Tube Screamer Clone Mod

[M29]

Hello duhvoodooman,

Man this stuff is well appreciated! I am curious what relationship our guitar picks have to the level it takes to break the threshold. Is it attack that breaks or the volume? Say the attack of our picks or the volume that the amp is turned up to? I guess what I am curious about is, does it make much difference in volume to break the threshold of the diodes and get this thing singing and would either one work better at low volume compared to a louder volume. Or maybe it just has to do with the smoothness of the breakup itself.
I understand how it works but maybe not compared to our playing.
As I read my own post I don't know if I am saying exactly what I am trying to say. Sorry...

Thanks duhvoodooman for all your time and help on this I am getting a lot out of this. My only problem is I just recently got a Boss DS-1. Now I wants a clone like yours

M29

[duhvoodooman***]

I got to crank up the volume a little higher tonight while I had the house to myself. Here are two more clips using the Epi LP through the modded pedal. The first is basically a repeat of the third clip in my previous posting--the Who's Won't Get Fooled Again outro riff, but with more authority this time. Repeated 4 times--first with no pedal, then germanium diodes (soft clip), then silicon diodes (regular TS type), and lastly with the hard-clipping yellow LED's. The latter is the only way to go for this tune, IMO!

The second is just a little of the familiar ZZ Top Tush riff, using the yellow LED setting with the drive at about 3/4. The gain range is stock TS-808, as is the bass rolloff frequency.

WGFA

Tush

[Spudman***]

Meet the new boss - same as the old boss Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!

That sounded really good. Very nice piece of circuitry you got going on. Congratulations too. You've got me gassing again. You won't get gassed again. Yeaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!

[duhvoodooman***]

I am curious what relationship our guitar picks have to the level it takes to break the threshold. Is it attack that breaks or the volume? Say the attack of our picks or the volume that the amp is turned up to? I guess what I am curious about is, does it make much difference in volume to break the threshold of the diodes and get this thing singing and would either one work better at low volume compared to a louder volume. Or maybe it just has to do with the smoothness of the breakup itself.
I understand how it works but maybe not compared to our playing.
As I read my own post I don't know if I am saying exactly what I am trying to say. Sorry....

I think I understand your point, M29. As I understand it, it's the strength of the input signal that the pedal sees that determines how much the diodes clip at a given gain setting, and that can be modulated either through pick attack or the guitar's volume setting. So picking softly or rolling back the volume knob will definitely clean up the sound. Now, once the clipped signal leaves the pedal, there's obviously a lot more that can happen to it through the remaining pedal-preamp-power stage-speaker chain. I would assume that if you had a perfectly clean chain--no sources of harmonic distortion at all, no matter the volume setting--then you'd just hear the pedal's output amplified. But that pretty much never happens, even with a "clean" amp like a big ol' Fender Twin. There's always going to be some degree of further "character" added to the sound, and it will be volume-dependent. For amps that break up substantially with increased volume--or with amps where additional distortion is intentionally added--the pedal's output signal will be altered very substantially. What finally comes out of the amp speaker may sound great or not-so-great, depending upon how that interaction occurs.