high-power effects adaptations

szechuan · 10th April 2011, 05:47 AM

Just out of curiosity, has anyone ever built or considered building high-power versions of circuits such as the venerable fuzz face or big muff? The thought crossed my mind the other day and its been bubbling around my head since then. By high-power I don't mean using a higher power supply, but actually changing all the parts to handle higher currents and voltage. IC based circuits are certainly unfeasible, as there are no 50 watt bbd chips on the market, although op-amp based designs could be made discrete I suppose. So, yeah, just thought I'd get some feedback on this idea.

Minion · 10th April 2011, 04:41 PM

I don"t see the purpose ..... an effects pedal that had high output current/voltage would not be interfacable with an amp because an amp expects a low level signal ......

Also getting Higher power transistors with the same gain as a Small signal transistor would be difficult and fets would be near impossible .....

Cheers

szechuan · 11th April 2011, 12:53 AM

oh yeah im aware of that. im talking about post-amp processing... of course this would be extremely inefficient and troublesome, but it would be interesting to have something like this, just because... i suppose it'd be fun to brag about a fuzz face capable of driving a speaker cab on its own

geraldfryjr · 11th April 2011, 10:22 PM

I once put a full wave bridge rectifier between the output of my fender vibro-champ and the speaker.
The octave doubling effect was very interesting indeed. jer

szechuan · 12th April 2011, 12:59 AM

an excellent idea!

geraldfryjr · 12th April 2011, 01:55 AM

That was before I started building opamp versions to get the same effect. jer

szechuan · 12th April 2011, 02:55 AM

yeah, opamp rectifiers are far superior for pure octave-y goodness, but not good for post-amp operation unless youre willing to shell out a few hundred bucks for a high-voltage Apex... or make a high voltage discrete opamp...

geraldfryjr · 12:07 PM

I did not mean putting the opamps on the output of the amplifier.
But I did try various diode configurations for distortion sounds.
After that moved to building effects on the preamp side of things. jer

teemuk · 16th April 2011, 09:25 AM

Diode clipping in feedback loop of a power amp works just as well as it does with a generic lower current, lower voltage OpAmp. You only need to tweak the clipping forward voltage higher to make the effect any worthwhile (~500mVpeak output from a power amp is really good for nothing). I've seen this type of scheme used in several guitar amps.

szechuan · 16th April 2011, 01:07 PM

yes, im familiar with this technique, but its not quite what im looking for...

10th April 2011, 05:47 AM	#1
szechuan diyAudio Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Maryland	high-power effects adaptations Just out of curiosity, has anyone ever built or considered building high-power versions of circuits such as the venerable fuzz face or big muff? The thought crossed my mind the other day and its been bubbling around my head since then. By high-power I don't mean using a higher power supply, but actually changing all the parts to handle higher currents and voltage. IC based circuits are certainly unfeasible, as there are no 50 watt bbd chips on the market, although op-amp based designs could be made discrete I suppose. So, yeah, just thought I'd get some feedback on this idea.

12th April 2011, 12:03 PM	#8
geraldfryjr diyAudio Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Jackson,michigan	I did not mean putting the opamps on the output of the amplifier. But I did try various diode configurations for distortion sounds. After that moved to building effects on the preamp side of things. jer Last edited by geraldfryjr; 12th April 2011 at 12:07 PM.

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10th April 2011, 04:41 PM	#2
Minion diyAudio Member Join Date: May 2006	I don"t see the purpose ..... an effects pedal that had high output current/voltage would not be interfacable with an amp because an amp expects a low level signal ...... Also getting Higher power transistors with the same gain as a Small signal transistor would be difficult and fets would be near impossible ..... Cheers

11th April 2011, 12:53 AM	#3
szechuan diyAudio Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Maryland	oh yeah im aware of that. im talking about post-amp processing... of course this would be extremely inefficient and troublesome, but it would be interesting to have something like this, just because... i suppose it'd be fun to brag about a fuzz face capable of driving a speaker cab on its own

11th April 2011, 10:22 PM	#4
geraldfryjr diyAudio Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Jackson,michigan	I once put a full wave bridge rectifier between the output of my fender vibro-champ and the speaker. The octave doubling effect was very interesting indeed. jer

12th April 2011, 12:59 AM	#5
szechuan diyAudio Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Maryland	an excellent idea!

12th April 2011, 01:55 AM	#6
geraldfryjr diyAudio Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Jackson,michigan	That was before I started building opamp versions to get the same effect. jer

12th April 2011, 02:55 AM	#7
szechuan diyAudio Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Maryland	yeah, opamp rectifiers are far superior for pure octave-y goodness, but not good for post-amp operation unless youre willing to shell out a few hundred bucks for a high-voltage Apex... or make a high voltage discrete opamp...

16th April 2011, 09:25 AM	#9
teemuk diyAudio Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Suomi, Finland	Diode clipping in feedback loop of a power amp works just as well as it does with a generic lower current, lower voltage OpAmp. You only need to tweak the clipping forward voltage higher to make the effect any worthwhile (~500mVpeak output from a power amp is really good for nothing). I've seen this type of scheme used in several guitar amps.

16th April 2011, 01:07 PM	#10
szechuan diyAudio Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Maryland	yes, im familiar with this technique, but its not quite what im looking for...

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