Saturday 7 June 2014

Black Forest - Uberschall Emulation

Another one of the amp emulation circuits I'm collecting at the moment, this one based on the Bogner Uberschall by JOK3RX on freestompboxes.  You could get this in a 1590B but with two stomps, a toggle and 5 pots it may even be a pain to put in a 125B, so as with the other recent amp sims I think most people will put this in a 1590BB.

Except Javi :o)

The effect is designed with a 9V supply in mind, but again I would strongly recommend trying this with a voltage doubler charge pump and seeing what you think about it at the higher voltage.

You're all going to have to get some more J201s in :o)






41 comments:

  1. Speaking of J201's... Does anybody have a good source for them? The last three places I've ordered them from (tayda, futurlec, and eBay) have all sold me those goofy ones that look like they've been sanded and rebranded. I don't know if they're fakes or seconds or what, but they don't look or sound right.

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    1. Long gone are the days of getting 100 for $12 from dpi4parts on eBay :o)
      I haven't bought any for ages because I stocked up on them (my last order was 200 Fairchild's from a US seller for $14) :o) so I really wouldn't know who to recommend. Personally I'd be tempted to go SMD and buy some of these:

      http://oshpark.com/shared_projects/8bf7XW05

      I got 30 of the boards and 25 x MMBFJ201 from eBay for about £4. I haven't tried them in anything yet but will do soon just to test them out. Someone on one of the forums mentioned that the SMD ones are very closely matched which would make them a much better choice for phasers if that is true. Well maybe not the J201, but you can get MMBF2N5457's as well.

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    2. I've done the smd j201's from diyguitarpedals and they seem to work well plus he sells them super cheap with the adapter boards. This is a good route to go for quantities under 100 as it would be hard to match his price. The smd soldering is not too difficult. I've been hoping he would get 5457's but I think I'm gonna order a batch from mouser and adapter boards from oshpark.

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  2. Doctor Tweek is good for j201s, 45p each. I've loads of them and they are pretty consistent, great guy to deal with. Watch for eBay deals, I ended up returning 30 that were useless, they looked suspect too. Flat edges, not beveled like the real deal. The seller swore blind he bought them from a legit source which he may have but they were bogus!

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  3. Thanks a lot for this! I have followed the discussions on freestompboxes about this pedal and wanted to build this for a long time, so I give it a try tonight!

    I belive then this is built I can throw my 48 distortion pedals out the window ;)

    /Mortua

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  4. I just finished this and it works fine exept for the boostswitch. Nothing happends.

    This is truly a higain beast and the big diffrence to the Diezel vh4 and mesa is that the eq on this one sounds good =) Even the distortion sounds "thicker" and "cleaner".
    Its just the boostswitch that dont work.

    /Mortua

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    1. ....and yes, my other distortionpedals will been thrown out the window now ;)

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    2. That doesn't surprise me actually. All the boost switch does is swap the base to ground resistor at Q2 between 68K and 100K. 68K is the value that was in the Uberschall and I think you'd be better off changing one of them to a lower value so the difference is more apparent. Maybe socket them so you can choose the perfect pair for you. So I think that is verified, thanks Bo!

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    3. Well, I tried a bunch of resistors now, everything between 5,6k to 1M :) The values I thought sounded best was between 10k and 22k, do I ended up whit 16k and it sounds realy good. Im more than happy with this build!

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    5. Hello Mr Larsson.
      The 16k value you mention is for the "?" resistor or did you also chage the value of the 68k. thanks!

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  5. Hi Mark...everyone.
    What do I do to build this w/o the boost switch?
    jeff

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    1. Solder the 68K resistor at Boost 1 between Q2 gate and ground, and omit the ? resistor and boost wires

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  6. Could be 1N5819 a good subs form bat85 guys? Cheers

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  7. Cool... I didn't even know there was a vero for this!!

    Honestly, the BAT85 diodes don't do much, that was just something I picked up from the AMT pedals... AMT uses a different JFET so perhaps that has something to do with it? The diode is supposed to create a more "tube" like dynamic, probably more noticeable by the way it cleans up when you roll the vol pot on your guitar back.. You can probably use just about any silicon or Schottky diode with low voltage drop in the forward direction, connected in parallel to the FET's own junction... I have messed around with a few different kinds. 1N4148 works fine also but there is one that does make a noticeable difference with the J201 that I quite like and that is the BAT41.

    Of course you do not even need to install these diodes, it will work just the same without them...

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    1. Hey J0K3R X , my jfets J201 never worked with 9v, but recently y try with 18v (my hp laptop adapter) and this jfets work fine! i was thinking to make the dr. boogey but i believe that your uberschall is better. Dou you have a layout for a voltage doubler 9v to 18v? please help me.

