"Ziggy is a low to medium gain overdrive that is designed to respond like a tube amp. Unlike most overdrives it does not feature a “mojo” opamp but cascaded discrete (MOSFET) gain stages that give ultra touch sensitivity so that you can control everything from your guitar’s volume knob and pick attack.
Gain knob acts as a voicing control adding more bass
as you turn clockwise, choosing from jangly and sparkling clean to thick
crunch of a tube rectified amp . Tone knob behaves as a presence
control adding bite to your tone.
Inside the updated (white and gold version) we have included a two position gain switch. The higher gain setting has extra bite and sustain making perfect for lead sounds and is reminiscent of the now discontinued wine red Stardust"
I would like to thank Ziotasgiorgios for reverse-engineering his own pedal in our forum section and Nocentelli for drawing the schematic!
Thanks also to Hozy31 for verifying the layout!
Inside the updated (white and gold version) we have included a two position gain switch. The higher gain setting has extra bite and sustain making perfect for lead sounds and is reminiscent of the now discontinued wine red Stardust"
I would like to thank Ziotasgiorgios for reverse-engineering his own pedal in our forum section and Nocentelli for drawing the schematic!
Thanks also to Hozy31 for verifying the layout!
And thank you for taking the time to do this. Cheers!
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ReplyDeleteThis is, well, "CRAZY"! I'm going to build this right now. I should study for my electronic exam for tomorrow, but ehy, this is electronics! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you!
By the way... noob question! When I told you that the diodes are bzx55c, how did you know that they are 9v1 and not 3v3 for example? Is there a rule or something I should learn?
ReplyDeleteNocentelli wrote it on the schematic.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure he has a good technical answer for it.
9.1V zeners from gate to source are designed to protect the MOSFETs from static. It's something that has appeared in quite a few pedals with MOSFET gain stages (Catalinbread WIIO comes to mind). A 3.3V zener might actually work in its place (I have seen LEDs used too!), but a 9.1V zener would work better.
DeleteMine seems to be a little too dark and bassy, I can't get some high and bright distortion out of this board.. I'm playing with input and tone caps, any suggestion?
ReplyDeleteChanged these in mine:
Delete- Input cap 100n -> 4n7
- Coupling cap between stage 1 and 2 100n -> 68n/33n
- Tone cap 15n -> 33n
Funny thing most users notice exactly the opposite thing especially with gain on lower settings. You should check your build / wiring or values used.
DeleteChecked everything eheheh Maybe my amp does not sound like the one used in the clip, that's a great stompbox anyway! :)
DeleteThank you ;-)
DeleteI havent had the time to build it yet, so i can't compare it to my original. Tomorrow I will hack it open for a third time and i will recheck all capacitor values. Stay tuned
ReplyDeleteCan anyone suggest a reason for having static protection diodes for only 2 of the 3 BS170s?
ReplyDeleteI think you have protection only on the two BS170s that are linked to the switch because of a risk of impulse during the commutation (?)
DeleteAh, thankyou, that makes sense. Cheers.
DeleteFirst mosfet needs static protection from almost everything you can imagine :-) and indeed second one because of a risk of a spike during switching
DeleteThankyou - people are really helpful here - so the 3rd mosfet is far enough away from the outside world to be safe, whilst the other two are in the firing line, so to speak?
DeleteYap. We've built lots of them and so far no mosfets were fried so I guess 3rd mosfet is out of the firing line.
DeleteDon't use a stun gun near the pedal though
Might be a weird question, but how clean does it sound with the gain all the way down?
ReplyDeleteI uploaded a recording of the pedal. (Telecaster both pickups, Randall swinger '75, shure sm57, cubase).
DeleteActually i was wrong. The gain knob has an "off" position at fully CCW, but as soon as you touch it and turn it just a little it goes immediately from no sound to the first sound you hear on the clip (the one i am considering as fully CCW)
First you hear the clean tone, then I engage the pedal @ unity volume, tone @ dead center and gain @ "fully" CCW. Then gain @ dead center, then gain @ fully CW. As you can hear towards the end of the recording, I lower my guitar volume and it cleans up VERY well!
LINK: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-n4WXLBNPcDcFdjaVBadzhaT3BhNEF5QzdydzNVODBvd0g4
Gain knob was deliberately set this way, as in all CTC drives to mimic the gain knob behavior of most tube amps (when off you get no sound)
DeleteGlad you like how the pedal cleans up!! Cool clip by the way ;-)
Cheers
Sorry for hacking up your pedal... On the bright side though... I bought one first! :/
DeleteHahaha No need to apologize. Stay on the bright side
DeleteI started as a DIYer myself. I started building clones of the pedals I liked and when i built something new for the first time i was like crazy...I posted the preliminary schem of Black Magic (Doctor Boogey) more than a decade ago.
That was exactly what I was looking for, actually, I wanted a tubey overdrive pedal that would go completely clean while still on. Very nice!
