Friday 29 July 2016

Wampler Sovereign

The Wampler Sovereign Distortion is a versatile beast of a distortion pedal that is unlike the rest of its ilk. The gain is rich and full of harmonic overtones, never sounding or feeling fake and stiff. Surprisingly shapeable and responsive, the non-traditional gain and EQ controls allow you to tune the pedal to suit any setup, and instead of just emphasizing a certain frequency range, they actually change the texture of the gain. With the right settings dialed up, it can nail the elusive sludgy deep sound loved by stoner metal guitarists, along with virtually every other shade of high-gain tone a player can imagine.
You can find original thread and schematic on FSB forum here.


61 comments:

  1. Alex, you're on a roll. Three great pedals in a row. Thanks for all your hard work.

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  2. Very happy to see this one. Thanks. Hope to build this one soon.

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    2. Thanks Alex!

      Both ends of the 10k connected to Tone 1 should be moved down a row.

      Also, if polarity protection is desired, move the 47k (near the mids) left 1 column, raise the bottom of 10R up 2 rows and move the 10R right 1 column, add cut to the right of Q4-G and add a 1n5817 to the left of the newly placed 10R, between bottom of 10R and the link 2 rows down.

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    3. Thanks Michael!
      Must have moved it by mistake.
      I've also added a polarity protection but in a different way

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  4. For the 100k trimmer what would I have to set it to. This seems like a very interesting project.

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    1. It acts as the drain resistor for the last jfet stage. I would set it by ear.

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  5. I've been waiting for this one!

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  6. I just built this. Tried a few different ICs and settled on JRC4558 because I didn't have a 4580D. Oh man it sounds awesome, always have been interested in this pedal but not sure if I wanted to buy it. This one is going on the pedal board for sure! Exactly the sound I've been looking for. I see its still unverified, you can mark it as verified and mark it as awesome.

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    1. Ralf

      Looks very similar to a Pinnacle. Were there any squealing issues at higher gain/boost settings that would warrant shielded input cabling like we had to do on the Pinnacle?

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    2. I was surprised how quiet the pedal was even with the gain maxed out. I didn't use any shielded cables and personally didn't have any issues in my build.

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  7. Thank you for this layout, been drooling over one of these for a while.

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  8. Great! Appreciate the reply. This will be my next build.....

    Thanks

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  9. This pedal rocks. Sounded best to me when drain on J201 underneath trimmer was set to 4.5v. Definitely one for the pedal board. Thanks as always Alex for the layout.

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  10. Hi guys, I need your help. I would like to build this pedal, but I don't have any j201, Is the 2N5458 a good replacement for this aplication? Thanks in advance.

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  11. My understanding and in my experience you can totally sub 2n5458 for a j201. It would sound different though.

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  12. This pedal is amazing! Thank you Alex!!!

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  13. Just built this worked first try. A bit of hiss but havent boxed it up yet so that is expected. Sounds great

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  14. Finally built this one, with a slightly altered layout.

    Amazing!!!

    The pedal is super quiet with tons of tone...and the distortion sounds incredible.

    To me it's the Pinnacle, without being locked into the brown sound.

    I installed the trimmer just in case, but luckily only had to sort through about 10 j201s until I found one that biased at 4.7v with a 27k drain resistance.



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  15. I just finished this one. Seemed ok until I played it more. The two switches work as expected. But there seems to be something of a fizzy decay on the distorted sound. It's really noticeable at lower gain settings but I hear even with the gain maxed out. I have the jfet on the trimmer biased to 4.5v.

    No one else has mentioned fizzy decay so I am going to assume I have a fault. But I measure every component before I solder. Count each type of component ( resistors, caps, etc. ) at the end to make sure I'm not missing anything.

    Does anyone have an idea of what could cause the fizzy decay so I can kind of hone in on where I need to troubleshoot? Or could the jfets or the opamp be a cause of this? Should I just start by swapping those out?

    Thanks

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    1. I still have mine, what knob and switch settings do you hear the fizz?

      I'll check the same.

      Can you post a sound sample?

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    2. IMO, yes. Try other JFET's and Opamps.

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    3. It's there on any of the switch settings. It's more noticeable on lower gain knob settings but I can hear it at the end of the decay on higher gain as well - just at the end of the decay. And to be honest, it is a fizzy decay but it also has that gated sort of sound all through in lower gain - you know, if you hit it softly it has that gated sort of sound.

      It's been a long, long time since I've had an issue in a build. I'm just sort of shocked because I do all the measuring all along the way ( because I hate troubleshooting ), count and re-count all the links and cuts. It's actually usually the low parts count builds that I have made errors on...


