Info about the original:
The original JangleBox compressor/sustainer is the pedal that captured the clean, bright ringing chime popularized by the Beatles, enhanced by the Byrds, and integrated into the sonic palettes of so many contemporary groups.
Ten years and thousands of satisfied customers
later, there was no reason to reinvent the wheel, but we did add some
subtle tweaks that make this unique pedal even better: a more stable IC
chip, a more standardized power polarity and an enclosure that sits a
bit closer to your pedal board.
Best of all, we brought the JangleBox home.
Handmade in the USA once again, this simple plug-in/play compression
pedal creates a bold sustain that will give your Ric, Tele, Gretsch,
Strat — whatever the guitar — remarkable presence. Unlike pedals that
clip or distort the original signal, the JangleBox expands the
compression “sweet spot” to maintain a clean, even tone, with true
bypass.
Compact and powerful, the JangleBox is ruggedly
constructed for demanding pros and aspiring artists alike. Whether
you’re looking to get that Beatles/Byrds chime and jangle, never-ending
slide sustain, Nashville “squish,” or just a big, clean boost, the
JangleBox delivers the distinctive compression edge.
Sweet! I have all the parts for this except the IC.
ReplyDeleteI think this should sound pretty good with my rickenbacker and ac30 theoretically
Perfect combination
DeleteIf you have a Rick and an AC30, I wouldn't think you'd need much help to get a Beatles/Byrds sound ;-)
DeleteWhat's the trimmer for?
ReplyDeleteYes it is base, I had to tweak the positioning of the 470p, 8K2 and 10M to get them to fit in without needing an extra column so I've ended up going to the wrong transistor pin
ReplyDeleteExcitedly built this up this afternoon. Last thing to do as always - fit th chip in the socket...
ReplyDeleteNoooo! empty tube of CA3080s.
Oh well, should get it working Tuesday or Wednesday when some more arrive!
That's why I had to stock up so much, I really hated the idea of wanting to build something and find the cupboard bare. Although I've probably taken it all a bit far now! :o)
DeleteDid you notice the 470p should be connected to the base rather than collector?
Not working I'm afraid. (Yes I've altered the 470p cap.) Attack works as a volume control, and the bright setting sounds the same as flat. All sounds dull and lifeless.
DeleteDouble checked all my components and placements, and everything looks ok.
I'm geeting some odd voltages, so I'll list them:
Q1: E - 1.89v
B - 2.28
C - 8.9
Q2: E - 2.5
B - 2.9
C - 6.4
Q3: E- 0.0
B - 0.0
C - 7.6
Q4: E - 0.0
B - 0.0
C - 7.9
Q5: E - 7.8
B - 7.9
C - 8.9
Any ideas?
I've just noticed an error. I used the Dyna Comp as a template for this and as such skimmed over certain parts which looked to be identical, assuming that was the case. But on closer examination the 2u2 cap from Q1 emitter actually goes to the non inverting input rather than inverting in the Dyna Comp. To fix that put a cut between the trimmer and the top of the 2u2 and just take a bit of wire from the top of the 2u2 to that free hole next to pin 3. See if that fixes it and I'll keep checking it over in the meantime.
DeleteTag it.
DeleteThat's done the trick, now it sounds awesome! I have a Visualsound Route 66 (that I love) to compare it to, and it ticks my boxes.
I'm one of those guys that like their compressors hot and greasy, I've never heard a "transparent" compressor that i like.
Thanks for the help again Mark.
Awesome, thanks for verifying matey. I'll post the re-jigged version now
DeleteThe "warm/flat/bright" switch works really well - the warm setting is suprisingly lush.
DeleteYes I thought it sounded really nice in the clip
DeleteI'm lucky enough to have a Rickenbacker 12 string in at the moment for a set up. This pedal makes it sound God-like through my Trace Elliot Velocette!
DeleteI'm more than happy with this one, and subtlely different from either a Dyna Comp or a Ross. It's like fairy dust - sprinkled sparkle, caressed by angels.
Beaker I have the Visual Sound route 66 too and I just built the Keeley 4 knob to try to replace it to save some room on my board and was pretty disappointed. Route 66 adds a certain something so maybe I don't like transparent either. Looks like I'm going to have to give this one a shot!
DeleteHello.
DeleteWould this benefit from an 18v charge pump or not?
Jeff
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DeleteThere's nothing about voltage mentioned on the manufacturers website that I could see, but the ICs can take it so as long as you've used appropriately rated capacitors then it's always worth a try. This is one of the reasons I really recommend people build a charge pump into a small standalone box with just a 9V and 18V out DC socket. It means you can put it in line with any effect just to see what you think. You'll never damage anything as long as you check the IC and cap ratings.
DeleteThis is a modded Dyna Comp too, just like the Keeley so they will definitely have similarities even with their respective mods.
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DeleteDid anyone find any use for the trimmer? Don't know what i'm supposed to be calibrating here. No audibly perceivable difference when tweaking so I've left the trimmer at 12 o'clock.