DeleteGreat sounding pedal, check. Awesome freakin name, check. Dude who makes it showing up here to comment, check. Yeah, I'm buying the pedal. Maybe the Stardust as well just so I can have Ziggy Stardust on my pedal board.
Speaking of Ziggy, Velvet Goldmine and Sweethead would make awesome pedal names.
Hahaha Cool names indeed.Hope you don't mind if we use them on an updated version of Ziggy or one of new designs.
Deletehey Chris!
Deletewell done with your work with CTC!
i really appreciate the way you see this whole diy madness we all love here!
you're a great guy, and i really like the decent way you went with your company through all these years. low profile. great circuits.
you deserve it!
i live in Thessaloniki and i have a small lab working on pedals for 3 years now (not commercially)
hope one day we'll meet.
cheers.keep on good work
Savvas
Hi Savvas
DeleteThank you for your kind words! I really appreciate it.
I think I'll always have that DIY thing inside me. I mean nowadays building pedals pays the bills for me and the other people of CTC crew but I hope I'll never stop thinking of it as a hobby and never forget the joy of building a new circuit that works as it should ;-)
Hope we meet in person soon
Cheers
Thanks guys for helping us!
ReplyDeleteYou build great circuits!
Thank you for your kind words Alex!
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Deletesimilar to z.vex box of rock🤔🤔🤔
ReplyDeleteYap. Very similar in topology. Cascaded gain stages like most of our drives. I try to stay away from the "opamp-diodes in feedback loop" thingy. Different gain and tone structure from BOR yield different sonic qualities e.g. touch sensitivity
DeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteCan you explain a bit the DPDT wiring ? ;)
Thanks ...
It is the usual wiring:
Delete1 4
2 5
3 6
ok thanks
DeleteI haven't seen the schematic yet, but I have a question based from the layout. Is the gain pot treble bleed capacitor value 22nF correct? It is kinda large for a treble bleed capacitor, it is larger than the 10nF coupling capacitor before the gain pot. Thanks...
ReplyDeleteIt is correct. It is set up as a treble bleed cap but it actually does all the "voicing" thing. If you mainly use single coil equipped guitars you can also try 33n for more low frequencies - fuller sound at lower gain settings.
DeleteAh ok, now I know. Thanks a lot, I'll do it first on a breadboard and try some mods before designing the PCB. Thanks again :)
DeleteMaybe I will make the capacitors switchable for different voicing.
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DeleteWhat a great sound !!!!! Thanks !!!!
ReplyDeletemy built here : https://soundcloud.com/arnaud-le-mien/demo-ziggy-overdrive-pedal-aka-acdc
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DeleteWow, sounds amazing! Im curious if the Mosfet designed OD will sound any good on a solid state amp? I built a couple devi ever fuzzes with varying results, im new to building and was driving myself crazy trying to find parts, once i realized i just needed some 10k resistors 100nf caps and mpsa18s that simplified things. Ive now got a good inventory of decent components and think im gonna build this one, just curious about what ppls opinions of best OD are for solid state, Also how will 500k linear work in this circuit? Its the only thing im lacking, well i do have a CTS guitar vol pot thats A500k but its giant.
ReplyDeleteoh i see about the 500k audio pot. Guess i can do a 47k from ground to output on my 16mm linear pot so that the taper will work like it supposed to.
DeleteI have a Fender Twin Reverb (tube) and a Randall Swinger 75 (solid state). I haven't build this clone yet, but I can tell you that my original Ziggy works great on both.
DeleteHave any scheme of this pedal?
ReplyDeletehttp://guitar-fx-layouts.42897.x6.nabble.com/file/n30185/Zod_nocentelli_schem_corrected.png;cid=1462034527956-491
Deleteworks like a charm thanks !
ReplyDeleteHello all. Cool effect, thanks for all the hard work!! Long time listener, first time caller.
ReplyDeleteI just finished up the wiring last night and gave it a test run. It worked as expected EXCEPT that it only worked in one position of the gain switch. I wasn't sure which switch to use (Noob here), and I only had an On-Off-On switch and so used it and wired it up as per the vero instructions above. Have to check again, but as far as I remember it only worked in the "more" position, i.e. with all 3 Tranies in operation. When I switched it to the off, or second on position I got silence. Any ideas whats up? Should it work even in I used an On-Off-On with the above wiring or should I revise it somehow? I will have a think and take a look again tonight, but any help would be appreciated, especially if I am overlooking something....I wouldn't be surprised : )
The switch just adds 2 resistors in parallel going to ground.
DeleteIt should be an On-On switch (On-Off-On would work but 2 positions would give the same result).
You should have a sound in any case.
How did you wire it?
Have you double checked everything?
Thanks Alex. Got it going last night but had to wire it differently. Wired wires 1&4 (vero plan) to toggle pins 2&5 with a connector across the two and wire 2&5(vero plan) to toggle pins 1&4. Using this convention
Delete1. 4
2. 5
3. 6
Seems to work. Have reduction in gain as expected, although the effect overall is quite bassy and i only have notable tone control in the reduced gain Setting. Whats your opinion, this sound normal?
