Saturday 16 November 2013

Jen HF Modulator / Gretsch Playboy

Now get your irons out and build it. Place your favourite fuzz in front of it and get ready for some psychedelic brain melting action. The circuit is the same in both, Jen HF Modulator and Gretsch Playboy. For this layout, i've once again swapped the transistor pinout to match your everyday devices. Original has 2N5172 general amplifier transistors in it, but 2N5088, 2N3904 and many others are very close to those in their specs. If you want to use the original ones, just mind the pinout. I've also added series polarity protection diode and pulldown resistors for in and out to prevent your circuit from popping when switched on and off.



Here's a little dcemo clip of my build:


Posted by at 18:17
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42 comments:

  1. Travis16 November 2013 at 21:39

    Looks like a fun and cheap build. I think I'll get parts for it in my next order

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  2. Bohemian H17 November 2013 at 01:33

    Pretty effin cool Miro. I was just looking yesterday for a new project. My poor little Green Ringer (no slight, great pedal) had no brothers or sisters, so I was digging for another ring modulator and saw the Prescription Clean blah, but wasn't overly impressed and then Boom, here this is today.

    You and Mark are rockstars. I'm only half joking there. You guys are bringing the pedal building madness to the masses :D :D

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    1. Bohemian H17 November 2013 at 01:40

      BTW, posting with my Google+ account has caused my name on here to change about three times now, but I've been hanging here a while now and I think I've built so many pedals that I run the risk of the guys with straightjackets coming after me.

      All kidding aside, I'm more of a recording musician than a live player... however I'm also a bit of a luddite and never quite got on with magical stuff like digital effects units and rackmounted hoodoo-voodoo and protools with all it's mindboggling gooberishness... Pedals, however, I get. So you guys have opened a whole big bag of musical whoopass for me.

      Delete
  3. Dave18 November 2013 at 09:44

    This looks like a cool build, never even heard of those pedals before either. Will give this a go at some point.
    Cheers
    Dave

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  4. Unknown18 November 2013 at 23:46

    Any chance of a REAL ring modulator vero - you know, one with diodes, transformers and yikes! an oscillator.
    That would be cool.

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  5. onthetundra19 November 2013 at 19:20

    Not working. Going over schematic now.

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    1. mirosol19 November 2013 at 20:01

      Yes working. I built it before posting the layout. Just didn't tag it.
      +m

      Delete
    2. mirosol19 November 2013 at 20:04

      It's per analogguru's schem, not the bad one. Bad one works too, but the tone control is unusable.
      +m

      Delete
    3. onthetundra20 November 2013 at 16:51

      Are you sure the top transistor is oriented correctly?

      Delete
    4. mirosol20 November 2013 at 19:50

      Yes i am. Emitter to ground and collector to second 220n output cap... Now that's interesting...

      Or actually not.

      I think i need to drop a line to analogguru. The Q3 is definitely wrong in his schematic.

      This one has the tone control completely wrong, but works otherwise:
      http://experimentalistsanonymous.com/diy/Schematics/Phasers/Jen%20HF%20Modulator.gif

      And this one i used as a reference to AG's schem:
      http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/pdf/ggg_jen_hf_mod.pdf?phpMyAdmin=78482479fd7e7fc3768044a841b3e85a

      So yeah. AG has a mistake on the Q3 pins.
      +m

      Delete
    5. Norwichbadger22 November 2013 at 19:42

      FWIW it appears that Intense 2 and 3 are transposed.

      Delete
  6. Travis20 November 2013 at 04:28

    So is this thing more of a really really fast trem than an actual ring mod?

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    1. mirosol20 November 2013 at 06:26

      Actually it is a lot closer to "real" ring mod. There's an phase shifting oscillator that beats the output. I would say it''s not even close to a tremolo.
      +m

      Delete
  7. Unknown21 November 2013 at 00:11

    The first video is a demo i have posted some time ago...the Jen HF Modulator, that little farting bleeper *______________*
    Please check also some other vintage fx trial at:
    http://www.youtube.com/user/psychupmelodies
    and greetings from Italy!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. zha rikudo24 November 2013 at 15:06

    Hi, I have some problems, I have 500k linear pot and i want to change it to 500k log / reverse log. because pot log and reverse log are rare in my country. can you help me please. ? how's the method ? thanks .. :D
    I dont understand from geofex.com/potscret.htm . please help..

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    1. mirosol24 November 2013 at 17:01

      This is hardly right place for this question (try forum next time), but i'll answer anyway...

      You can't change the taper without altering the resistance value. That geofex page tells you everything, but i'll simplify it a bit - To get 500K log, you'll need a 1M pot and a 1M resistor. Solder the resistor's other leg to pot lug 1 and the other leg to pot lug 3. Now you have a 500K log pot.
      Another example for fuzz faces - You want 2K pot and 220R resistor between lugs 2 &3. That'll be close to 1K rev log.
      +m

      Delete
  9. Norwichbadger30 November 2013 at 23:12

    I've built this now and it works. It can be verified if Intense 2 and Intense 3 are transposed. It is not very loud unless you drive it with a fuzz but then its great with chromatic type riffs as the effect changes with the notes!