ReplyDeleteThis is an absolutely amazing compressor by the way, everyone who has tried it fricken loves it.
The trimmer balances the bias currents of the OTA inputs and dead centre would be the correct setting. If it is imbalanced you may find some settings are noisier. I don't really see the point in using a trimmer at all, two resistors would do the job perfectly
DeleteWhoops i didn't see this reply, thanks Mark. I just went back on here to ask a question because i have made another one of these and I'm getting a very faint flabby sound. Trimmer all the wqay clockwise gives me the most sound, but its literally just like the signal is just cracking through or something. Attack works, but it reduces these sounds to nothing when hit hard, but really quiet playing somewhat produces a nearly clean sound.
DeleteMy voltages:
Q1
e) 0
b) 0.2
c) 8.09
Q2
c) 8.08
b) 3.91 (took a few seconds to drop down from about 6V)
e) 6.75 (also took time to steady)
Q3
c) 3.91
b) 0
e) 0
Q4
c) 3.91
b) 0
e) 0
Q5
e) 1.67
b) 1.85
c) 6.33
I have avoided bothering you for troubleshooting help at all costs, but this one is just not coming to life. I have made 4 of these before. I changed what i thought was a faulty electrolytic, replaced the trannies and the IC, no go.
Solving the problem when trouble shooting for hours is like waking up from a bad dream and realising you didn't go to school naked. Best feeling. I mistakenly had put a 3k3 instead of 33k near the top left, completely threw the whole thing out, and sometimes the red strip on resistors look brown so it took forever to realise.
ReplyDeleteHey Sean ;)
DeleteI have Many noiser in bright positiom and max compresión , someone idea? Thsnks you
ReplyDeleteI put this together a few days ago and gigged with it last night. First the substitutions and there are many!!
ReplyDeleteAttack became a 500K and output 100K
The trimmer was replaced with two 470r resistors tied together for the wiper point.
the 3080 was replaced for a 13700 on a daughterboard with fly wires to the 3080 as per Marks conversion board found here http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/emma-transmorgrifier.html
All 5088s replaced with BC549C
At max attack it seriously pumps! Almost like the Slow Gear but with the initial pick attack before the OTA clamps down. The Release time is fixed and quite slow. But bear in mind I've used twice the stated value for this pot.
Theres plenty of output even at max squish so a 100K volume pot is plenty in my setup.
At more useable positions this comp really sings! The tone switch is very useable although the Up position is a bit too dark for me so I'll look into replacing its cap.
The Bright position the great! Country twang no matter what guitar you use. Yes, at Max comp in the bright position there is some background noise...but thats to be expected due to whats going on so I wouldn't worry too much about it.
Last night I tried it on some funk tunes and it worked best with medium attack on the centre position. Really made the string scratch stand out. Very authentic sound.
All in all.....I'm very pleased and once again cheers to Mark, Miro and all who comment.
Ciaran
I'm feeling silly.. I had built this before but made a lot of subs and it didn't sound right. Now I just did a total rebuild and it still isn't working :P With the volume all the way up I can very very faintly hear the compressed signal through my amp so it seems to be working but I borked it again somewhere. Probably a cold joint or maybe I missed a joint. Hard to figure out where though. Audio probe time!
ReplyDeleteAnyone use a 91K resistor for this? I'm not able to find 92k resistors :(
ReplyDeleteomg... Didn't think of wiring in Series..... sorry =X
DeleteOr look up 'parallel resistor calculator', that could also be an option.
DeleteWith my audio probe I'm getting a clean signal from pins 2 and 3. When I probe pin 6, I get the signal, but it's crackly and choppy. The attack knob doesn't do anything.
ReplyDeleteI'm getting 5.3v for both pins 2 and 3.
Getting 7.3v for q1
I didn't bother measuring the other resistors because it seems like the issue is happening before the IC, so thought either way I'd get incorrect voltages for the other trannies.
One last clue, to get a signal out of the pedal I have to attack my strings hard!
Any help is much appreciated!
***q1: 9.3v, 7.3v, 7.3v
Delete***I didn't bother measuring the other transistors...
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DeleteFor those having issues, have you tried switching the IC? I haven't, but I ordered a NT996 and am going to try. I had a CA3080... E.... inside, but not 100% sure.
ReplyDeleteIt's been sitting on my work bench for months, but am going to give that shot.
Will post what I find!
Switching out to an NT996 didn't do it for me :'(
DeleteHi Jonathan, did you have any success? I'm trying audio probe. I can get signal from Switch 1, but seem to lose it after that. Not sure where the signal goes after that? Any advice please?
DeleteHi there, just wondering if anyone might be able to provide some clues please?
DeleteP1 0
P2 2.89
P3 2.89
P4 0
P5 0.64
P6 0.62
P7 9.35
P8 0
Q1 E 1.86, B 2.24, C 9.35
Q2 E 0.11, B 0.62, C 9.22
Q3 E 0, B 0 C 8.4
Q4 E 0, B 0, C 8.4
Q5 E 8.67, B 5.5, C 9.35
As mentioned above, I'm getting signal at pins 2 & 3, but nothing at pin 6
DeleteYou've made an error somewhere. You can always take a couple of good photos of both sides of the board and post them up on the Debugging section of the forum. Then we can see if we cn spot what's wrong.