      I've never posted a sound sample before - I'll have to figure out how to do that.

      Thanks for the reply and for checking yours.

      I think I'm going to try swapping out the jfets before I do any serious digging. Now that I notice the gating sort of quality, that leads me to believe that I might just have some dodgy jfets ( although I just used the same batch in my Black 65 build and it was fine ( a very nice pedal indeed! )

      Thanks again!



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    4. I forgot the original layout uses a trimmer, the schematic has that drain resister at 27k, which is what I used, then measured a bunch of jfets to find one that read 4.5 on the drain.

      What resistance do you have on the trimmer to get 4.5v?

      I use Soundcloud to store soundclips, then post the link to the soundcloud file.

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    5. I just went back and measured a couple of resistors. A couple are measuring way off - 3 of the 1M resistors seem to be measuring around 1K. This is going to be very embarrassing if I got all those 1M resistors wrong ( maybe they're measuring off because they are connected to other components? ). And I don't know how I could - I literally measure every resistor and capacitor before I solder it in.

      So let me take this thing out of the enclosure ( I know - I should test before I box it up, but it really has been years since I had something that didn't work correctly ) and start testing. I don't want to waste any more of your time if I have made a bonehead mistake(s). Guess I let my overconfidence get the better of me.

      I'll report back after I figure out my mistakes.

      Thanks

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    6. Checked this over again ( and again and again ). I can't find a fault. Took out a few components and they measured fine. It works fine as long as I am using high gain settings. If the boost is off, and the gain is anywhere below half, it sounds gated and decay fizzles out.

      I'm happy to rebuild but can someone confirm that theirs sounds fine at lower gain settings? No gating, no fizzy decay?

      Thanks all

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    7. What's your Q6 drain resistor (or trimmer) value?

      Maybe try lowering the values of the 1 meg resistors tied to Sw2-1 and Sw2-4. This will give a little more gain on the low gain settings. Try 820k or 750k. (I may try replacing them and the switch with a dual 1 Meg or 500k pot so I can dial in the amount of boost rather than just having the 2 switch settings)

      Here's a sound sample of mine. boost off, tone and mids at noon.
      1/4 gain, then 1/2 gain, then 3/4 gain, then boost on.

      Q6 is biased at 4.7v with 27k drain resistor.

      https://soundcloud.com/maopedals/sovereign-low-gain-settings

      Let me know how yours compares.

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    8. MAO

      I listened to your sound sample. Mine sounds nothing like that at lower gain settings. This confirms that I do have a fault somewhere in the build. I will give it one more going over, but I will probably just go ahead and rebuild.

      I really appreciate you confirming the lower gain sounds for me. Many thanks to you!

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    9. Cool, well you know what I mean.

      I'd be glad to give you a hand over in the forums if you want to try to troubleshoot and pinpoint the issue.

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    10. Appreciate the offer. Let's see what I can find by probing around in it a bit more. I'll let you know if I think it's salvageable.

      Thanks!

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    11. MAO

      btw, you mentioned that you didn't use the trimmer. Did you build from this layout or one of your own?

      Thanks

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    12. I slightly modified the original layout, just moved a few things around and added strain relief holes for the off board wiring.

      I'll send it to you if you like. It's 22x22

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    13. I'd love to have a copy of it if you don't mind. How can I get it from you? Email address or link?

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    15. Sure, hopefully this link works

      I rotated the board CCW to install in the enclosure.

      https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x73afH6LSEoGUYb6cKEG8dsASgJK_oSi4N3jWnbtwYg

      I have a gut shot of my previous trimmer version in the forums showing the suggested CCW rotation.

      Page 63

      http://guitar-fx-layouts.42897.x6.nabble.com/Show-your-pedal-guts-td8569i1240.html

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    16. Link worked perfectly. I think I want to compare your layout to this one to see if there is any difference between the two. If there is, then maybe I can fix mine. If there is not, I'll just rebuild. I appreciate all the help. Not going to let this one beat me!

      Thanks!

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    17. Cool, let me know if I can help in anyway.

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    18. Ok. Finally got back to this over the weekend. Checked components and positions - all correct. Number of cuts and positions - all fine. In a last ditch effort i did something I've never done before. Re-flowed every solder joint on the board. That seems to have one the trick. No longer have the bad fizz artifacts. Guess I had a bad/incomplete solder joint somewhere on the board.

      Biased the boost trimmer to 4.5 v. Overall, sounds pretty good. In lower gain settings, it sounds similar to the Black 65 that I built, but with a touch more sparkle on top.

