somewhere in the middle) 11:19 - Tone control bottom capacitor .047uF 2/4 (all bass) 11:32 - Tone control bottom capacitor .047uF 3/4 (all treble) 12:15 - Tone control bottom capacitor .047uF 4/4 (sweet spot) 13:09 - Tone control bottom capacitor 1uF 1/2 (somewhere in the middle) 13:23 - Tone control bottom capacitor 1uF 2/2 (sweet spot)
Yes - thank you very much Luis. I don’t not appreciate the effort to walk through the creation of a pedal here…but all the talk of ‘scoop’ and ‘clipping’ and ‘meaty’ and ‘tone control’ and ‘usable/friendly’ and ‘fuzzy’ and ‘fizziness’ and ‘presence’ is utter gibberish. Would love it if he did some direct edits where he was playing ‘before and after’ and ‘compare this capacitor with that capacitor’ rather than just describing the sound. Really working hard to translate that kind of language into actual guitar sounds, but it seems impenetrable sometimes. Thank you for making it easier to match sounds to buzzwords.
Brian, as an aspiring pedal builder, your videos are immensely helpful. May I request that you do this format more in the future with other types of circuits? Also, if you do, would it be possible to show shots of your breadboard as you add components to it? Seeing your component placement would be very helpful for someone like me. Thanks for everything you do, both as a builder and an educator in this community, you're really a titan and I just want to say I'm so glad you continued to make these videos and keep this channel going, I know that there was some uncertainty as to whether you would continue for a while and I know I literally just said it, but I, for one, am extremely happy you made the decision you have. edit: i ask this with the purpose of hoping to follow along with your videos and build the circuits myself so I can really hear the stuff you're talking about in the room and develop a better understand of breadboard signalflow decisionmaking etc. Thanks!
Rudely put by fred, but I think seeing the breadboard evolve/build as Brian walks through the stages would be really great to see to help those who don't know how to read a schematic very well. I'm still wrapping my head around schematics and trying to learn electronics, so visual learning is a huge part of my ability to learn something new and hopefully make the leap from "complete noob" to "noob". Seeing the breadboard as it relates to the schematic would be super helpful for my personal learning style, especially with a master builder like Brian walking us through it. Great vid! I hope we see more :)
Hi Brian. I built one of these overdrives tonight, from the schematic you displayed. I love it - really versatile for such a low parts count. Thanks for sharing your expertise.
I’m an EE and though I know all the details of how to analyze this circuit, I found it super helpful to hear each change. Thank you for the great teaching session.
Being an EE myself I’ve found classical opamp design approaches less than useful, these circuits are basically broken in any other industry, as long as it’s not fatal for a component, just plugging in parts empirically with a goal in mind is the way to go, knowing circuit topology does help some here, calculating poles of the filters not so much... it’s fun for sure, not having to hit a precise goal with ultra low distortion or super low DC offset that’s actually manufacturable, is a nice break...
What are you doing now since you chose ee for a profession but are still interested in Things like These? (and presumably dont build them for a living)
To be fair, you wouldn't be taught things like this video in EE because with amplifier design, distortion is a bug not a feature, and A LOT of consideration is given for how to minimize SNR, not how to adjust SNR to taste lol. The circuit in this video is a basic non-inverted opamp circuit that's probably illustrated near the end of the TL082 datasheet along with the gain equations, plus some diodes in the negative feedback loop, plus some filtering. Plenty of EE courses include filtering and pretty much all electrical applications include filters, and yeah they aren't usually audible but they are usually visible on an oscope or spectrum analyzer.
This was EXACTLY the type of content I think a lot of us rookies were looking for. Phenomenal video. Would love to see something like this done for a DIY Delay or Reverb.
Nice one, Brian. One of the things many people either overlook or don't quite grasp is that the more metal you wiggle over a pickup, the greater the signal produced. So it should not surprise us that wiggling a wound E or A string over a pickup yields a noticeably greater signal than wiggling an unwound B or E. I like to say that most of the guitar signal "lives in the basement", meaning that the lower the note, the hotter (higher amplitude) the signal produced. Now, *nothing* gets clipped until it approaches what is called the "forward voltage" of the diodes - the signal level where they begin to conduct. We use some amplification of the signal to reach that point. But because it's higher amplitude to begin with, the lower notes on the bass strings don't really require as *much* amplification to reach that point or threshold. The genius of the Tube Screamer is that it used a strategy Brian illustrates here. The 1k/220nf pair (R46/C28) provide a modest (6db/octave) bass rolloff, near identical to the Tube Screamer, starting around 723hz. Progressively reducing the amount of bass signal hitting the diodes (by amplifying the bass *less* than everything above it) makes it such that pretty much all notes stand an equal likelihood of clipping. I don't know if one would call this a "smoother" sound, but it is more even-handed and predictable. You will note that when Brian uses the larger-value (1uf) cap instead of 220nf, not only is there more audible bass, but the sound is also more distorted. Some commercial pedals will employ various means to reduce or introduce that bass level to yield more even or bass-heavy overdrive. It's a handy feature for adapting to guitars with greater and lesser bass content, or simply heavier and lighter-gauged strings.
Brian - thanks so much for doing these. It's helps everyone demystify gear. I do photography and I learned that I could waste a lot of money up front on it. For years playing the guitar I operated under the assumption that good tone costs money. With yours and others help I've learned that good tone takes research and understanding the technology just as it does with photography. Also, the Terraform is awesome. I've had it for a few months now and it's one of the best pedals I've ever owned. Thanks!
Finally a transparent overdrive! Literally on a breadboard, you can’t get more transparent than that. The graphics suck tho, so it’s a no from me, dawg. 😜🤘🏻🎸
Video suggestion: A beginners guide to pedal circuits. What's the function of resistors, capacitors, transistors etc.. Is capacitors always/only related to bass/tone? What's the significance of where in the circuit you place the different components; of what directions they have (plus/minus/ground); of the size of the components. Stuff like that.
Well, I'm graduating in eletronic engineering and I'd say you'd need some years of study to understand what's going on, and without being a master of the field. You'd need a lot of math and circuit courses to get to the final tool you can use and understand them.
@@kiromaisus as these apply to guitar amp and pedal circuits, no, I wouldn't say it takes years. Well, it doesn't have to, but it might, depending on how much time one can devote to reading and researching. You certainly don't need an EE degree to understand it. But, you might get interested in EE as one learns how their amps and pedals work.