DeleteAnd swapped out the CA3080E for another of the same
DeleteOh ok. Many thanks. I wasn't aware of the debugging section. Oops :-)
DeleteTurns out I must have bought from a bad batch of CA3080E's. I bought 2 and both were bad! It was only that I'd previously built the Keeley Comp and borrowed the LM3080 out of that, I discovered! Buyer and builder beware :-)
ReplyDeleteBTW the forum is a great help for those in need of troubleshooting assistance!
After lot's of troubleshooting im beginning to think it's possible my ca3080e's are dodgey. i have 10 and switched a few in and out without any change.
DeleteAfter tracing the signal from input with an audio prob it is passing the IC however quite distorted. any insight would be tops!
Hi. In Q3,Q4,and perhaps Q5 low hfe is equal to more compression?
ReplyDeleteI'd like to get more compression.
Hi!
ReplyDeleteThe 92k resistor is really this value or is it a typo? Maybe 82k?
Thanks!
Just finished my second attempt at this. Managed to screw up the first version and decided to go back and rebuild from scratch. This time, it fired up first time and my oh my, how sweet it sounds. I messed with a couple of resistor values (replaced 92k with 100k because that was the nearest value I had) and maybe this has cleaned the signal up a bit but either way, it sounds lovely and the tone switch makes a huge difference - lots of applications for that (like switching between neck/bridge on Tele or using a Les Paul). I have two Origin Effects compressors and to be frank, this little bugger gives them both a run for their money and they cost almost £500 between them. Looks like a pedal sale coming on...........
ReplyDeleteThanks again Ivlark and the other folks involved here - really getting up confidence building and my knowledge of and familiarity with key components/dynamics is growing all the time. All I need to do now is start using the bloody things..........
Hi guys, I just built this and it works
ReplyDeleteThe gain pot is actually a volume pot right ? I have unity when pot all the way CW is that right ? I might raise it to 500k
And turning the trimmer both ways doesn't change anything is that also right ?
The tone switch is very effective that's a great feature
Thanks !
Hi mate, yes the Gain pot is just a conventional volume control at the end of the circuit. Janglebox sell a boost pedal which they describe as the companion to their compressor. They mention that it's difficult to have a louder output volume because of the way Attack and Gain control interact, so what you're describing sounds like it is as expected to me. Having said that I seem to remember the Dynacomp would go quite loud and that only has a 50K volume pot. Instead of the 2u2 and 92K resistor to the pot it has a 50nF and 10K so that may be something worth looking at if you want to tweak it, although then you are moving it that bit further away from being a Janglebox.
DeleteThe trimmer tweaks the bias of the OTA's differential inputs and I think you'd pretty much just leave it in the middle position unless you are getting noise from the OTA. If you're not just set middle and forget.
Hi Mark, thank you for your answer !
DeleteThe pedal is now boxed and I love it, the kind of effect that will always be on. I ended with a 500k for the attack and a 1M for the volume, which now goes a little bit beyond unity and that's perfect for me.
As for the trimmer, I really do not hear any difference so I set it full CW which removes almost all the noise, great !
Cheers
Denis
All my builds have been working with this layout, and now i see this comment-so should the 470p be on the collector really?
ReplyDeleteHi Mark
ReplyDeleteI'm new to this and want to have a go at building the Janglebox but I note that there was a error on your original diagram (and I didn't understand your instructions for correcting it) so I'm wondering if you ever produced a corrected diagram?
Dave
Hi- Is there a schematic for this board? Anybody?
ReplyDeleteI think this was the one I used:
Deletehttps://ibb.co/kMr1b2q
Just built this and it sounds great. The only thing I don’t like is the noise using the bright position. It’s even there when attack is set at zero. Is that normal? Would increasing the 470pf cap lower the amount of high boost?
ReplyDeleteI Like to built this Janglebox too. I do have a Rickbacker 370/12 RM ans I hope this pedal gives me the bright sound that Roger McGuinn has. Can anybody tell meif the schematic as publised at https://ibb.co/kMr1b2q is correct. IvIark maybe? I read in this blog an issue with C11 to the non-inverting input of NTE996.
ReplyDeleteI will use the NTE966 voltage controled gain IC.
The original Janglebox, with the red J, has a three way toneswitch: Dark, Normal and Bright. In the schematic is a two way switch. So there are two positions: Dark and Bright. Is there another schematic with the 3 way switch?
I'm pretty sure that draft V0.3 is the version I did the layout from. It's obviously going back a few years so I don't remember exactly, but I had V0.2 and V0.3 in my saved schematics folder and it would have been unusual for me to have both but do the layout from the earlier schematic.
DeleteI haven't seen a schematic for the 3 way switch version so am not sure exactly what it did differently.