      The bright switch is just too bright for my Strats. I might tweak that on the next build. I'd like the bright option but maybe not that extreme.

      Thanks for the help MAO and thanks to Alex for the layout.

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    19. Excellent! I also found the bright switch a bit bright.

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    20. I will add that I really don't have near the gain ( except full on ) that I have seen on the Youtube demos. I do use single coils so that is part of it ( although it's not much different with my les paul ), and maybe it's my jfets. Still, what I have sounds good and is usable. Going to build another anyway - we'll see...

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  16. Hi!

    Should I read this?

    Switch 2 (DPDT):
    1 - 2 - 3
    4 - 5 - 6

    Thanks!

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    1. Correct, and no connection for 3&6.

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  17. The volume pot labels need to be reversed - turning fully clockwise silenced the vero. Works and sounds great.

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  18. The volume pot is pretty much always wired this way. If it was working backwards you mixed up lug 3 and 1. Check the offboard wiring tab to see how pot lugs are numbered.

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  19. Hi,
    I just finished this pedal and it worked on first try. Q6 sounds best between 4.7 and 5.1 volts. It sounds fine but not like the videos i've seen. I think it lacks some gain but mainly some bass. I tested my jfets with a multifuntional meter. It red three of them correctly as NJfets and the other two as PNP transistors. Could this be the culprit? I only had five of them on hand so i used them anyway (until I receive some new ones).

    Also, voltages on 4580D IC are:
    pin1: ~8v pin2: ~8v pin3: 0v pin4: 0v
    pin5: ~4v pin6: ~4v pin7: ~4v pin8: ~8v
    Do they sound correct for this type of IC?

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  20. Do you think I'll get away with a TL072? I've got a whole batch of them that need using up!

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    1. Pretty certain I'm using a TL072 or a 4558 in mine. Maybe. I'd have to check.

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  21. Sorry, probably a noob question, but what is the square that's labeled "100K, Bias?" I figured it was a potentiometer, but I could be wrong. I don't recall seeing a bias potentiometer on the pedal, so is that like an optional thing?

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  22. Built this after a 2 day, 2am soldering bender (I know you know what I mean). I made some really stupid mistakes... Gain lugs backwards, missing caps and even forgot to put one of the jfets in!?! Nonetheless, after fixing my tired eyed mistakes and tweaking the bias pot, I got it running sweeeeeeet!

    All is left is to box but just wanted to say thanks for all the awesome layouts, this site is such a fantastic resource filled with genuinely generous and helpful people!

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  23. Strangely enough, after boxing it my volume is working correctly, but all the other pots are around the wrong way. It's been a while since I populated the vero but I can't remember if I swapped it as per my above post.

    I've put the boost on a footswitch, otherwise, as per the vero and sounds great.

    https://scontent.fmel2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/19875320_1599305140132150_6604342427110197866_n.jpg?oh=d792e126744e4c4b6846c48cb5d70da9&oe=59C90019

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  24. Good day all, I am getting ready to assemble this project and I have one noob question. What is the green circle symbol on row 7 and 6 from the left on the layout. I would assume this is an additional solder point for that jumper but I need to make sure.

    Thanks

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    1. That's a double link, both the jumper above and below share that same hole and are soldered together there.

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  26. This one has got me stumped, I just can't get it working. I've built about 30 pedals but I just can't seem to get this one going. I get a pretty weak output from Q6 even with a decent drain voltage.

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    1. How is the signal at the gate of Q6?
      Are you using a J201 for Q6?
      What is the drain resistance dialed in at? If it's not close to 27k, try another J201.

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    2. Thanks for the suggestion MAO, I rebuilt it in the end (on better quality stripboard) and have got it working, but it sounded very 'splatty' initially. After going around the circuit with an audio probe I found the 51pf cap on the 4580d seemed to be altering the sound drastically so I used a jumper instead, and now it sounds good, but not as much gain as the demos (I've read other comments to this effect). I think it's my j201s, they're really cheap ones and may be lower gain than usual. It does sound nice though, just not as high gain as I thought it would be. I'll follow your suggestion anyway as it'll give me an indication of the j201 gain.

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  27. Very good pedal. I made it in protel program and used mkp capacitors and metal film resistors mostly. Use 50k trimer for bias. Adjust it from silence to just before compressing. Lot of gain, very nice. I also expected more gain but enough for me. Maybe 250k would give more gain. Op amp is MC1458. I tried for euphoria this 1458, NE5532 , RC4559 , BurBrown opa but best for me is 4559. I shall try all of that for souvereign. Good luck

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