Resistors resist current and they can be used to "drop" voltage. It occurs as the natural operation of the component so it can be used to set voltage levels. Capacitors store electric charge. They are literally a break in a conductor (which is how it's schematic symbol looks). Capacitors are an open circuit to DC (zero frequency) so they can be used to block DC and keep it from places you don't want it, such as separating the power supply (DC) from the audio signal which is AC. The capacitance rating (in conjunction with a resistor, forming an "RC circuit" aka a "tuned" circuit) will determine the frequencies allowed to pass. Ex. In a fender strat tone circuit (the capacitor and the resistance of the potentiometer), they used .1 microfarad (μF) capacitors very early on. Now, .047 microfarad is common. With the tone all the way "down" ( where the capacitor is fully engaged in the circuit), the .1μF will sound "darker" than the .047 μF because the .1 is "larger," so it allows more lower frequencies. The .047μF is comparatively "smaller" and thus more restrictive. Thus, a .05μF would be a little darker than the .047, but brighter than the .1μF. Considering the math that the other poster mentioned, there are formulas in which you could calculate the actual frequencies where the cutoffs occur. That is how you tune the circuit through, either coupling capacitors, low or high pass filters, or tone capacitor (when used in a dedicated tone stack). They all tune to varying degrees, but most aren't adjustable by the user..... Unless you want to modify the circuit and swap components of different values. The tone stack gives the user the main adjustability.
@@TheDesertRat31 Thank you! that's exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. What's the reason for wanting to set voltage levels? Capacitors are only an open circuit to DC once it's charged right? or is it also open while it's charging? maybe the charging occurs so fast that it's not considered?
Great to see this happening, very informative. I'm using this piece of software www.livespice.org/ it enables you to hookup your guitar to the PC and run your guitar signal through a virtual schematic and have it emulate the sound live. So you can swap out resistors, op amps, capacitors etc and craft your sound. I know it is outdated so maybe someone has a tip for a more recent simulator? Good luck prototyping!
Going by the schematic, if you were to buy in something of bulk -mind you, 10 units of each, which is normally how you get dip8 chips anyway since the fuckers fry on a whif-, you'd spent something on the neighbourhood of 5 bucks. Add PCB design and manufacturing, and in 50 bucks of your time and resources, you've made between seven and ten units that you can sell for a hundred dollars each.
Not in that way but yes, many brands are overpriced. I mean if you think about the fact that we pay over 50 to 100 euros for a piece of copper with a bunch of magnets in a plastic case it will blow your mind lol.
I think there might be some room for a couple dozen more pedals on your rack!! (-: Besides being a pedal master, you're a pretty darn good player, too.... You should change your name to Mark. Then it would be Mark Wampler? Get it? Sorry, I couldn't help it.....
I was so excited to watch this and learn what each component does. I’m good enough with electronics that I could build this and troubleshoot it from the schematic, but I still don’t actually know what each of these components actually does after watching this. I mean, I know what a resistor does, but when you put a resistor between the op-amp negative and the capacitor before the ground, I don’t know what that resistor or capacitor are actually doing. It would be great if you had just verbally explained the power section and the function of each component, rather than just showing how the sound changes as they are added. This video seems like it’s for beginners but it assumes the viewer knows what an op-amp is and how and why the power section is constructed as it is. Great video though, still. I can use this knowledge to build this exact OD, but not necessarily my own. I wouldn’t know what to change because I don’t fully know what the function of each component is. I know what a resistor does but not why each is in place, nor why you’ve used those values. Thanks for the video, I’m excited to check out more of your channel.
Then you're clearly not good enough with electronics, contradicting the first half of your second sentence. If this video was to explain how op-amps work, go into all of the different configurations of resistors and caps with the inverting and non-inverting inputs, then it would be hours and hours long. That's not to mention covering how filters work and how they affect tone. This video isn't necessarily about how each individual component affects the sound, it's about how each section of the circuit (the amp, filters, voltage dividers, etc, that contain said individual components) affects it. If you don't know how these sections work on their own in an isolated circuit, then you have a lot more to learn before getting into this video.
Yo, I’m feeling exactly the same as your description. I don’t know how each parts really do to the sound. Knowing you posted this comment 3y ago, what did you do to get that knowledge ? Thanks
This was a really good video. If I didn't have kids bouncing around (due to isolation), I would get out my breadboard and follow along. Swapping out the capacitors gives some nice ideas for mods. I think you mentioned in an earlier video op amps don't change that much. I think the ti81 is fairly common (which makes this OD pedal design something someone could do easily.) The other practical detail here I think is the taper on the pots. Is it like a guitar where volume pots should be log taper and the tone linear?
Very helpful for me. I'm a new guitarist (relatively) and it's hard to figure out what all these pedals and effects actually do. I have enough electrical background from my mechanical engr education to know about signals and filters and opamps and diodes... so this is incredible helpful. It explains it in terms that make sense to me hahaha. But also having some objective way of explaining it ALONG with the sound is so good
I became an electrician for many reasons. One of them is this channel. I love guitar and I love how it takes the basics of electricity and can change it into something beautiful. Thanks so much for explaining so much.
Aside from how much I learned about pedal design, why hasn't anyone commented on the killer guitar playing happening in this video? Thanks for sharing your knowledge and playing!
I want to build this as my first diy. I can solder, and can roughly read the schematic. Question is, where would I connect an on/off switch and power supply input? Im assuming for the power supply, I can just connect in parallel with the 9v am I right?
Wanting to see the bread board is like asking to see the lumps of cookie dough before they go in the oven- looking at a nondescript ball of goo with little bits in it won't help you learn to bake. You have to read the recipe!
My topics are fairly niched, therefore it’s a smaller channel by intention. I’d rather go a little deeper in a topic but reach less people then make a fairly generic video that doesn’t really teach anything or help anyone. I’m glad you like the channel 😊
this is super awesome, thanks for this level of insight!!! and i can't help but think that a generic kind of overdrive like this, with a few rotary switches for different value components and a few extra attenuation pots could be a REALLY fun pedal!!!
I know this is a long short, but I was breadboarding, and I made a rat circuit, and it gets a signal and the sputters out, however, if I fret a chord and hit it, then touch the resist leading to the input, it comes through loud and clear. I assume this is a grounding issue, but I checked the schematic and everything is grounded. So rookie question, do I need to figure out a way to ground the breadboard? (Edit) - Aftermath I found that 4.5v was not being applied to all of the places that it needed to be. When I would touch the resistor, I would leach voltage and it would then work, kinda neat, and kinda weird.
