Thursday, 23 December 2010

Dan Armstrong Green Ringer



Here's a more unusual effect.  Playing chords it has a ring mod-ish quality to it, but played higher up the fretboard and using the neck pick up with tone control down gives a very prominent octave effect which sounds great.  You'll notice I shared holes for the diodes and a couple of the resistors, this was just to keep the final width down so it will comfortably fit in a 1590B box.  It should be easy enough to do unless you're using components with very thick leads.  The resistors I used are Dale metal film and are quite thick but I still managed it fine in my build.  I'd recommend socketing the transistors and diodes because you can get slightly different sounds by swapping them, Q2 is the transistor to experiment with and try germanium and silicon diodes to see which you prefer.

It is recommended that for the clearest octave effect you match the diodes as closely as possible for forward voltage, and some people have suggested that it is also worth matching the 47nF caps and the 10K and 22K resistors, although if you use 1% metal film they're probably going to be extremely close anyway. 

The layout is verified.




Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!
Posted by at 15:07
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37 comments:

  1. monkeyxx30 December 2010 at 05:01

    can you recommend a few web site sources for most of the parts you'd use for one of these builds on your site? I'm familiar with a few but have never ordered tag board, vero board, and some of the more specific transistor and capacitor types you'd find in many of your layouts. thanks!

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  2. IvIark30 December 2010 at 13:30

    I get most of the bits I use off eBay. The resistors I use are Dale CCF55 or RN55/RN60 metal film and you can get a wide selection from bigsmyth74:

    http://stores.ebay.co.uk/bigsmythe74

    I get Russian axial paper in oil and poly caps from:

    http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/KW-TUBES

    I get the yellow axial caps from wherever I can find them at good prices, but westfloridacomponents is a good source of a variety of values:

    http://stores.ebay.co.uk/West-Florida-Components

    For the uF size axial electrolytics there are a number of sellers on eBay who you should be able to pick some up from.

    Vero I usually just buy locally but there's a seller in Canada who do big boards at very reasonable prices:

    http://stores.ebay.co.uk/pixel-print-ltd

    but they seem to be away on holiday at the moment.

    You can get tagboard from here:

    http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250716864481

    which should be enough to make several effects.

    For pots, no one is cheaper than Futurlec, $0.55 each means you can get stocked up on the useful sizes for not a great deal of money.

    For silicon transistors you can get them cheap enough from Futurlec, but dpi4parts on eBay have got good prices too:

    http://stores.ebay.co.uk/dpi4parts

    For germanium, just do a search on eBay for Russian germanium. You can get them for bargain prices compared to NOS Newmarket and some of them sound really good. Some of the ones I like are GT308V, GT402B (both PNP) and MP38A (NPN), for non Russian germanium you can get 2N404 pretty cheaply.

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  3. wailinonatele28 January 2012 at 15:51

    Awesome effect. I thought it didn't work at first, but i was playing into a clean channel and it was very subtle. U have to have some type of fuzz/overdrive and play on the neck pickup. Thanks for the diagram.

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    Replies
    1. IvIark28 January 2012 at 17:12

      Yes I thought something was wrong at first too! :o) It's a lot more obvious on the neck pickup with the tone right down and above the 12 fret.

      Delete
  4. whoisthattotoro27 May 2012 at 21:47

    Built it. Sounds good. Super quiet? Should have tried to match my diodes. Boosted with a fuzz or overdrive makes it morebetterish. Thanks.

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    1. mirosol27 May 2012 at 21:59

      I have built this too (it's addon board for something else) and it's not quiet.. I measured some diodes, but didn't bother to match them 1:1. Can't remember the forward voltages though.

      I suggest checking everything just in case..
      +m

      Delete
  5. Unknown11 July 2012 at 17:50

    I just built this one, made it work, got octave effect.
    But... Slightly noisy (white noise) and the strange part...it's recieving radio transmissions. When I turn the guitar in different angles i get different radio channels??? Nice FX though :).

    Any ideas?

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    Replies
    1. IvIark11 July 2012 at 20:50

      Are there any decent songs on the radio you can play along to? Absolute bargain, an effect and accompaniment in the same box! :o)

      I didn't have any problems like that when I built it, is it in a metal box and is everything grounded ok? You could try putting a 10K resistor in series with the input wire which should help.

      Delete
  6. Unknown25 August 2012 at 22:11

    I just completed mine and it works great.
    I spended a few minutes matching the diodes (1n4148) and the resistors.
    It works great couse i seem to get more wet signal than the other who have built this. It's also completly silent (No background noise). and i dont get any radio interference either.

    Now it's on my desk waiting to get boxed :)

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  7. agitprop23 January 2013 at 07:49

    How do I match forward voltage of diodes? I did recently get an Atlas DCA55, if that helps.

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    Replies
    1. IvIark23 January 2013 at 08:08

      The DCA55 will give you forward voltage if you scroll through the results

      Delete
    2. agitprop31 January 2013 at 22:40

      Thanks Mark! The DCA55 is a godsend. I have been using it like a mad-man in past week ;-)

      Delete
    3. IvIark31 January 2013 at 23:19

      Yes it's excellent isn't it. I'm lazy so I love the fact that I don't even need to get out the datasheet to identify the pins of a transistor. It's especially useful for some older transistors I have like the ME4003 where I just can't find the datasheet.

      Delete
  8. agitprop3 February 2013 at 23:45

    Finished this last night. I adore this circuit--you can make the Green Ringer in under an hour, and it sounds phenomenal. Going on my pedalboard with a bullet.

