Sunday 4 July 2021

Earthquaker White Light

An out of production EQD overdrive that's based on the Distortion+.

From the source:

The White Light Overdrive is based on vintage overdrives that defined the sounds of classic hard rock. This vintage voiced stompbox is similar to a vintage DOD 250 or MXR Distortion+, but don’t mistake it for a direct clone of these OD’s of yesteryear. The White Light gives total control over the voice of the dirt along with a modern presence that is both dynamic and responsive to your playing. The Weight control allows you to adjust the saturation and low end, giving you plenty of tonal shaping options. The White Light Overdrive doesn’t discriminate – it likes both humbuckers and single coils, and will add some real 70′s grit to your tone. The Compression switch lets you choose between an open voiced overdrive with more high-mids and bite, or more compression with less bit and flatter mid-range.

Controls

Gain: Controls the amount of distortion.

Weight: A multi-functional control, allows the level of saturation, bass response and the over all feel of the device to be altered.

Level: Controls the output.

Compression Switch: Less= Open w/ more high-mids and bite. More= Crunchy and compressed with a bit less bite and more flat mids.





41 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. This looks really great Zach! I've been having some problems getting a layout for a Zombie chorus variant to work. Any interest in taking a look at what I've done and seeing if you could help me debug it?

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    2. hey bro. i'd post about the issues in the debugging section of the forum with pictures and a description of what's going on.

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  2. I counted 11 cuts and 4 jumpers
    Not sure if I’m off or there’s a typo

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  3. I looks like D5 and D8 share a hole at position E-13? I suggest swapping D5 and D6 so that D5 lands on position E-12 and D6 lands in position D-13 to avoid trying to jam two diode leads into one hole. And I don't like the polarity protection diode D1 going across the power rails, so when I build this at the weekend I'll probably be very naughty and remove D1, cut a trace at A-4, and use a 1N5817 diode from A-2 to A-5.

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    1. cheers for the catch. i didn't see that happened when i moved some parts around to compact it. fixed

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. built earlier today. everything seems to be working, but after the 1K from Pin 1 I lose a significant amount of gain. then of course the clipping section brings it down even further. by the time it hits the output, I'm barely at unity even with the volume all the way up. otherwise, I'd say it's verified. any thoughts on the gain drop?

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    1. got tired of troubleshooting and just rebult the circuit since it has a fairly low part count. must've just done a wonky job or something on the last one 'cause it works perfect now! really loving the tone of this pedal. thanks for the vero :)

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    2. cheers for the verification man. glad it worked out.

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  7. built this earlier today. everything seems to work except I lose a BUNCH of gain after the 1K resistor connected to Pin 1. by the time it goes through the clipping stage and hits the output, I'm barely at unity. otherwise, I'd say this is verified. any thoughts on the gain loss?

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    Replies
    1. sorry for the double post :( took a loooong time for the comment to show up

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  8. Been missing my old 250, gonna have to give this one a spin. Cheers!

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  9. 1N60P shottys OK or got to be germanium? would be these
    https://www.bitsbox.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=3343

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    1. should be fine. schottky diodes are typically used in place of germanium, just make sure they're low forward voltage.

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  11. Built and works....but... drive 1&2 should be 2&3 and drive 3 as drive 1 otherwise the gain pot is backwards.

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  12. Hello, how to bind spdt swhich? do we connect the 9v- in the center of the spdt and the pins in the corners on the board?

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  13. Sorry this isn't the best place to post this, have we lost the forum?

    I am seeing Could not resolve host: guitar-fx-layouts.42897.n6.nabble.com errors.

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    1. No idea what has happened there, I'll check it out and get back to everyone. Thanks for the heads up

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    2. It looks like the forums are all moving to a new server. I've emailed support and will advise when I know more

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    3. The forum is now back up on a new server. The link at the top of this blog has been updated, or you can view it here:

      http://guitar-fx-layouts.238.s1.nabble.com

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    4. Awesome, thank you for updating the links!

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  14. Hi, do you think about doing the ST2? and thank you for your website.

    https://aionfx.com/news/tracing-journal-cornish-st-2/

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  15. what is happening at J7, the blue dot? is that a cut?

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    1. If I remember right it's a link for the two wires (been a while since I built this un)

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  16. Hi, why do you use two types of diode ? what is the purpose of each ones ?

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    1. The 1n60 diodes will sound a little more distorted and compressed than the asymmetrical 1n4148 diodes.

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    2. dude, i just noticed your name, and at nearly 4am(!!!) i just spit red bull all over myself and my laptop, and probably woke everyone up on t he block. im very much sore already from laughing my ass off. thats goddamned hilarious.

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  17. Hi, which capacitors should be used for this build? From the diagram it looks like the 100pF is a ceramic capacitor, are the red ones mica or film caps? Finally, the blue caps look like electrolytic caps, how do you tell from the diagram which leg is positive, or should these be non-polarised? Thanks in advance.

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    1. Orange is ceramic, red is non-polarized of your choice and blue is electrolytic. The negative leg is indicated by the capacitor's paler blue section.

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    2. Orange is ceramic, red is non-polarized of your choice and blue is electrolytic. The negative leg is indicated by the paler blue section.

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  18. 100pF is indeed cermaic, the red ones are non-polarized capacitor of your choice. And for the blue ones, there is a pale blue portion at the bottom or top of the dark blue round, it is the negative leg.

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  19. Orange is ceramic, red is non-polarized of your choice and blue is electrolytic. The negative leg is indicated by the paler blue section.

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  20. Orange is ceramic, red is non-polarized of your choice and blue is electrolytic. The negative leg is indicated by the capacitor's paler blue section.

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  21. This is a beautiful and practically designed layout. The circuit sounds really nice. I love them single note clarity as well as the ability to switch the 1n60 diodes in and out. As Chris commented above (July 2021):
    “Built and works....but... drive 1&2 should be 2&3 and drive 3 as drive 1 otherwise the gain pot is backwards”

    Thank you so much for this site!

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