Yes. Former nuclear mechanic supervisor for submarines and guitar player here - we could probably push 3 MW out of a trash can size reactor - a little worried about getting proper coolant supply, and adequate shielding ... radiation and contamination are non-fun - I would personally stick with the PFM (Pure #%^*ing Magic) signal mod boxes and practice good electrical safety.
thanks a lot Brian, I am a student of electronic engineer, I decided to study this because of music. It gets to me very helpfull this video to know more about the different configurations of the op amp for pedals. greetings from Mexico, I hope more videos like this one.
Brian, it is really impressive how you educate us on the science behind the electronics. Most youtubers don't get out the breadboard, love it. I'm still learning what any of these things mean
Another Brilliant video, Brian. Your videos have made me understand a lot more about how pedals are conceived, built and how and why they sound the way they do. From pedal stacking to in depth looking into tone and pedal building, the best and most informative video site by far. fun too. Thanks.
Try it?! Seriously, this may be the prime benefit of breadboarding. Mess with the circuit in every possible way. Maybe build two circuits, side by side, with an A/B switch. Build the same base circuit then A/B the modifications as you go.
I've been trying to build circuits for years. It's still magic to me. I still haven't found any teaching material that can explain what each component actually does to other components and why without going into advanced circuitry diagrams or loads of math.
With capacitors you really need to know a couple formulas. Anything in electronics kinda requires a bit of the maths. So just look it up, it's necessary for good understanding
great video, but I wish you'd had shown the device you were making, and went direct in to an interface instead of going into a guitar amp. It makes it harder to distinguish amp dist with pedal dist.
What I did was to look at pedal schamatics from electrosmash, and general circuits from electronics sites showing filters etc and try to recreate them on the breadboard. Very very hard, way harder then kits would be, but you learn alot and eventually should be in a position to design something unique and succeed. You will make mistakes. You may have to take a break and clear your hear. You will eventually succeed.
Interesting video. I'd love to see it again with a pure sine wave for an input and an oscilloscope showing the change in wave form through the additional component additions.
@Jacob Faseler I have EveryCircuit on my phone and Tina installed on my tablet. While these software simulators are nice they do have their limitations unless you buy the full blown versions. I've designed circuits in software that did not work when breadboarded. Sometimes it just took changing a few resistor values on the breadboarded version to fix my problems. Once I'm building on a breadboard I use a real scope and real volt meters and amp meters. With an audio device I also like my ears to hear the differences. Apps on our phones can replace my old signal generators though.
I just started building circuts in my own and this video was very cool to build along with. Thank you for sharing it. Talking about the components on the feedbackloop of the op-amp helped me understanding it better.
I love your videos and think you make some of the best pedals your pantheon is just amazing it really is the best BB circuit I wish you could get a overdrive boost out so you just stomp it rather then have to flick a switch. But man your pedals are some of the best. I love you and diamond pedals.
Love this Vid. I learned many of this stuff from your Book and trying by myself. This is a really valuable material for Guitarists, hobbist, Hobbits and enthusiasts.
So as for the pins of your tl082 op amp. Pin 3 is the + and pin 2 is the - ? Pin 1 is the output or right side of the triangle shape? And then pin 8 is +9V and pin 4 is ground? Thanks in advanced for anyone who chimes in to help a beginner here
I came here after seeing the website instruction with schematic vs real view of components... One issue... There's an extra capacitor that is unaccounted for in the "real view" off the 9v positive
How come your breadboard stays so quiet. Mine is full of noise even with one component on it, heck just connecting my jacks together creates a ton of noise!
Great Video! I found taking notes helped. Interesting how .022 and .047, really are the standard of the "Marshall" kind of gain tone, I loved the Marshall Gov'ner pedal, i don't think they make it any more
Cool video Brian. I learned how to build pedals from the first iteration of your book and I'm forever grateful to you for it. Thanks for all the info you share
do this video again, except for a few things: 1. invert the color of the schematic. 2. keep the schematic on-screen 3. highlight the thing you're talking about 4. give the hour-long version just a suggestion, i think this would be more inline with what the viewer wanted. sorry if i sound demanding... went into director mode. and as always, to anyone who shares their knowledge and skills on youtube: THANK YOU :)
My Orange Roland Cube 60 guitar amp. has a Pre-Out and Main In connection at the back. As it is more than 30 plus years old with no Manual, I don't know what they are for? Please advise. Also, can I plug in a MP3 player directly into the Main In to mix with my guitar playing?
Hey, thanks for this detailed Video! I have two questions: I'm thinking about building a small amp (battery powered, will probably go with an electric ukulele i'm currently building) and was wondering if this cirquit itself would output enough power to drive a speaker. I have a 10W 8 Ohm Speaker and would like to use it for the amp, do you think this would be enough or do i need to boost the signal further? This is the first time i'm trying to build an amp so i don't really have the experience to say if it is necessary to boost the signal. And also, is it possible to implement hard clipping and soft clipping aswell as a clean channel by simply "activating" the clipping diodes with switches (so switch off bypasses the clipping diodes and switch on "adds" them to the circuit) It would be really nice of you if you could provide an answer to my questions. And if there's any more info you need about what i want to do feel free to ask.
Very comprehensive video. Could you explain the power section a bit? If I wanted to use a different clipping section, I.e. a bluesbreaker op amp and 1n4148 circuit, could I use the same power section?
So i built it with a tl072, but it doesn't work. When i plug the power supply it outputs a constant hum and the tl072 chip gets super hot. On the chip itself i've plugged pins 4,5,6,7 to ground and 8 to V+, I've checked the entire circut and it is all 1 to 1 but for the tl chip, how do i fix it?
Exceptional explanation, would very much appreciate seeing the breadboard placement as it is challenging to visualize the physical relationships of Thor components
I know I’m a bit late to the party, but was researching op amps for a problem I have with one of my pedals and this awesome video came up. Sooo good!! I have a question in relation to my problem. I don’t know if you’ll get this but oh well, here goes… I’m new at this but I was wanting to mod a Cmatmods Super Signa Drive. The boost side, I believe, is boosted by an op amp and I think it comes before the drive stage. I use the boost independently of the drive and I love the treble boost and the spread of frequencies it adds but it has clipping which is really harsh. It’s a very low level clipping but it is very sharp. The op amp is an RC4558P. It is easily interchangeable so I was wondering if the way to soften the clipping would be to change the op amp. Or does it need a 100pF capacitor in between the input and output pins?
