Thursday 14 January 2016

Zinky True Grit

Here is an overdrive pedal by Bruce Zinky, the creator of Smokey Amps.
Not great videos available at the moment.

11 comments:

  1. Had to check.. The dual pots are quite an overkill as all of them are wired in parallel. One can use B250K for vol, treble and bass and B25K for gain and grit. Won't make any difference to sound or control.
    +m

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  2. Hi Miro!
    I completely agree with you.
    I've just wanted to draw it identical to the original schematic but I don't think using dual pots would make any noticeable difference.

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  3. So then just double up on the wiring to the single pots? Take 4 5 6 for each and put them together with 1 2 3? Seems easy. I have a sleeve of 100 386 chips just dying to try this one!

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  4. You can use half size pots (B250K & B25K) and just wire lugs 1, 2 & 3. Forget 4, 5 & 6.

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  5. Built this but its only working when the boost switch is activated, on the other setting no sound at all. Gone over it so many times but can't find any errors or misplaced components.

    Got to say though when using it with the boost setting its fantastic, if only i could find the problem. I used B250ks and 25ks.

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    Replies
    1. Mmm.. Just checked it and according to the schematic pin 8 goes to ground when boost is disengaged. There is a wire going from the board to Boost Sw 3,5. Try to disconnect it from pin 3 and just leave it connected to pin 5.

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    2. That did the trick, thanks Alex. Great sounding overdrive.

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  6. FWIW I had one of these pedals when they first came out. Apparently they were designed to be used quite hot and adjusted from the guitar's volume control. Well no matter how i used it it sounded pretty bad and hissed like a mofo.

    So if anyone gets a good sound out of this the circuit is probably wrong. :-) It's also probably why there are no good videos of it. Cool layout - I hope it brings someone joy.

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  7. What is top-leftmost CLR resistor?

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    Replies
    1. Whatever size best suits your LEDs. Anywhere from 1K to 10K depending on the LED type, it's just a matter of preference.

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