The Wampler Tweed 57 is the heart and soul of a mids 50s Fender Tweed amp. Just think Eric Clapton playing Layla: that tiny Fender pushed to the absolute limit for that crunchy yet 100% Fender tone.
We all know that when you need a pedal that nails the sound of an amp there's only one place to turn: Brian Wampler obsessively A/B tests his boutique pedals with the real deal to make sure that the tone is nailed, especially the details that other amp emulators miss like the way the overdrive reacts to gentle playing or rolled off volume/tone.
As well as EQ and Gain controls the Wampler Tweed 57 features an input simulator, an important detail for getting the authentic fender sound!
We all know that when you need a pedal that nails the sound of an amp there's only one place to turn: Brian Wampler obsessively A/B tests his boutique pedals with the real deal to make sure that the tone is nailed, especially the details that other amp emulators miss like the way the overdrive reacts to gentle playing or rolled off volume/tone.
As well as EQ and Gain controls the Wampler Tweed 57 features an input simulator, an important detail for getting the authentic fender sound!
My god that pedal sounds good! Can't wait to try it out!
ReplyDeleteNo way, I sold an original about a month ago, I couldn't like it at all. I was expecting sonic bliss but it was 'Oh right, that's it then' but hey, one mans rubbish and all that....
ReplyDeleteOh really? Well videos can be very deceiving!
DeleteWell that was just my take on it. Others will definitely love it.
DeleteYou know you're going to build one again just to add switches. Why fight it? Hee hee
Deletelol..There'd be about 20 possible switches amongst all that lot. I'm weary of Wamlper after my Plexidrive trauma!. i've been trying to find more 'metal' pedals like the Krank etc but they're mostly massive pcb's.
DeleteWell, it's one of those jfet tube simulacrums tweaked to the nines. I bet it matters a whole lot on your amp setup. The youtube kicks butt, though. Sweet.
ReplyDeleteAny pedal where the demo vid starts off with Bryan Adams has got to be awesome! :o)
ReplyDeleteI noticed a small connection error on Q6 which has now been corrected so make sure you get the updated version if you're making this.
ReplyDeleteI noticed the schematic I did this from definitely had some of the lug number backwards (volume and gain were both the opposite of what you would expect), so I thought that was because the original used solder side board mounted pots where the numbering is reversed and so used the opposite numbers for all the EQ pots too. But it uses a Marshall tone stack like the Distortus Maximus and looking at that layout I think you're right, the Treble and Mids pot seem to be reversed. I'll correct the layout so thanks for the heads up.
DeleteJust don't listen to those pro guitar shop demos. That dude could make a ukulele plugged into a potato sound good ;)
ReplyDeleteI really like this pedal. Congratulations. The key is an on/on/on or on/off/on? One suggestion is to look pedal EH Magnum 44...
ReplyDeleteIt's the on/off/on type
DeleteNo way. Was just thinking about how cool it would be to make this. Let me know when you find a black 65 schem. Desperate for that one too! Awesome stuff man.
ReplyDeleteFinished this last night, I presume like most pedals of this type the drain voltage of the jfets should be around the 4.5v mark, managed 4.5 to 4.6 for q1-q5, q6 is 8.88v which I presume is ok. Pedal is pretty noisy, hissing increases when you increase the treble and to a lesser extent with the mids. Might be quieter when it's boxed.
ReplyDeletedexxyy, I realize your post was 18 months ago, but in case anyone else has some hissing, this is what my experience was today:
DeleteThis was my 2nd '57 build and this one had a hiss to it, my 1st one was dead quiet.
Then I remembered I had found a dependency between the layout here and the schematic. There is a 1K resistor listed on the vero layout just before the gain pot that I believe should be 10k. I swapped it out for the 10k and the hiss is gone. I'm not 100% sure that was the issue because I also re-soldered the connection to SW1. But it was definitely one of the two.
The pedal sounds great and is super quiet. Drains at 4.5v. No other changes to the vero other than the 10k resistor.
I built it and mine kinda sounds like ass. I'll go over it again but Im not sure where the problem lies.
ReplyDeleteI may be biased against J201s, but if you have more of them, you could try swapping them around...