Man, I was so bummed that I didn't get to see this mocked up on the breadboard for each stage like in the thumbnail. It would've been really cool to see how it was laid out for people trying to learn. Schematic shows you everything if you're trained to read a schematic. You can look at a breadboard and see what real life things are happening.
It never sounded to me. I used Livewire to do a PCB and I put it all together as the program showed and It never sounded. There was a strong HUM sound and almost explode the amp. Can anybody help me? Thanks. Another curious thing that I noticed is that in the scheme, there are two electrolytic caps of 47uf 16 volts and in your video, they are not in the protoboard. You replaced it with two polyester caps. Confused.
Here is a bit of a whacky idea - and I will put in the public domain for anyone to try if they want- I just prefer playing over designing in my spare time since electronics is what I have done as a career for 35 years - it's a bit crazy but have you ever tried putting a mini speaker and microphone in a pedal (the sizes definitely exist with BA spkrs and MEMs mics) and loading the drive part of the circuit with an actual speaker, then recovering it with a mic and then analog processing the mic output - in a guitar pedal....it might be unique - don't know if it had been done in that form factor...but it might be fun to try.
Thank you. I''d been wondering where EQ/tone control would go for a drive, and you showed me that there re two places and explained the different results you'd get.
I am not sure I understand the power circuit but if I had to guess... the battery puts the + terminal at a steady 9V and then the guitar signal is effectively injected on top of this? And the reason we use 9V is because changing our voltage from a higher level will generally be louder, and if we dont set a baseline voltage >0V, we will have an AC circuit that simply doesn't work? Asking in hopes someone can educate me/confirm my ideas
A cool video would be how to build something like Jim Lill's 'tackle box amp' from his video about where tone comes from in an amp. I'm guessing Tech 21's character series pedals use a similar concept.
sarcasm here: "oh you said soft-clipping overdrive, so you are clonning the Tubescreamer ooo! copy!! cloner, invent your own circuit" lol ... I mean, in electronics, in order to achieve an amplified signal, you must use an opamp or transistors... in order to clip, you must add diodes. There is no other way around it. If you kept that same train of tought, then the TubeScreamer would be a clone of the circuits you see in Electronics books.
Really any op amp does the trick. An op amp is supposed to boost all the frequencies or to say it is a clean boost. Check the specs and find one whose cutoff frequency is greater than 20kHz (the higher limit of hearing range). The distortion is caused by the filters that are placed and the diodes that clip the signal.
Man what a wonderful tutorial, mind you this circuit look very similar to the MXR FUZZ, from the 70's, I had one way back when and reversed engineered the board :) , Please make more like this :)
🔗 How To Design Guitar Pedals Course: Interested in creating, building and experimenting with your own pedal circuits? Check out my course for newbies here:
www.guitarpedalcourse.com/courses/complete-beginner-s-guide-how-to-design-your-own-guitar-pedal-circuits
My pedal courses are all ABSOLUTELY RISK FREE - 100% money back guarantee within 30 days of your purchase. If you don’t love the courses, I’ll refund you, no questions asked.
Not exaggerating when I say I have been CRAVING content like this lmao, so happy to see such an educated breakdown presented in an easily understood format, but with the added plus of being edited and filmed well.
Well Said
In a world of self-interest fed by narcissistic social media, here is an expert in his field using the platform to freely share his wisdom and raise us up instead of keep us down.
Gives me some faith we might not be extinct in the next ten years. Thank you, Brian!
WHERE ARE THE TABS FOR THIS!!????
Here's an index to compare sounds in different sections of the video:
0:41 - Input to output
(bypass)
1:02 - Input filter
only
3:00 - OpAmp 1/3 (gain @ 0%)
3:20 - OpAmp 2/3 (gain @ 50%)
3:45 - OpAmp 3/3 (gain @ 100%)
4:18 - Low pass filter capacitor
5:20 - Clipping diodes
7:46 - Tone improvement via bottom capacitor 1/2 (stock, .22uF)
8:00 - Tone improvement via bottom capacitor 2/2 (1uF)
9:15 - Tone control 1/3 (all treble)
9:40 - Tone control 2/3 (all bass)
10:09 - Tone control 3/3 (sweet spot)
11:02 - Tone control bottom capacitor .047uF 1/4 (somewhere in the middle)
11:19 - Tone control bottom capacitor .047uF 2/4 (all bass)
11:32 - Tone control bottom capacitor .047uF 3/4 (all treble)
12:15 - Tone control bottom capacitor .047uF 4/4 (sweet spot)
13:09 - Tone control bottom capacitor 1uF 1/2 (somewhere in the middle)
13:23 - Tone control bottom capacitor 1uF 2/2 (sweet spot)
He didn’t talk much except for useful stuff.
Really helpful thank you!
Yes - thank you very much Luis.
I don’t not appreciate the effort to walk through the creation of a pedal here…but all the talk of ‘scoop’ and ‘clipping’ and ‘meaty’ and ‘tone control’ and ‘usable/friendly’ and ‘fuzzy’ and ‘fizziness’ and ‘presence’ is utter gibberish. Would love it if he did some direct edits where he was playing ‘before and after’ and ‘compare this capacitor with that capacitor’ rather than just describing the sound.
Really working hard to translate that kind of language into actual guitar sounds, but it seems impenetrable sometimes. Thank you for making it easier to match sounds to buzzwords.
Brian, as an aspiring pedal builder, your videos are immensely helpful. May I request that you do this format more in the future with other types of circuits? Also, if you do, would it be possible to show shots of your breadboard as you add components to it? Seeing your component placement would be very helpful for someone like me. Thanks for everything you do, both as a builder and an educator in this community, you're really a titan and I just want to say I'm so glad you continued to make these videos and keep this channel going, I know that there was some uncertainty as to whether you would continue for a while and I know I literally just said it, but I, for one, am extremely happy you made the decision you have.
edit: i ask this with the purpose of hoping to follow along with your videos and build the circuits myself so I can really hear the stuff you're talking about in the room and develop a better understand of breadboard signalflow decisionmaking etc. Thanks!
Let’s see some LFO circuits! Get into trem/vibrato!