    I monkeyed around with my pedal chain, trying a variety of effects with the Green Ringer. After a bunch of experimentation, this combo is killing it for me:

    Compressor > Cornish G2 > Green Ringer > Analog Chorus > Reverb > '68 Plexi

    With this setup, the lower end of the neck sounds like a Jupiter-8, and the upper end sounds like singing leprechauns on acid. I am in love.

    And, the G2 and Green Ringer sound like they should never, ever, be apart again. I am definitely going to box them into a single enclosure.

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  9. Bohemian H5 February 2013 at 05:17

    I finally got around to building this. I like it a LOT. I've tried it with a few different types of diodes and I think I like 1N277 for Ge and 1N4148 for Si, so I'm going to try and make a toggle switch to let me switch back and forth between them.

    I'm kind of an idiot as far as switches go. There. I said it. I am Switch Retarded.

    What's got me thinking is with the diodes sharing the same hole, I'm not exactly sure how to wire them to a switch properly.

    Here's what I'm thinking, if someone smarter than me could maybe confirm (forgive the crude graphic.. it's late, I'm brain-dead from work, etc):

    Visualize a DPDT on/on toggle switch...

    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3078710/diode_switch_greenringer.jpg

    Thanks in advance :)


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  10. Unknown6 February 2013 at 13:56

    I built this and it's octaving quite nicely, except its very very quiet (I have to have it at 7 on a HRD III, which would normally blow my head off) and a bit quacky and farty. Any ideas as to why it's like this?

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  11. paulhimin25 May 2013 at 07:56

    Green ringer after or before overdrive?

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  12. Misha28 August 2013 at 00:42

    What exactly does the 1m5 resistor do? I'm not seeing it on a lot of schematics, and some have a higher value resistor there. I don't have any 1m5 resistors, so can I use another value for it?

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    Replies
    1. IvIark28 August 2013 at 00:54

      It's a pulldown resistor which is used to prevent or reduce pops. You can use anything from 1M to 10M.

      Delete
    2. Misha29 August 2013 at 05:25

      Thanks for the help with that. I'm having a bit of trouble with the final circuit though. The effect kills my volume, and the octave up is almost nonexistant. Any idea on what this might be and how to fix it? I used 1n34 diodes, which I matched, and all the soldering joints look OK from what I can tell.

      Delete
  13. cylens19 January 2014 at 10:46

    my build of the green ringer:
    http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/30/syz7.jpg

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  14. Unknown22 January 2015 at 02:40

    Is there a way to reduce the low end roll off?

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  15. Emmett Brown6 February 2015 at 03:08

    My LED flashes then burns out when I hit the footswitch. I've only got one left for now. The LED is connected to the switch rather than the board, and I have a 10k resistor after the dc jack. The same thing happened when I built a different pedal, but I recently removed the battery connector from the circuit, and the LED doesn't burn out on that one now. I guess my question is would having the LED connected to the footswitch rather than the board on the Green Ringer be the reason it is burning out? Or am I doing something else wrong. I've gone over the circuit and everything seems to be wired the same as my other effects that do work (as in the LEDs light up). Can anyone help?

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous18 March 2015 at 08:33

      I got one to work with an led and the others that failed also burned out my led lights ..I had some nice 3 dolalrs ones with the bevel and all ..sucks

      Delete
  16. Anonymous12 March 2015 at 14:35

    I cant get this to work ...i guess i will try one more time..my 4th time

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous13 March 2015 at 10:02

      got it to work, its badass !

      Delete
  17. matthewtdunn17 March 2015 at 15:36

    Anyone use LED's on theirs instead of Si or Ge diodes?

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  18. Anonymous18 March 2015 at 08:31

    well i tried another one , I got one out of 5 to work ..this time I went for it with my Mojo parts ..so wish me luck, I am going to give it a test soon

    http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=110402.msg1012435#msg1012435

    ReplyDelete
  19. Unknown5 December 2015 at 20:08

    if I use a DPDT and a millenium bypass, where do I connect the cable LED +?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown8 December 2015 at 05:38

      someone can answer me? please

      Delete
    2. Zach8 December 2015 at 06:11

      assuming you're using the vero layout, just look at the layout for the board and it tells you.

      http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2014/01/millennium-bypass-2.html

      anode to the top row, cathode to the 2nd row right below.

      Delete
    3. Unknown8 December 2015 at 19:57

      thanks, is the first pedal I build .... I've always too many doubts :)

      Delete
  20. Unknown9 December 2015 at 12:52

    I had a different scheme

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  21. BetterOffShred18 December 2015 at 04:49

    I built this the other day, but the version with a filter mod, and it works like a dream. I used the 2n3904 led circuit, which recommends 330k resistors .. but I breadboard it with bc337 and got the led circuit to work with 220k-460k. This pedal sounds awesome and the filter mod is worth a look. It seems to diminish the effect a little but it seems to work on cleaner tones.. not sure how it works. Great pedal

    ReplyDelete
  22. Jack Canaan29 November 2018 at 23:29

    Hey! Thanks for the layout it looks awesome.

    I'm trying to find a veroboard to fit a somewhat modified version of this scheme on, but I've never used one before...enclosure size isn't a big factor as I'm going to fit this in with two other circuits, and I'm assuming standard 2.5mm hole diameter will work for pretty much any components I need...do I need a stripper tool or will a 1/8th inch drill bit work fine? What else do I need specifically for veroboard builds?

    ReplyDelete
  23. Laxref17 March 2024 at 02:43

    I built this and it worked perfectly until I tried to box it. It works well thru the second transistor but falls flat at the 3rd. I have 9 volts on the collector, 4.5 on the base and get 4.5 on the emitter. Oscilloscope shows output less than input. Help!

    ReplyDelete

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