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  9. Hi there, I'm going to build this! I'm just looking for some hints before I start, if you could help me I'd really appreciate it :)
    What value should i use for the Boost (?) Resistor? I heard some guys use 16 kOhms to get a usable boost?
    And could you please clarify how to set the trim potentiometers? I don't understand that bit at all!
    Thanks :)

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    1. hi matthew
      in your 1st question i can only say "socket the resistor and choose which value is better for you"
      in the 2nd you set the trimmers like this.
      supply your board with 9v
      connect your multimeter's black wire to ground and set it at 20v or what...(?!) reading
      then with the red wire you touch and read voltages at the drains of the transistors.at each transistor's drain you must get half of the supply voltage(4,5-5v).you can do this (biasing) by turning the trimmers until you get this reading.this is how you set j-fets.i hate them! and i love them the same time...
      hope i helped

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    2. Yes you did! Thank you very much :D Do you know what kind of values I should be using? I have no idea! haha

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    3. You can start with 10k and go from there or do what I do... what I did was temporarily add a 100k trim pot and adjust it until you get the boost that you like, then remove the trim pot and measure it with your ohm meter. After you get the value of the trim pot setting with your meter look for the same value or close fixed resistor and solder it in permanently. You may wonder how to use a trimmer on this? Just solder one of the outer legs to one of the pads, then solder both of the other trim pot legs to the other pad.

      To bias the JFET's in these pedals follow the instructions in this youtube video. It's a Dr.Boogey but they all bias relatively the same...
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4-UUDoSCPg

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    4. Hey J0K3R X , my jfets J201 never worked with 9v, but recently y try with 18v (my hp laptop adapter) and this jfets work fine! i was thinking to make the dr. boogey but i believe that your uberschall is better. Dou you have a layout for a voltage doubler 9v to 18v? please help me.

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  10. Hi Mark, thanks for this one! Could you email me the schematic you used, or post a link to it? Thanks!

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  11. There's a link to the schematic in the title. The schematics are almost always on FSB

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    1. I see, I just wanted to know which schematic, since there are different ones on FSB. There is one with a "voice" pot, that is not in this board.
      Thank you anyway!

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  12. i did a thing last night:

    https://youtu.be/IycVOTAWkDc

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    1. Sensei Tim indeed! Your "thing" you did last night sounds excellent! What did you use for the boost?

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  13. JOK3R - funny story behind that! i used a 100k pot in place of the ? resistor to allow me to dial in the boost - but it was always adjusting the amount of saturation of the non-boosted distortion.

    I replaced the 68k resistor with the 100k pot and put a 16k in for ? like was suggested earlier in the comments and voila!

    TL;DR: the 68k resistor controls the boost and the ? resistor controls the non-boost gain.

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  14. i did another thing. after 4 months of barely playing i picked up my geetar and did this.

    all of the gain is from the black forest. I was playing a super whisper quiet levels, so i think some of the bass response isn't as good as it could have been. I'll probably re-do it later this week to work out the flubs and at a higher volume ;)

    https://youtu.be/2brVQuOT_fA

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  15. I built this , making some changes .
    I plan to make other changes before having my final version .
    Meanwhile I leave you two clips with different impulses .
    https://soundcloud.com/roby-guitar/prova-ritmica
    https://soundcloud.com/roby-guitar/prova-2-ritmica

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  16. J0K3R X I saw on the page freestompboxes all versions .... but I would like to know what the final PCB and serving the additional jack REMOTE called as add to the circuit ??? leave image link to see thanks ...

    http://jelyfingerguitars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/bogner-uberschall-pedal-2.jpg

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  17. J0K3R X my mail to send me verified data would appreciate forever

    bravewolf@misena.edu.co

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    1. Remote jack allows control of the On/Off and boost functions via a remote switching unit. That Uberschall is made by Bogner, this is not the same pedal. As far as I know nobody has a schematic for that pedal.

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    2. http://www.bogneramplification.com/uberschall-pedals

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  18. So I'm finishing this build but I'm really confused about the boost switch. What switch should I use and how do I need to wire it?

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  19. Where is the output located on this vero?

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  20. Lug 2 of the volume pot. There are a lot of other notes at the bottom of the layout that you will need to read to get this working

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  21. I've finished this build and it's amazing. The boost switch turns it into a (more) roaring beast. For rhythm (I play 8 string guitars, tuned to drop E, so kinda low) it's best to leave the gain at 50% and place a TS808 in front of it acting as a boost pedal, taking care with the tone pot to avoid fizziness, in order to make the sound more tight. Excellent layout, thanks JOK3R X ! It also sounds nice on bass! Totally recommend it!

    This is my build, and yes, drilling enclosures symmetrically is not my selling point :)

    https://scontent.fotp3-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t34.0-12/18386839_1699085250108626_816990636_n.jpg?oh=13bcd293be71e025237973edfa9ebeff&oe=59167A02

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  22. Not sure if my first comment went through but when it comes time to add the cuts on this project before I drill do I have to flip the orientation horizontally for the photo on the right so the cuts/links on this line up properly?

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  23. Finished this tonight - works great. It's going into a box with the Seventh Heaven...

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