VERY NICE BUT SEEING SHOTS OF BREADBORED AS U BUILD WOULD BE EVEN BETTER
why? The schematic tells you everything.
That is what the schematic is for.
@@wampler_pedals maybe for esthetics? ... but seriously seeing only breadboard could be very misleading ...
WHY ARE WE YELLING
Rudely put by fred, but I think seeing the breadboard evolve/build as Brian walks through the stages would be really great to see to help those who don't know how to read a schematic very well. I'm still wrapping my head around schematics and trying to learn electronics, so visual learning is a huge part of my ability to learn something new and hopefully make the leap from "complete noob" to "noob". Seeing the breadboard as it relates to the schematic would be super helpful for my personal learning style, especially with a master builder like Brian walking us through it. Great vid! I hope we see more :)
Hi Brian. I built one of these overdrives tonight, from the schematic you displayed. I love it - really versatile for such a low parts count. Thanks for sharing your expertise.
is the upside down triangle a symbol for ground?
@@thomasdavis5230 yes
I am working on this overdrive rn but I am stuck on the op amp part what are the additional connections that are not shown on the Schematic?
@@drake.hansen pin 4 to gnd pin 8 to +9v
I’m an EE and though I know all the details of how to analyze this circuit, I found it super helpful to hear each change. Thank you for the great teaching session.
Being an EE myself I’ve found classical opamp design approaches less than useful, these circuits are basically broken in any other industry, as long as it’s not fatal for a component, just plugging in parts empirically with a goal in mind is the way to go, knowing circuit topology does help some here, calculating poles of the filters not so much... it’s fun for sure, not having to hit a precise goal with ultra low distortion or super low DC offset that’s actually manufacturable, is a nice break...
went to school got my EE, wanted to design these kinds of things. learned more here than in 4 years lol.
not that the degree hasnt paid off... 😀
What are you doing now since you chose ee for a profession but are still interested in Things like These? (and presumably dont build them for a living)
To be fair, you wouldn't be taught things like this video in EE because with amplifier design, distortion is a bug not a feature, and A LOT of consideration is given for how to minimize SNR, not how to adjust SNR to taste lol. The circuit in this video is a basic non-inverted opamp circuit that's probably illustrated near the end of the TL082 datasheet along with the gain equations, plus some diodes in the negative feedback loop, plus some filtering. Plenty of EE courses include filtering and pretty much all electrical applications include filters, and yeah they aren't usually audible but they are usually visible on an oscope or spectrum analyzer.
This was EXACTLY the type of content I think a lot of us rookies were looking for. Phenomenal video. Would love to see something like this done for a DIY Delay or Reverb.
I agree with your cat. When will we see you DIY a univibe lol.
One of the most usfull videos on youtube for a beginner builder
Nice one, Brian.
One of the things many people either overlook or don't quite grasp is that the more metal you wiggle over a pickup, the greater the signal produced. So it should not surprise us that wiggling a wound E or A string over a pickup yields a noticeably greater signal than wiggling an unwound B or E. I like to say that most of the guitar signal "lives in the basement", meaning that the lower the note, the hotter (higher amplitude) the signal produced.
Now, *nothing* gets clipped until it approaches what is called the "forward voltage" of the diodes - the signal level where they begin to conduct. We use some amplification of the signal to reach that point. But because it's higher amplitude to begin with, the lower notes on the bass strings don't really require as *much* amplification to reach that point or threshold. The genius of the Tube Screamer is that it used a strategy Brian illustrates here. The 1k/220nf pair (R46/C28) provide a modest (6db/octave) bass rolloff, near identical to the Tube Screamer, starting around 723hz. Progressively reducing the amount of bass signal hitting the diodes (by amplifying the bass *less* than everything above it) makes it such that pretty much all notes stand an equal likelihood of clipping. I don't know if one would call this a "smoother" sound, but it is more even-handed and predictable.
You will note that when Brian uses the larger-value (1uf) cap instead of 220nf, not only is there more audible bass, but the sound is also more distorted. Some commercial pedals will employ various means to reduce or introduce that bass level to yield more even or bass-heavy overdrive. It's a handy feature for adapting to guitars with greater and lesser bass content, or simply heavier and lighter-gauged strings.
Mark Hammer great synopsis!
@@GearGasms Thanks. Only took me 40 years to figure out! :-)
@@markhammer643 Ha Ha. 45 years for me!
Brian - thanks so much for doing these. It's helps everyone demystify gear. I do photography and I learned that I could waste a lot of money up front on it. For years playing the guitar I operated under the assumption that good tone costs money. With yours and others help I've learned that good tone takes research and understanding the technology just as it does with photography. Also, the Terraform is awesome. I've had it for a few months now and it's one of the best pedals I've ever owned. Thanks!
Finally a transparent overdrive! Literally on a breadboard, you can’t get more transparent than that. The graphics suck tho, so it’s a no from me, dawg. 😜🤘🏻🎸
Props to you and to whoever posed the question. Smart stuff.
Video suggestion: A beginners guide to pedal circuits. What's the function of resistors, capacitors, transistors etc.. Is capacitors always/only related to bass/tone? What's the significance of where in the circuit you place the different components; of what directions they have (plus/minus/ground); of the size of the components. Stuff like that.
Well, I'm graduating in eletronic engineering and I'd say you'd need some years of study to understand what's going on, and without being a master of the field. You'd need a lot of math and circuit courses to get to the final tool you can use and understand them.
@@kiromaisus as these apply to guitar amp and pedal circuits, no, I wouldn't say it takes years. Well, it doesn't have to, but it might, depending on how much time one can devote to reading and researching. You certainly don't need an EE degree to understand it. But, you might get interested in EE as one learns how their amps and pedals work.
Resistors resist current and they can be used to "drop" voltage. It occurs as the natural operation of the component so it can be used to set voltage levels. Capacitors store electric charge. They are literally a break in a conductor (which is how it's schematic symbol looks). Capacitors are an open circuit to DC (zero frequency) so they can be used to block DC and keep it from places you don't want it, such as separating the power supply (DC) from the audio signal which is AC. The capacitance rating (in conjunction with a resistor, forming an "RC circuit" aka a "tuned" circuit) will determine the frequencies allowed to pass. Ex. In a fender strat tone circuit (the capacitor and the resistance of the potentiometer), they used .1 microfarad (μF) capacitors very early on. Now, .047 microfarad is common. With the tone all the way "down" ( where the capacitor is fully engaged in the circuit), the .1μF will sound "darker" than the .047 μF because the .1 is "larger," so it allows more lower frequencies. The .047μF is comparatively "smaller" and thus more restrictive. Thus, a .05μF would be a little darker than the .047, but brighter than the .1μF. Considering the math that the other poster mentioned, there are formulas in which you could calculate the actual frequencies where the cutoffs occur. That is how you tune the circuit through, either coupling capacitors, low or high pass filters, or tone capacitor (when used in a dedicated tone stack). They all tune to varying degrees, but most aren't adjustable by the user..... Unless you want to modify the circuit and swap components of different values. The tone stack gives the user the main adjustability.
