Wednesday 2 September 2020

Dinosaural Tube Bender

In October 2003, Dan Coggins (formerly of Lovetone) released his first commercial pedal under the Dinosaural brand, called the Tube Bender. His design goal was to make something that was sort of a tonal hybrid of the Tone Bender and Tube Screamer, hence the name. And honestly, having listened to it, I’m not sure there’s a better way to describe it. He only made around 140 of them between 2003 and 2007, but many of them were snatched up by musicians and producers in the UK. So while they’re exceedingly rare, you’ve most likely heard it.

 

I added a mod from the AION Wyvern Silicon Drive of  a second position to the Tone Shift switch that’s in-between the flat and scoop modes. I've included the hfe readings from an original pedal as per Aion's trace, so you can try different transistors with similar gains. 

 

It's so rare I couldn't find a demo of it, but I think you get the gist of what it should sound like. 

 



44 comments:

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  2. And tone 2 goes to level 3, level 1 to ground (could be connected to row C), and level 2 to output

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    1. Thanks for point that out. Completely forgot to include those in the notes. Can’t belief I forgot. Will update as soon as I can.

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  3. Updated the notes and moved some things around.

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    1. yep. made the change. cheers for the catch

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  5. Now there is no bias connection to Q4 base. The 10K in column 16 goes to Q4-E, should be Q4-B. It's a great sounding circuit, I breadboarded it. Just as important as HFE-matching Q3 & Q4 is Vbe matching them. I used 2N5232A for Q3 & Q4 (had 'em laying around). The HFE on those two is 280. The lower HFE makes the bias sensitive to the DRIVE setting, which has the advantage of introducing some even-order harmonics at high DRIVE settings.

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  6. Flip q2 around, take out the jumper to the right of q1, move the 1.2k from q1-c to the new q2-e, move i16 (10k) up to h16 and move the cut from g15 to g17, and then move the i13 (47n) down to k13 and then it works and sounds great.

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    1. thanks for those catches. you still want the to leave the cut in place at g15, g17 has a link. you also want to keep that link to the right of Q1, as it connects Q1 C and Q2 B to Q2 E without having a standing resistor. layout has been updated.

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    2. The 10k connects to the base of q4 and you still have it connecting to q3.

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  7. This looks great thanks for posting

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  8. Hi -- compared layout to schematic for Aion Wyvern. The cut on H15 should be moved to H17 so the 10K resistor connects to the base of the transistor Q4 on column 12 instead of to the transistor Q3 on column 19.

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  9. Just looked at this and perhaps I'm not electronically literate enough to understand, but from what I saw on the Aion site on the "Tracing Photos" (https://aionelectronics.com/blog/tracing-journal-dinosaural-tube-bender/) is five transistors, two of which are PNP. Their documentation for the "Wyvern", as they call it, lists four BC549C's and one BC307B, yet the schematic and subsequently, the board they are selling, only have four transistors being used. Like I said, I'm no electronics wizard, so maybe I'm missing something. Can someone please clarify this? Thanks!

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    1. The 5th transistor in the original was part of the bypass switching. Its similar to the millennium bypass, which lets you use a DPDT switch and have an LED. I did not include It as you can just use true bypass switch wiring with a 3PDT switch.

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    2. Thanks for clearing that up for me. That makes perfect sense.

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  10. Zach, Alex, have you ever hear about this project https://www.deeptronic.com/electronic-circuit-design/diy-reverb-pedal-circuit-from-spring-to-room-like-reverb-using-multiple-pt2399-ic-chips/
    Seems to be very interesting...

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  11. This is a really great sounding pedal with a surprising range to it. Really, really, nice design from Coggins and a big thanks to Aion/tagboard for the trace and layout.

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  12. Is this considered verified yet? There seems to be some successful builds.

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  13. I built this layout with BC549Cs from PedalHacker and a 2N3096 in Q2, sounds fantastic. Like a tonebender with a nice tone control.

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  14. Can i use BC183C (lower hfe) at q3 and q4? Will it make a tonal difference?

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  15. tag it verified.
    U can also use 5088s and 3906
    mind the pinout

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  16. What is this red dots on the board?

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    1. This is a trace cut. To cut a trace, take like a 1/8" drill bit, and with you hand, drill out the hole so there is a break in the copper strip.

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  17. What is this red dots on the board?

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  18. No new layout for eight months now. Is this site dead?