Hello there. It is working as expected. This vero is build based on my original Ziggy, so trust me.
DeleteThe Gain pot turned all the way to the left tries to emulate a Vox and to the right a Marshall. It adds and removes a bunch of bottom end. It is designed this way.
Can you please explain the wiring you did a bit better? I'm kind of a noob and I will try to build this soon.
Thanks
Forgot to mention. This is the topic where this vero started. I uploaded some samples at the time. Crosscheck your results.
Deletehttp://guitar-fx-layouts.42897.x6.nabble.com/CrazyTubeCircuits-Ziggy-OD-td30130.html
Looking at my layout, pins 2 and 5 are connected(they go to ground) but pins 1 & 4 are not supposed to otherwise the 330R and the 47R resistors would be connected all the time.
DeleteYou can swap pins 1&4 with pins 2&5 but the connection between them should still be the same.
If you look at the schematic in the link from GiorgiosZotas it's easier to understand.
Ok, thanks guys for the exta info and links. Yes i see it now in the scematic....just 2 resistors going to ground. I also dont know why it didnt work initially with the wiring as indicated in the vero layout above. I found a differnt way of wiring it simply because it didnt work. I tried it and it didnt work. I double tripple checked everything and even took a new toggle, still the same. Then i took the toggle off and started connecting the wires together manually and found that connecting 1and 4 gave me low gain, and then adding the 2&5 with the 1&4 gave me "more". I set it up again on the toggle and t didnt work again...until i bridged the cables 1&4. Thats why i did it. To you Giorgos, try the vero above and if it doesn't work then i can tell you what i did in more detail....but im not 100% sure mine is correct so dont trust me!! I think i'm noobier than you.
DeleteActually even though my switch may be screwed up,, now you guys explain the way the pots work i.e more voicing than gain or tone, i get a better range of sounds and interaction between the pots, which sounds better and more normal. I had the gain nearly maxed when i was checking the tone and switching back and forth between more and normal. I would take any other input if you guys have any, otherwise i think ill box it and give a bit of time on the floor. Thanks already for your help. Greatly appreciated!
I finished it yesterday night. Worked like a charm first try! You shouldn't have any problems with the wiring
DeleteThere must be something wrong with your build.
DeleteHave you double checked cuts, components positions and possible bridges?
What are your voltages?
Tha pedal looks so clean to me and so wonderful! Im going to build it but i want to ask a simple question..what switch did you use for this? a stomp switch??
ReplyDeleteIt's just a regular Toggle Switch.
DeleteFark!! this pedal is beautiful. I boxed it up despite the malfunctioning switch. oh so many shades of sound, I'm blown away! I think I will just use it without the switch, I couldn't find the problem, maybe one day when I am bored I will take it out and have a look again....but probably not. I even tried to resolder the switch correctly as per the vero, but still no luck....well i didn't really expect it to change but thought I would try one more time. maybe I should have checked the soldering of these two resistors going to ground. this rest of the pedal works, so i guess the problem is there. anyway, I'm on the road, just noobing around. thanks to everyone for your support and also to CTC for being so cool with everyone using your schematic. Maybe I'll have to repay you by purchasing one of your pedals one of these days : )
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ReplyDeleteThis thing sounds awesome! 😎
ReplyDeletehello, I have mounted everything according to the drawings only I have not found resistances of 240 homs instead I tried to install 220 homs and 270 homs but it does not work with any of them, it could be due to that it has to be just the resistance of 240 homs, the led lights and sounds only when it is in bypass. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteIf you did not want the gain switch and wanted to keep it at the lower gain setting would you use the two resistors (330R and 47R) or take them away?
ReplyDeleteYou can leave them on the board in case they're already soldered and simply omit the switch. It won't make a difference. Omit both resistors and switch if you want to save the components.
DeleteHello
ReplyDeleteThis is a great sounding circuit just one minor issue. I've got some white noise when its engaged and I'm using an isolated power supply. Anything I could try to bring the noise floor down?
Change transistors.
DeleteThis is an awesome circuit, just built the 2nd one ! Any mods to make the bass a bit tighter ? It's a bit flabby......also any mod to make it sound a bit more open ? Sounds also a bit boxy....it's possibly the best dirt box !!
ReplyDeletehola he terminado de montar el pedal según el plano y funciona todo menos el control de ganancia no se si alguien sabe como solucionarlo o cual podría ser el problema. lo que sucede es que cuando giro el potenciómetro a la derecha se apaga el efecto si giro hacia la derecha empieza a funcionar pero siempre con la misma intensidad. no se si alguien tendrá un esquema de conexión del dpdt creo que el problema esta por ahí.
ReplyDeleteAlex please Do Crazy tube Falcon Overdrive..Thanks
ReplyDelete