@@TheDesertRat31 Thank you! that's exactly the kind of thing I was looking for.
What's the reason for wanting to set voltage levels?
Capacitors are only an open circuit to DC once it's charged right? or is it also open while it's charging? maybe the charging occurs so fast that it's not considered?
@@TheDesertRat31 well said. I appreciate you giving a brief explanation as opposed to just saying "nah you'd need years of study like to get it" lol
Great to see this happening, very informative. I'm using this piece of software www.livespice.org/ it enables you to hookup your guitar to the PC and run your guitar signal through a virtual schematic and have it emulate the sound live. So you can swap out resistors, op amps, capacitors etc and craft your sound. I know it is outdated so maybe someone has a tip for a more recent simulator? Good luck prototyping!
You are best. Thank you :D
this is cool. Can you also tell me what hardware you got to connect your guitar to the computer?
jesus just that opamp clipping before the diode sounded absolutely rad
Brian Wampler: messes around and makes a killer overdrive
Me: still useless
Bryan Yasuhara: you will get there, venture not to be despondent, it’s not easy, electronic engineering has always had its learning curve,
then go to a shop and get charged 20 times for that , just because it says "big name brand , vintage , old school, just like in the 70s"
Going by the schematic, if you were to buy in something of bulk -mind you, 10 units of each, which is normally how you get dip8 chips anyway since the fuckers fry on a whif-, you'd spent something on the neighbourhood of 5 bucks. Add PCB design and manufacturing, and in 50 bucks of your time and resources, you've made between seven and ten units that you can sell for a hundred dollars each.
Not in that way but yes, many brands are overpriced. I mean if you think about the fact that we pay over 50 to 100 euros for a piece of copper with a bunch of magnets in a plastic case it will blow your mind lol.
Instructions unclear, ended up with a 15.000 roentgen nuclear reaction
I think there might be some room for a couple dozen more pedals on your rack!! (-: Besides being a pedal master, you're a pretty darn good player, too.... You should change your name to Mark. Then it would be Mark Wampler? Get it? Sorry, I couldn't help it.....
I was so excited to watch this and learn what each component does. I’m good enough with electronics that I could build this and troubleshoot it from the schematic, but I still don’t actually know what each of these components actually does after watching this. I mean, I know what a resistor does, but when you put a resistor between the op-amp negative and the capacitor before the ground, I don’t know what that resistor or capacitor are actually doing. It would be great if you had just verbally explained the power section and the function of each component, rather than just showing how the sound changes as they are added. This video seems like it’s for beginners but it assumes the viewer knows what an op-amp is and how and why the power section is constructed as it is. Great video though, still. I can use this knowledge to build this exact OD, but not necessarily my own. I wouldn’t know what to change because I don’t fully know what the function of each component is. I know what a resistor does but not why each is in place, nor why you’ve used those values. Thanks for the video, I’m excited to check out more of your channel.
Then you're clearly not good enough with electronics, contradicting the first half of your second sentence. If this video was to explain how op-amps work, go into all of the different configurations of resistors and caps with the inverting and non-inverting inputs, then it would be hours and hours long. That's not to mention covering how filters work and how they affect tone.
This video isn't necessarily about how each individual component affects the sound, it's about how each section of the circuit (the amp, filters, voltage dividers, etc, that contain said individual components) affects it. If you don't know how these sections work on their own in an isolated circuit, then you have a lot more to learn before getting into this video.
Yo, I’m feeling exactly the same as your description. I don’t know how each parts really do to the sound. Knowing you posted this comment 3y ago, what did you do to get that knowledge ? Thanks
This was a really good video. If I didn't have kids bouncing around (due to isolation), I would get out my breadboard and follow along. Swapping out the capacitors gives some nice ideas for mods.
I think you mentioned in an earlier video op amps don't change that much. I think the ti81 is fairly common (which makes this OD pedal design something someone could do easily.)
The other practical detail here I think is the taper on the pots. Is it like a guitar where volume pots should be log taper and the tone linear?
Notification pops up...
...instant like!
Thank you Mr. Wampler. Stay safe and healthy.
Very helpful for me. I'm a new guitarist (relatively) and it's hard to figure out what all these pedals and effects actually do. I have enough electrical background from my mechanical engr education to know about signals and filters and opamps and diodes... so this is incredible helpful.
It explains it in terms that make sense to me hahaha. But also having some objective way of explaining it ALONG with the sound is so good
I'd call that tone control "stupidly wonderful"!
It is rather "AMaZing" isn't it?
I became an electrician for many reasons. One of them is this channel. I love guitar and I love how it takes the basics of electricity and can change it into something beautiful. Thanks so much for explaining so much.
Sounds like Brian has spoken from experience when he says you have to put a potentiometer at the end of this circuit or else he will clip the audio..😄
Aside from how much I learned about pedal design, why hasn't anyone commented on the killer guitar playing happening in this video? Thanks for sharing your knowledge and playing!
This is awesome! Every guitar player that owns a soldering iron should see this!
I want to build this as my first diy. I can solder, and can roughly read the schematic. Question is, where would I connect an on/off switch and power supply input? Im assuming for the power supply, I can just connect in parallel with the 9v am I right?
I made my first DIY pedal with help of this schematics! Thanks for the video, it's very helpful!!
Wanting to see the bread board is like asking to see the lumps of cookie dough before they go in the oven- looking at a nondescript ball of goo with little bits in it won't help you learn to bake. You have to read the recipe!
That’s a great analogy
How you only have 100K subs is beyond me. Great video and thank you for making me feel more knowledgeable
My topics are fairly niched, therefore it’s a smaller channel by intention. I’d rather go a little deeper in a topic but reach less people then make a fairly generic video that doesn’t really teach anything or help anyone. I’m glad you like the channel 😊
this is super awesome, thanks for this level of insight!!! and i can't help but think that a generic kind of overdrive like this, with a few rotary switches for different value components and a few extra attenuation pots could be a REALLY fun pedal!!!