Delete+m
Hate to say 'I told you so'... This pedal does sound like 'arse' My original sounded that way too.
DeleteYou may want to measure the drain of all the FETs. Brian has said that the drain voltage of Q1 to Q5 should be as close to 4.5V as possible. He also said it was important that none are under 4.5V so I don't think this requires critical biasing, just make sure you're getting at least 4.5V from those fets, or swap and change as necessary.
ReplyDeleteYou have schematic?
ReplyDeletefreestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=17919
Deletei just built this one today. after swapping the J201's around (out of my batch of 25 of them) and trying to get them in the 4.5V range, i ended up having to change two of the 22K bias reistors to a 16K for Q4 & Q5, and an 18K for Q2 & Q3. it now bias's perfect and sounds great. i own two tweed deluxe amps (a '55 and a '57) and IMO, Brian did a nice job of capturing the amp's 'looseness'. of course it can also go way beyond one distortion-wise, but IMO, if you dial it in just right, you can get a clean blackface fender amp to emulate a tweed deluxe very well.
ReplyDeletenow i'm hoping that Mark will come up with the Wampler Black '65 vero, since that's one that i'd REALLY like to make.
Watch this space John, it's in the queue and will probably be done some time this week.
DeleteI also had to reduce the values of the 22K resistors going to (Q2,Q3)and (Q4,Q5) to make this pedal sound like a Tweed Deluxe. Thanks to John Kallas Comments above. Cheers.
ReplyDeleteAny plans to do the sovereign?
ReplyDeleteMark
ReplyDeleteIs there a way to reduce the gain on this one ? Even with the gain knob all the way CCW i'm still getting a bit of dirt with humbuckers and i would really like to go from a totally clean sound with the gain off.
Regards
James
Socket the 68K and experiment with the right value to be right for you. Reducing it will reduce the minimum gain.
DeleteThat's great thanks for the quick reply
DeleteJames
I finished this effect today, but I´m not sure if it´s correct. There are almost no bass frequencies coming out of my amp. with the pedal off there is significantly more bass. The pedals eq seems to work properly, but raising the bass pot just makes the signal louder. Has anyone had the same experience with this pedal?
ReplyDeleteI checked all resistors and caps and they are correct. I got the Black 65 too and it´s notably fatter sounding. Could bad jfets cause the problem? because to get them biased, I had to take 5,6K for Q2-Q5 instead of the 22K
ReplyDeleteGOT IT !
ReplyDeleteMan that mistake was hard to find. I forgot the wire from Bass 2&3 to the board...after the connection of treble 1 to Bass 2&3 my brain ticked off the Bass pot. Now the sound is pretty good
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ReplyDeleteWith all pots at mid point and 22k bias resistors, I'm only getting 0.5v on drains of Q2 & Q3 and 0.75 on Q4 & Q5. I have 8.68v on Q6 and 4.25v on Q1 with 16k bias resistor. What am I missing?
ReplyDeleteSounds like normal behaviour for Wampler design with unmatched JFETs. Q6 should be around 9V/supply voltage, but all the rest should be around 4,5V. To get there, try using sockets and swap the FETs untill they all bias correctly. It'll only work when all the drain voltages are correct.
Delete+m
Thanks mirosol,
DeleteSo I built the Greatly Improved JFET Matcher II tonight (no opamp version). Note: I found the off position of the 0n-0ff-0n switch resulted in the same DMM readings as in the VP position. Seems like some others had the same issue, not sure if this build is working properly but here are the "matched" readings I ended up choosing. Also, I assumed I just needed to match Q2 with Q3, and Q4 with Q5 since each pair has it's own 22k biasing resistor?
Vp Idss
Q1 .958 .081
Q2 .822 .062
Q3 .825 .063
Q4 .747 .053
Q5 .745 .054
Q6 .950 .083
Leaving the bias resistors as is, with 8.8VDC power supply I now have the following drain voltage readings.
