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Simple in-bass overdrive or "grind" effect ?

#21
stingraysvt said:
if you had a multi way selector switch you could wire it on there where it only affected one pup at a time, but if you wired it full on then, well, you're full on...

if it was ideal I'd have it on like a 5 way switch where it only ran when all the Pups were active for the least signal degradation, and so it was switchable on, like in the 5th position of a strat or something the like....
Click to expand...

If the two pickups connect together at any point, then the signal from both will be clipped. You can't have the work on only one pickups just as you can't have a tone cap work on only one pickup. This is affecting the entire signal from the bass.
 
#22
rymiraflores said:
I have 1 humbucker, 1 volume, 1 tone with 2 x .047 caps....where is the best place to attatch the diode and in which direction do you recommend I attatch ? I really just want a bit of bite or overdrive rather than fuzz.....which will give a smoother sound...silicon or germanium ? Thanks again...seem to have started something here haha might have a fuzzy bass club soon at this rate.
Click to expand...

It's a mildly fuzzy tone. More of an overdrive, but you have to hear it to see what you think.

Different diode clip differently. You can try an LED for less of an affect.
 
#24
The forward bias voltage of a silicon diode is 0.7V and germanium is 0.3V, so germanium diodes would clip more of the signal wouldn't they...?
I think so.

You'd almost want to find a low voltage zener diode to do mild clipping, although I don't think they make diodes with a zener voltage below 3.3V. (That being a 1N5518B)

Peak voltage out of a pickup is only a couple of volts at best (correct me if I'm wrong), so the zener voltage would have to be a little less than that for lighter, overdrive style clipping. I would go with SGD Lutherie's suggestion of trying LEDs as their working voltage is about 1.8V.

P.S.: Forward bias voltage is the voltage at which a diode begins to conduct.
 
#27
I had the completely un-scientific idea the other day that any time I would want an overdriven bass sound, I would first split the signal in two and blend a clean sound with the other overdriven signal. This must be the way, no?
 
#30
O.K. I have found a local supplier who has the following diodes:
silicon, 1N914, 1N4148
germanium, 1N34a, 1N270

Given that I am looking for a fairly subtle smooth effect and that I have EMG Hz pu....what would you suggest is likely to be the most effective ? Should I use just 1 as I am not sure if I will lose power, or is the signal loss more about frequencies? I don´t have a problem losing high frequencies.
Someone mentioned LEDs...what are they and how do they work?
Can I just solder the diode onto the same points as the capacitors? or where should they go?
 
#31
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Here's a circuit I built into a project box. It could be built into a Bass if you wanted. There was appreciable loss of signal level, but it sounded great (IMO). The loss of level didn't worry me because the gig I was using it on I just wanted the amp to sound a bit like a driven '60's valve head for the whole gig so I didn't even bother with an on/off switch - it was "on" for the whole gig.

I used 1N5818 Schottky diodes. I used mine with a passive bass; I assume you'd get very different results with an active Bass due to low impedance.

I'm no tech - I just did the mad-scientist thing with bits I had on hand and it happened to work. Different diodes might not work at all, or may work better. I may try it with a single-sided design (just using one diode) which I guess may reduce the amount of volume loss.
 
#33
Sorry for the double post - but I've thought of something. If you're looking for that "blended" sound, you could just install a normal cap in series with the diode - that way only the high frequencies would be clipped, and your lows will remain undistorted. And for the even more imaginative ones here, you could do a varitone circuit where you choose between cap values (cutoff frequencies) and 1 or two diodes.
 
#34
azzyrazzy said:
I had the completely un-scientific idea the other day that any time I would want an overdriven bass sound, I would first split the signal in two and blend a clean sound with the other overdriven signal. This must be the way, no?
Click to expand...

That actually never sounds good unless you remove some of the the high end from the clean signal, and some low end from the distorted signal.
 
#35
OK so after much research and a lot of good ideas here, I am going to go with just 1 diode, either a 1 N914 or a 1N4148, can anyone tell me how to put it in with a simple 2-way on/off switch ?
My set up is
1 x emg hz pu, 1 x vol. pot
1 x tone pot with 2 x 0.047 caps

I would be grateful if anyone has any knowledge about the differences between the 2 diodes e-g which will work best with the emg and a little wiring diagram of how to put it all together.
 
#36
I just found out that the only difference betwwen them is

the 1N914 has a forward current handling capability of 75mA and the 1N4148 is 150 mA.....so what does that mean in real life? Is one or the other more suited to a passive EMG Hz pu?
 
#37
rymiraflores said:
OK so after much research and a lot of good ideas here, I am going to go with just 1 diode, either a 1 N914 or a 1N4148, can anyone tell me how to put it in with a simple 2-way on/off switch ?
My set up is
1 x emg hz pu, 1 x vol. pot
1 x tone pot with 2 x 0.047 caps

I would be grateful if anyone has any knowledge about the differences between the 2 diodes e-g which will work best with the emg and a little wiring diagram of how to put it all together.
Click to expand...

Why are you using two .047µF caps? To equal a .1µF cap?

You would wire the diode up to a switch like this; solder one end of the diode to ground. The other end goes to the switch, and the other side of the switch goes to either the lug on the pot that goes to the amp, or the side with the pickup. If you solder it to the amp side, turning down the volume might clean it up a little. On the pickup side it woful due the full effect at any volume.

You can also wire the diode up like a tone control, to vary the affect. The diode would replace the cap.
 
#39
SGD Lutherie said:
Why are you using two .047µF caps? To equal a .1µF cap?

You would wire the diode up to a switch like this; solder one end of the diode to ground. The other end goes to the switch, and the other side of the switch goes to either the lug on the pot that goes to the amp, or the side with the pickup. If you solder it to the amp side, turning down the volume might clean it up a little. On the pickup side it woful due the full effect at any volume.

You can also wire the diode up like a tone control, to vary the affect. The diode would replace the cap.
Click to expand...

I use 2 x 47s because I couldnt find a 1 here, so, would it work if I took the caps and put them across the 2 outside lugs on the volume pot..I always have the tone rolled all the way off anyway, and simple put the diode where the caps had been before? or if not , how do I wire it for 1 x vol and 2 x "tone" one of course being overdrive.?
 

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