I know this is a long short, but I was breadboarding, and I made a rat circuit, and it gets a signal and the sputters out, however, if I fret a chord and hit it, then touch the resist leading to the input, it comes through loud and clear.
I assume this is a grounding issue, but I checked the schematic and everything is grounded. So rookie question, do I need to figure out a way to ground the breadboard?
(Edit) - Aftermath
I found that 4.5v was not being applied to all of the places that it needed to be.
When I would touch the resistor, I would leach voltage and it would then work, kinda neat, and kinda weird.
Thanks for updating your solution! I hate it when people ask something, then never tell us what the conclusion was!
Is there any chance that you could use a schematic to demonstrate how to build a simple nuclear reactor in your bathtub?
Of course! 😉
Yes. Former nuclear mechanic supervisor for submarines and guitar player here - we could probably push 3 MW out of a trash can size reactor - a little worried about getting proper coolant supply, and adequate shielding ... radiation and contamination are non-fun - I would personally stick with the PFM (Pure #%^*ing Magic) signal mod boxes and practice good electrical safety.
thanks a lot Brian, I am a student of electronic engineer, I decided to study this because of music.
It gets to me very helpfull this video to know more about the different configurations of the op amp for pedals. greetings from Mexico, I hope more videos like this one.
Brian, it is really impressive how you educate us on the science behind the electronics. Most youtubers don't get out the breadboard, love it. I'm still learning what any of these things mean
So much yes!!! I have been very curious about how all of this works for a long time. Thank you for making this video and going through the trouble.
Finally a video that shows you the effect different capacitors and resistors have on tone. I moved up another learning step tonight.
I had no idea what was going on, but somehow this is my favorite video since Josh from JHS did the "Boss is Best" video
Another Brilliant video, Brian. Your videos have made me understand a lot more about how pedals are conceived, built and how and why they sound the way they do. From pedal stacking to in depth looking into tone and pedal building, the best and most informative video site by far. fun too. Thanks.
Great stuff: I made my own fuzz pedal when I was a teenager but it was almost unusable 😂
What if you used blue LED's as clipping diodes? Is there a difference with what diode you use for clipping, like zener diodes as a example?
Try it?! Seriously, this may be the prime benefit of breadboarding. Mess with the circuit in every possible way. Maybe build two circuits, side by side, with an A/B switch. Build the same base circuit then A/B the modifications as you go.
wow this is the best video ever. thank you so much for sharing this knowledge.
I've been trying to build circuits for years. It's still magic to me. I still haven't found any teaching material that can explain what each component actually does to other components and why without going into advanced circuitry diagrams or loads of math.
With capacitors you really need to know a couple formulas. Anything in electronics kinda requires a bit of the maths. So just look it up, it's necessary for good understanding
great video, but I wish you'd had shown the device you were making, and went direct in to an interface instead of going into a guitar amp. It makes it harder to distinguish amp dist with pedal dist.
Guy gets better tone from a breadboard than I can dial on my gear lolz :)
What I did was to look at pedal schamatics from electrosmash, and general circuits from electronics sites showing filters etc and try to recreate them on the breadboard. Very very hard, way harder then kits would be, but you learn alot and eventually should be in a position to design something unique and succeed. You will make mistakes. You may have to take a break and clear your hear. You will eventually succeed.
Man.... I really wish Radio Shack was still open. I'd be down there in a heartbeat right now
67 none-nerds gave this great video a thumbs down. Some people don't get it.
Interesting video. I'd love to see it again with a pure sine wave for an input and an oscilloscope showing the change in wave form through the additional component additions.
@Jacob Faseler I have EveryCircuit on my phone and Tina installed on my tablet. While these software simulators are nice they do have their limitations unless you buy the full blown versions. I've designed circuits in software that did not work when breadboarded. Sometimes it just took changing a few resistor values on the breadboarded version to fix my problems. Once I'm building on a breadboard I use a real scope and real volt meters and amp meters. With an audio device I also like my ears to hear the differences. Apps on our phones can replace my old signal generators though.
At around the 6 minute mark that tone kinda sounds like Angus Youngs guitar tone from Highway to Hell.
Oh great like I need more projects to experiment with!🎸🎸
I just started building circuts in my own and this video was very cool to build along with.
Thank you for sharing it. Talking about the components on the feedbackloop of the op-amp helped me understanding it better.
I love your videos and think you make some of the best pedals your pantheon is just amazing it really is the best BB circuit I wish you could get a overdrive boost out so you just stomp it rather then have to flick a switch. But man your pedals are some of the best. I love you and diamond pedals.
With most pedals these days using tiny smt parts, including the resistors and caps, that kind of makes it impossible to do any mods.
A definite requirement for designing pedals is being a great guitar player. Brians got this in the bag!
DAAAYYYUUUMMM!!! This pedal sounds GREAT!!! Awesome playing too!
Love this Vid. I learned many of this stuff from your Book and trying by myself. This is a really valuable material for Guitarists, hobbist, Hobbits and enthusiasts.
Brian Wampler Should release this as a pedal and let viewers comment to come up with a name for it.
So as for the pins of your tl082 op amp. Pin 3 is the + and pin 2 is the - ? Pin 1 is the output or right side of the triangle shape? And then pin 8 is +9V and pin 4 is ground?
Thanks in advanced for anyone who chimes in to help a beginner here
The sound of this effect very exceptional just what I was looking for and all this on a breadboard perfect. 🎉🎉🎉I Great tut and explanation.🎉🎉🎉
I came here after seeing the website instruction with schematic vs real view of components... One issue... There's an extra capacitor that is unaccounted for in the "real view" off the 9v positive
No idea what you're talking about. Great video though.
It would be very interesting the same kind of video with a basic fuzz circuit!
How come your breadboard stays so quiet. Mine is full of noise even with one component on it, heck just connecting my jacks together creates a ton of noise!
Came for the circuit build..stayed for the awesome riffs
Great Video! I found taking notes helped.
Interesting how .022 and .047, really are the standard of the "Marshall" kind of gain tone,
I loved the Marshall Gov'ner pedal, i don't think they make it any more
are you talking about c23 and c28?