Q1 3.23V
Q2 0.49V
Q3 0.49V
Q4 1.56V
Q5 1.56V
Q6 8.67V
I noticed if I swap out Q2 & Q3 as a pair with Q4 & Q5, the voltages don't change for Q2 & Q3 positions, but drops from 1.56 to .88 in the Q4 & Q5 positions. Makes me think there is a wiring problem in the Q2 & Q3 part of the circuit but I can't find any.
I haven't tried to tweak the bias resistors yet as .49 seems way off.
Hope someone can help.
Thanks,
Mike
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DeleteI tweaked the drain resistors and now I have about 4.5V on Q1-Q5 drains. (Must have also corrected a short in the process around Q2 & Q3)
DeleteLast issue:
I noticed the 1K resistor directly to the left of Q1 is shown as 10k on the schematic at FreeStompboxes.
http://freestompboxes.org/download/file.php?id=18427&t=1
It's the resistor between the gain pot and the 1n5 cap. The layout indicates 1k, the schematic says 10k.
Which is correct?
Hi,
DeleteHave you tried socketing that resistor, to try 1K vs 10K?
I have no idea which one is in the original design, but experiencing the audible difference (if any) will surely point us to the right direction?
Looking forward to your feedback, as I am putting this one on my to-do list... ^^
Cheers
I didn't socket it, but I went with the 10k.
DeleteIf you look at these two guts shot over at Freestompbox.com, the 2nd resistor above the 500k gain pot has these color bands: Brown, Black, Black, Red, Brown which is 10k.
http://freestompboxes.org/download/file.php?id=18283&mode=view
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7230/7290476402_7a193af469_z.jpg
According to their schematic, it looks like the rest of the circuit from the input to this resistor wasn't altered, so I assumed the 10k should be correct.
OK, cool, I think I'll go for the 10K, too, to follow the schematic.
DeleteThanks
Hey guys, loving the sound of this one right off the bat!!! I'll be reducing the 68k to bring the min. gain down a touch. I had two sets of three matched J201's but to get them where I wanted them would've called for some non-existent values!!! So in the end I used a few trimmers. The only issues I have that can't be solved above is that there is no difference between 'normal' and 'bright' modes. 'Linked' works great! Also the volume goes from unity(or so) and up. Is this normal? I think with the gain adjusted the volume range will improve.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the great work!!!
Thommo.
Ok, all sorted!! I went back and did another continuity test on my cuts and found one cheeky shit had slipped under the radar....lol. Fixed it and now it's working perfectly!!! I'll leave min. gain where it is too because I found I like the dynamics when playing with the guitars vol. backed of a touch.
DeleteMaybe Vince had a dud of an original!!! I can't believe he didn't like this one!!!
Cheers, Thommo.
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ReplyDeleteGreetings from Spain,
ReplyDeleteI´ve built this pedal but it doesn´t sound. Well, it sounds because when I move the pots the sound changes; the mids, the bass, the volum the gain, everything reacts as it´s supposed to do but without the guitar sounding.
I´ve measured the drain voltage and it´s between 4.3 and 4.8 V and the circuit it´s correct.
Could be the problem that range? Should I look for another JFET´s or the problem is anothe I dindn´t notice?
Thank you.
If i understand correctly, based on the schematic (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rX5zkmGnsCY/T9pLFiQz26I/AAAAAAAABcE/QjQE6F38ZJc/s1600/Wampler+Tweed+%252757+-+Schematic.jpg), if you wanted to use trem pots to bias the j201s they would be r14 and r18?
ReplyDeleteAnd R5
Deletemany thanks!!
DeleteIs the copper board two sided or single sided?
ReplyDeleteThe copper is only on one side. Solder to this side, and mount the components on the non-metal side.
DeleteWhat resistor do i change to get more gain?I dont think my J201's are high enough hfe.it sounds good but just doeasnt have enough gain compared to the video my gain maxed out still isnt as hairy as his gain at 9 oclock.
ReplyDeleteThe gain of each stage is the drain resistor value divided by the source resistor value. So if you want to increase gain you'll need to increase drain or decrease source.
DeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteI try to build this tweed57 pedal but I have a problem. It's not my first project : I have already done a Triple Wreck, two OCD, Little secret mk3...
I have followed the tutorial to solve my problem but nothing had changed.
