Saturday 11 March 2017

Lovepedal Hi Vol

"The Hi Volt is a mid- to high-gain dirt box, with a fully saturated effect that is internally charge-pumped to 16VDC, and brandishes a high headroom, custom-tuned 3-band active EQ. This high-voltage configuration allows for very flexible and potent sonic possibilities, ranging from blues to metal and everything in between.
With its generous low-end wallop, the Hi Volt creates amazing depth and three-dimensional mass with an amp or rig of any size. Now your compact combo amp can sound like a towering full stack, simply by engaging the Hi Volt’s unique circuitry.
As you increase the Hi Volt’s “Bass” control, you can add warmth and body to your tone without the signal getting loose or tubby. The Hi Volt is a very tight effect and responds to rapidly changing playing dynamics, just like your favorite tube amp would.
With the gain knob set at around 9 o’clock, you get a tight, British clang that nails your favorite 70’s classic rock riffs. Set the gain at 1 o’clock for more saturation from signing lead tones to 90’s grunge riffage. Setting the gain around 3 o’clock will deliver some of the most brutal tones to ever come out of a stomp box."
Original FSB thread and schematic available here.
14/04/17Layout updated! Connected D1 to pin 8 instead of 7 and changed 820K resistor to 882K!





16 comments:

  1. Love the sound and the clean up.

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  2. What kind of Electra distortion is this supposed to be??

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  3. The front half is pretty much the front half of a BSIAB, the overdrive section. The back half is the EQ section based loosely on the FX86 and HM2, similar to the EQ section of the Mantic Effects Vitriol w/added mid control seen here earlier this month.

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  4. Any issues biasing the J201s?

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  5. I've built it from the original factory schematic that it was redrawn from and I can verify that one for sure

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  6. HamishR - The first two pairs of J201s are arranged in the muamp configuration, so don't require any adjustment to bias them. The last, single JFET does need to be adjusted to give (I assume) around 7-10 volts on the drain or whatever sounds best.

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  7. Has anyone built this or not?

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  8. I've just finished HiVolt, using the excellent layout from Effectslayout (https://effectslayouts.blogspot.ro/2017 ... 0814985595), but it didn't work. I found that the problem comes from the power supply part, which is wrong on the schematic from FSB.
    So, you must disconnect D1 diode from the pin 7 of MAX1044 and connect it to pin 8 (as I saw in many others schematic).

    Now it works, but not as in videos. It hasn't a tight sound. It has a muffled sound. Maybe there are other errors in the schematic.
    The tone pots has a weak action, especially for the mids.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks mate!
      I've notice the problem with pin 7 and than I forgot!
      Put this on hold until the schematic gets fixed.

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    2. Is the layout correct now?

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    3. i can think of a good way to find out...

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    4. Tried to built this... the sound comes with loud whisteling. Bypassing charge pump didn't help. Gave up after few hours debugging. Sunday wasted. Anyone succesful with this build?

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  9. I got this working tonight. I also had the whistling problem at first, but I swapped out the 7660 for a TC1044 and the whistling went away.

    I ended up biasing the drain of Q5 to 10V, although it sounded good through a wide range of voltages. At 10V, there is a ton of boost on the Level pot, with unity at about 9 o'clock.

    The mid and bass knobs on my build are pretty subtle, but they do affect the tone. Overall, the pedal sounds pretty nice, although it is quite bassy.

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