Cool video Brian. I learned how to build pedals from the first iteration of your book and I'm forever grateful to you for it. Thanks for all the info you share
Terimakasih.! Ini sangat berguna, untuk kami, yang minim uang, untuk membeli efek guitar
do this video again, except for a few things:
1. invert the color of the schematic.
2. keep the schematic on-screen
3. highlight the thing you're talking about
4. give the hour-long version
just a suggestion,
i think this would be more inline with what the viewer wanted.
sorry if i sound demanding...
went into director mode.
and as always, to anyone who shares their knowledge and skills on youtube:
THANK YOU
:)
Watching this video as I emptied a tuna can... I think this can will get a new live as a stompbox... stomped tuma...
Just a noob question, but what would happen if you sent the guitar signal directly to the opamp without the initial resistor and capacitor?
Fun concept. Great video. Starting up pedal building soon.
Very NICE Bri! Eye, (or should I say EAR) opening!
This is really cool and giving me ideas on how to customize the circuit to get the tone I want.
Just 1 question what is the voltage Vcc+ and Vcc- that TL082 Needs to Work ?? +9 -9 ???
I'm not into engineering at all but this is gold. Even for me. 😍
My Orange Roland Cube 60 guitar amp. has a Pre-Out and Main In connection at the back. As it is more than 30 plus years old with no Manual, I don't know what they are for? Please advise. Also, can I plug in a MP3 player directly into the Main In to mix with my guitar playing?
Hey, thanks for this detailed Video!
I have two questions:
I'm thinking about building a small amp (battery powered, will probably go with an electric ukulele i'm currently building) and was wondering if this cirquit itself would output enough power to drive a speaker. I have a 10W 8 Ohm Speaker and would like to use it for the amp, do you think this would be enough or do i need to boost the signal further?
This is the first time i'm trying to build an amp so i don't really have the experience to say if it is necessary to boost the signal.
And also, is it possible to implement hard clipping and soft clipping aswell as a clean channel by simply "activating" the clipping diodes with switches (so switch off bypasses the clipping diodes and switch on "adds" them to the circuit)
It would be really nice of you if you could provide an answer to my questions.
And if there's any more info you need about what i want to do feel free to ask.
Very comprehensive video. Could you explain the power section a bit? If I wanted to use a different clipping section, I.e. a bluesbreaker op amp and 1n4148 circuit, could I use the same power section?
So i built it with a tl072, but it doesn't work. When i plug the power supply it outputs a constant hum and the tl072 chip gets super hot. On the chip itself i've plugged pins 4,5,6,7 to ground and 8 to V+, I've checked the entire circut and it is all 1 to 1 but for the tl chip, how do i fix it?
What I found out when bread boarding this schematic was tye ground needs to be tight or you have hum or no to little signal
Exceptional explanation, would very much appreciate seeing the breadboard placement as it is challenging to visualize the physical relationships of Thor components
what happens if I raise the tone's pot ?
I know I’m a bit late to the party, but was researching op amps for a problem I have with one of my pedals and this awesome video came up. Sooo good!!
I have a question in relation to my problem. I don’t know if you’ll get this but oh well, here goes…
I’m new at this but I was wanting to mod a Cmatmods Super Signa Drive.
The boost side, I believe, is boosted by an op amp and I think it comes before the drive stage. I use the boost independently of the drive and I love the treble boost and the spread of frequencies it adds but it has clipping which is really harsh. It’s a very low level clipping but it is very sharp. The op amp is an RC4558P. It is easily interchangeable so I was wondering if the way to soften the clipping would be to change the op amp. Or does it need a 100pF capacitor in between the input and output pins?
Man, I was so bummed that I didn't get to see this mocked up on the breadboard for each stage like in the thumbnail. It would've been really cool to see how it was laid out for people trying to learn. Schematic shows you everything if you're trained to read a schematic. You can look at a breadboard and see what real life things are happening.
It never sounded to me. I used Livewire to do a PCB and I put it all together as the program showed and It never sounded. There was a strong HUM sound and almost explode the amp. Can anybody help me? Thanks. Another curious thing that I noticed is that in the scheme, there are two electrolytic caps of 47uf 16 volts and in your video, they are not in the protoboard. You replaced it with two polyester caps. Confused.
Here is a bit of a whacky idea - and I will put in the public domain for anyone to try if they want- I just prefer playing over designing in my spare time since electronics is what I have done as a career for 35 years - it's a bit crazy but have you ever tried putting a mini speaker and microphone in a pedal (the sizes definitely exist with BA spkrs and MEMs mics) and loading the drive part of the circuit with an actual speaker, then recovering it with a mic and then analog processing the mic output - in a guitar pedal....it might be unique - don't know if it had been done in that form factor...but it might be fun to try.
Thank you. I''d been wondering where EQ/tone control would go for a drive, and you showed me that there re two places and explained the different results you'd get.
I am not sure I understand the power circuit but if I had to guess... the battery puts the + terminal at a steady 9V and then the guitar signal is effectively injected on top of this? And the reason we use 9V is because changing our voltage from a higher level will generally be louder, and if we dont set a baseline voltage >0V, we will have an AC circuit that simply doesn't work? Asking in hopes someone can educate me/confirm my ideas
A cool video would be how to build something like Jim Lill's 'tackle box amp' from his video about where tone comes from in an amp. I'm guessing Tech 21's character series pedals use a similar concept.
You could have stopped just with that OpAmp completely open, and I'd have bought it. Sounds great!
sarcasm here: "oh you said soft-clipping overdrive, so you are clonning the Tubescreamer ooo! copy!! cloner, invent your own circuit" lol ... I mean, in electronics, in order to achieve an amplified signal, you must use an opamp or transistors... in order to clip, you must add diodes. There is no other way around it. If you kept that same train of tought, then the TubeScreamer would be a clone of the circuits you see in Electronics books.
Brian, what factors guide you in selecting an op-amp? Please do a video on building a distortion device using discrete transistors.
Really any op amp does the trick. An op amp is supposed to boost all the frequencies or to say it is a clean boost. Check the specs and find one whose cutoff frequency is greater than 20kHz (the higher limit of hearing range). The distortion is caused by the filters that are placed and the diodes that clip the signal.
Man what a wonderful tutorial, mind you this circuit look very similar to the MXR FUZZ, from the 70's, I had one way back when and reversed engineered the board :) , Please make more like this :)
I also think... if raising the pot of the 500k gain to 1M looks even more like a fuzz
Awesome video, this was something I was looking for to just understand why certain components are in there. Great job!