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    1. mirosol1 December 2013 at 15:45

      Fixed and tagged. Cheers.

      Although, the way the Intens pot is wired, it will work perfectly even with those two in reverse.
      +m

      Delete
  10. Goldenmonkeycolor26 January 2014 at 20:35

    I built this and it is working, but i am not getting the amount of depth that is heard in the above demoes. my 2n5088's are all measuring about 525 hfe ballpark. unfortunately i'm out of 2n3904's, did anyone use those?

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    1. Unknown17 March 2014 at 17:32

      lol. sorry. replies down below. still getting used to the forum. curious if you got yours working better.

      Delete
  11. Unknown9 March 2014 at 05:52

    Finished build recently (minus aesthetics). thought i'd share video just uploaded. i made sure to include a link to you guys commending your devotion. anyway, i find this citcuit very usable if you're into 70s proto-metal, i.e. Sabbath, so i made a Stoner Doom/Rock demo. Cheers! http://youtu.be/AOt0ASeR21s

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  12. Unknown9 March 2014 at 05:57

    @Goldenmonkey: I was having issues as well. like pulling teeth. some of the trannies were weak in signal or too muddy. I settled on BC550b's after trying 5088, 5089, 2222, MPSA18, and combinations of each. Its very gritty and colored, but usable now. also the depth is much mor responsive. hope it helps!

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  13. Unknown9 March 2014 at 06:01

    i found the 3904s to sound the least desirable. particularly weak, but i also play heavily distorted most the time...so my opinion/ear may be a bit one-directional.

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  14. Anonymous25 April 2014 at 04:28

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  15. Cinek27 May 2014 at 20:38

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  16. Cinek3 July 2014 at 20:13

    sorry..., volume pot or trimmer to lower volume a few dB. If I use this effect in loop I hear boost signal.

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    1. IvIark3 July 2014 at 20:27

      Add a volume trimmer like at the bottom the the Offboard Wiring page. If you're getting bleed through though then how have you wired the bypass for your loops? If you haven't done it I'd recommend wiring up the loop switches as per the first diagram on the Offboard Wiring page, which will ground the effect input during bypass which should mute the effect and so avoid noise bleed through.

      Delete
    2. Cinek4 July 2014 at 14:21

      thanks, I'll check this soon ;)

      Delete
  17. JL5 August 2014 at 13:38

    Posting again, in case first attempt didn't work -

    Noticed that vero above uses a 220uF electro. cap, whereas the GGG version uses a 47uF electro (which I just built.)

    What difference to sound would this make, if any?

    Also, found that I prefer the 5172's over the others; less "woofy".

    Thanks for your help. LOVE the site! (a Pink Purple is up next!)

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    1. mirosol5 August 2014 at 13:55

      That capacitor doesn't affect the sound. It's there only to filter out the power supply ripple effect, which may cause some circuits to emit hiss. Basically any value would do fine in that spot.
      +m

      Delete
  18. ericstuart22 August 2014 at 04:20

    Hey! I just built this. After a few mistakes, like not checking the pinouts on my the transistors I used, I got it working. When I hooked it up to test the circuit it sounded awesome; it didn't color my tone too much, it was reasonably loud, and it was working great. However, after I boxed it up and plugged it in, it changed considerably. It SUCKS tone and has very little volume. To make it even work reasonably I have to crank a fuzz or a booster in front of it. With that said, even when it is off it kills my tone and I have to keep a booster on.

    Any idea what might have caused the change? What about the hook-up could even make it change in character this much?

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    Replies
    1. mirosol22 August 2014 at 06:44

      Boxing the circuit should not affect its sound at all. I'm thinking you must have something wrong with the outboard wiring.
      +m

      Delete
  19. Unknown18 February 2015 at 17:55

    Hey guys, I dont get any modulation out of it, just the tone control works. Do you know what the problem could be?

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    Replies
    1. Unknown17 August 2020 at 23:47

      Have the same problem

      How do you solve it?

      Delete
  20. Unknown19 February 2015 at 14:36

    works now, somebody from the forum ointed me out that the 220k resistor at the bottom right was missing, now its great

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    Replies
    1. Thorj3 June 2018 at 19:30

      Hey John! I have the same black magic problem — only tone control works and nothing more. Please, can you give me more details about how to fix this bug?

      Delete
    2. Unknown30 August 2020 at 08:25

      Same problem
      How can u fix ir?

      Delete
  21. AlexAbroad24 March 2016 at 19:04

    Great effect. Didn't work at first until I realised that I was using PNP transistors by mistake. Swapped in some BC109c left over from a fuzz project and now its all go. Only probably is it's slightly more useful than my expensive moogerfooger...

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  22. Unknown27 November 2019 at 16:13

    Finished building one of these about a week ago, subbing bc109b for the original transistors. 2n2222 worked well, also, but preferred the bc's. I put it in a combo pedal with a distortion/fuzz circuit first, HD modulator second, and I absolutely love it! Thanks so much for this! Highly recommend to anyone that likes ring mods, crazy fuzz sounds, or getting weird. Thanks again!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Mulekicker30 January 2020 at 15:30

    Mine's working ok but its not unity volume. Anyone know of a way to boost it without adding an actual boost?

    ReplyDelete

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