Let me explain the problem : the sound is very... curious, like an hoarse sound. More, the sound of the guitar is very low, and when I play harder, the sound becomes immediatly very loud (like a bad set gate).
Here the values measured on the transistors and the pictures of the vero :
Q1 : D7.20 S8.22 G8.11
Q2 : D8.70 S8.87 G8.28
Q3 : D8.69 S8.88 G8.27
Q4: D8.69 S8.87 G8.46
Q5: D8.69 S8.88 G8.46
Q6: D0.17 S4.30 G3.14
http://lexall.free.fr/diy/WP_20141115_002
http://lexall.free.fr/diy/WP_20141115_004
Q5: D8.69 S8.88 G8.46
Q6: D0.17 S4.30 G3.14
http://lexall.free.fr/diy/WP_20141115_002
http://lexall.free.fr/diy/WP_20141115_004
Thank you for your help.
l still haven't solved my problem. Can someone help me?
DeleteThanks you.
I have solved my problem. For a long time I have looked for a bridge between the lines, or a component at the wrong place. But it wasn't the problem.
DeleteI noticed that changing transistor made the pedal fonctions properly.
I bought on Ebay some J201 for less than 10€, but most of them don't operate well.
Hi thanks for this post- it's been fun to put together. However my build isn't working!!
ReplyDeleteI rushed to test it out without checking my work (I know- measure twice & cut once!) and also connected the positive and negative the wrong way round! Doh!
I've since gone back and made sure my build matches the layout here and all of my solder joints look correct but the circuit just makes a really loud buzz when plugged in. The pots seem to adjust the volume and EQ of the buzz.
Could someone nod me in the right direction of how to troubleshoot my board please? Also are there any components that could have been damaged by reversing the polarity?
Thanks in advance! Jack
So I checked over everything again tonight and found that I hadn't soldered the switch to ground!
DeleteAfter I fixed this it stopped all its hums and buzzes but couldn't hear my guitar signal passing through but the pots still affect the faint sound of hiss as they should.
Here are my readings from the JFETs
D. S. G.
Q1 4.8 0.2 0
Q2. 4.5 3.1 3
Q3 4.6 2.8 2.8
Q4 4.3 0.4 0.6
Q5 4.3 0.6 0
Q6 8.9 4.5 2.9
Can someone confirm if these look normal? If so I will try an audio probe to see what's up!
I just thought I'd post to say I've got my board working. It sounds really great! I guess I had a tiny piece of conductive material on the back of the strip board because after running a small plastic spatula between the strips and brushing off any particles with a paint brush it worked fine.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to gigging it now!
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ReplyDeleteI love this pedal, I've a board for clean sound now, plan to Combination with Dr.boogie into the 1590D for 2ch preamp pedal, about my build R5,14,18 all 15k read on 20k trimmer (gain pot set on 50% to trim Q2,3) and gain3 1k replace by 12k, that it. sharing a shot'before triming'here, not meaning to showoff just a reference if someone need: http://i1244.photobucket.com/albums/gg569/pakkee66/IMG_20170301_111136_HDR_zpskk8dqstc.jpg
ReplyDeleteonce again, thank you so much for the layout, Mark.
First, thanks to Ivalark for taking the time to plan out this pedal!
ReplyDeleteAfter much learning, swapping parts and tweaking - my pedal is done and it sounds very sweet. This one is built with the power circuit on the schematic, but not on the veroboard map. I think it adds some sag when you get on it. I've got a Tweed Deluxe type point to point tube amp and it captures some of the 'almost out of control' spit and sag, but not so much the compression. But hey, I like it that way.
I am new to building pedals and I used 2n5457 JFETs at first. Big mistake. It was like putting in 12AU7's in all the pre-amp positions of a tube amp. I did leave the last one in the post-volume buffer (Q6).
The tone of this really came out when I: tested & matched some really good J201's for the pairs (Q2&Q3, Q4&Q5), replaced the drain resistors with 100K trim pots, set them to 1/2 of Vref using a 9vdc supply (which was really 9.6) then set the Q4&Q5 pair high by 0.3v (or a touch of asymmetry) and replaced the 68K gain resistor with a 100K trimmer, which ended up on 29K.