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    1. Haha no, it just goes quiet from time to time. There is only a few people....maybe 5....that make the layouts. They just have other things going on and probably haven't had time to make any new layouts. Just keep checking and eventually there will be some added. 😊 peace!

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  19. Loads of layouts here https://dirtboxlayouts.blogspot.com/search?q=vorg

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    1. I've just made a comment, but I know the answer to the question, so, if you would NOT publish it at all, it would be fine :)

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  20. what happened to this website? -- if it is not a secret...
    this is the last post... for almost a year
    is IVIark okay?

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    1. I'm absolutely fine thanks. When I was most active on here I worked for myself and had a lot of time available to home to do them. I went through a few years when I was really busy with work when I started a new job, and I had a trapped nerve in my back which caused me problems for a few years and during this time the layouts slowed down to a trickle. Plus I have other time consuming hobbies which I have spent more time doing over the last few years.

      But you have to bear in mind that in the early years I was sometimes doing 3 or 4 layouts a day, and after that sort of output there just isn't that many circuits to do any more. FSB has likewise slowed down a lot so there is nothing like the number of new circuits that they used to publish 5-10 years ago. So the source of many of the schematics isn't as active as it used to be.

      Then there's the other issue that a lot of modern circuits are software based and so can't be reverse engineered like analog circuits can.

      There are a few new schematics that come out every now and again and if someone requested one then I'd have a look at doing a new layout, or one of the other guys on here would do similar I'm sure. You can actually find this kind of thing in the forum of this site where layouts are posted more frequently I would say than the main site.

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  21. thank you for the response! great to hear, actually, what you've shared...

    this is a nice, even beautiful ending, so to speak...

    and by "ending" I rather mean: finishing, completion...

    cause, as you say, there are not too many circuits unexplored, "untraced", "unlaid" out there anymore...

    which is a great thing...
    you and your friends and soulmates, including FSB and R.G. even... to stretch the network to as far as Australia, if I'm not wrong about that,
    have created a culture...

    and this culture now lives and can live on in full bloom...
    cause the circuits are there, "solved", "revd", "traced"...
    and the layouts are there...

    people's access to pedals / effects is no longer like before...
    cause if someone is willing or/and interested to take a dive in this culture, will be able to create these pedals at reasonably (super low) cost...
    and this is where freedom starts
    as you know...
    as you and your friends and "colleagues" knew since day one

    now you can call it a "day" :)
    only have to make sure it stays where it is, as it is...

    such an AMAZING WORK !!!!!!!

    thank you and congratulation, and * * * respect * * * big time :)

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    1. Beautifully put ☺️👍

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    2. Indeed : thank you a lot, Zach, ROcket88 & the TagBoard team!

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    3. Thanks buddy, I really appreciate it. Although I definitely don't think we have finished what we do, it just won't be a constant flow like before. The vast majority of guitarists I know have a preference for analog circuits and I'm definitely in that camp. I have lots of digital stuff and love using it but to me the best sound I get is analog pedals into a tube amp. And as long as people agree with me then new pedals will come out and they'll be discussed and reversed and I hope a layout will still appear on here.

      Check out the forums, it's also maybe not as busy as it once was but there is a lot of information on there and layouts, and still active discussions. And if you come across a circuit you want to see a layout for then let us know and I'm sure it'll happen.

      All the best

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    4. Nowhere near done. I think life has gotten in the way so to speak and they’re hasn’t been as much time to make new layouts. For me having my first kid nearly 2 years ago has taken most of my free time. I do have a few new layouts I plan on posting soon.

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  22. excellent :) great to hear your thoughts!
    and this analogue love, magic preference will only grow...
    in everybody...
    cause I think it's like with photography: today amazing cameras everywhere, but amazingly expensive too... which means that if you have the money you can have the freedom...
    that's why photographers nowadays, instead of buying stupidly expensive gear, use their phone cams creatively :) that is, instead of taking part in the crazy money / price race, they (we) step back and start rethinking everything...

    I think today at least 10x as many people want to play music, not for success, just for the pleasure..
    and the analogue world is an ocean, completely rich, and thanks to you guys, it can be accessed freely -- if one likes to learn the basics of the culture...

    your work then, great to hear, isn't finished :)
    but what you have made so far, in chapter one, so to speak -- it's been a decade as I see the post dates at GFX-nabble, talkbass, FSB (where I've just randomly spotted a post from 2007 a minute ago -- is a complete work in itself... a great basis for the future...

    so, let everything go on in chapter 2 :) at different pace but with a much greater volume of already available circuits / layouts

    * * THANK YOU * *

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