EPISODE 5: Electra Distortion Transistors Explained - SHORT CIRCUIT
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 พ.ค. 2024
- Today, I am diving into what makes a good transistor choice in this and other single-transistor guitar effects circuits.
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This series is an incredible resource, and will be like the velvet underground, not a lot of views but every viewer started a pedal company.
Keep your eyes peeled for Abandoned Pedals.
Thanks, Josh and everyone @JHS Pedals and @CopperSound Pedals for making these videos happen. They’re such an informative, engaging resource for learning about how pedals work.
We are so lucky to live in this time where Josh Scott can just drop Master classes on electronics whenever he wants. I can even imagine where I'd be now if this existed when I was a little stomper.
My birthday is coming up on the 7th, its the big 5-oh and I have planned to treat myself to an evening with a soldering iron, a bucket full of salvaged electrical components and a pedal kit! Does that make me weird? Another kickass show! I learned so much I had to clear out some old trivia from the back shelves in my brain!
Cool, I did something similar but I also had recently taken an Electricity Principles course for a certification I'm working on. That gave me a good excuse to finally start building pedals so I could apply some of the concepts I learned and try to retain some of that knowledge
Since this series started I’ve went from making clones to designing unique drives. Thanks for being the link and helping demystify circuit design
I only understand a Quarter of what your teaching .. but watching an hour of what you teach is So Very interesting, inspiring and humble of you ...
Thanks for creating and sharing ❤✌🇦🇺
I was the same way a few years ago, barely got 10% of this stuff. I’m up to a good 80-90% of what he’s saying, so far. Keep with it, but I can’t describe how important it is to just break out a breadboard, experiment, fail, get frustrated, throw stuff, find alcohol, read, watch YT, get coffee, fix it and move on.
I have really been enjoying the Short Circuit series. I have watched each one more than once, taken screen shots with notes, and the whole bit. This episode explained transistors in ways that would have taken me years to figure out on my own - which, frankly, had a zero percent chance of happening! I like the deep background combined with the practical examples without going into too much detail on the physics of the whole thing ("I = 2pi * F * R" stuff). Thanks again. I appreciate JHS giving so much to the community. Good on you!
When I decided to go through these videos I decided tyo learn everything in each video progressing at 1 video a day. Well, I'm on to my second day and I'm up to episode 5. I never would have imagined I could have possibly picked this stuff up at the rate I am. I really think that's a true testament of your ability to take a relatively complicated subject and break it down and communicate it in to the simplest terms possible. I thought it'd take a day to truly understand and obsorb each lesson, but I'm flying through them. I've filled pages and pages of my a4 pad already, writing down everything, including all the schematics. In doing that, I only have to watch a each video once, because in the end I'll either ba able to remember or be able to reference every bit of information contained within in my notes. That within itself takes my confidence on the subject from totally non existant to a sense of having the fundumentals to create bizzare and complex pedals. Being a Doom/Sludge Metal band My ultimate goals is to create extreme doom fuzz pedals and bizzare noise producing pedals. Like you said, it all comes down to your level of creativity, not so much the bredth of your knowledge. That could not be more true... Anyway, it's transistor time!
awesome!
Thanks Josh! Waiting for my coppersound breadboard and kit to arrive so that I can take full advantage of your teachings.
Thanks Josh - fantastic series! Until Covid hit I always thought looking up pedal schematics was taboo and stealing intellectual property. Then I saw your Hendrix fuzz pedal mod video. Long story short - I built the circuit with your mod from scratch and it was awesome. Thanks for sharing and rekindling my interest in building pedals. Would love to see your take on JFET preamps like the Fetzler circuit - without the maths if possible.
Cool, I haven't watched the How to Modify a Dunlop Jimi Hendrix Signature Fuzz Face video yet. About to watch it now
@@SamsonBrock42 All the best, hope you have fun!
I love the correct order Josh puts it here: Text Book Circuits these are. That is told as the first thing and it should be clear to anyone now on.
One analogy would be like a blues is a musical style always utilizing the very similar chord progression. No one can claim your blues song using that chord progression is a clone. Maybe it is but it is totally acceptable and even preferable for some blues purists. Other analogy is "did you clone the wheel?"
Today I learned little bit more(mind blowing amount) using LtSpice:
I was actually able change the hfe of a transistor as a list on the same run and directly see curves how sweeping that bias resistor trim pot reacts with different possible hfes. In this circuit it makes sense because it is so transistor dependent. It gives insight what can be expected.
I would suggest to keep the circuit such that is uses easily obtainable cheap modern production transistors. That would put us all in the same position to talk about ongoing plot changes on the same page. Maybe in some other video I mean.
Great stuff. Anyone starting out who wants to get in-depth with transistor biasing, I would recommend Malvino's Transistor Circuit Approximations. Covers the various biasing methods, and the math is simple (basic algebra, no calculus). Malvino's Electronic Principles is good, though I would recommend an edition from the 80s or earlier as newer editions gloss over transistors and is more into digital electronics. They can be had cheaply online or in second-hand bookstores.
Thanks for the recommendations! Both books are available for free through the Internet Archive too
At 10:09, the two transistors are actually NPN, they just messed up the schematic symbols. 2N3392 and 2N3394 are NPNs, and from the way B1 and B2 are oriented (as well as C1 and C5) you can see it's all set up for NPN's.
I love listening to people passionately talk about things adjacent to things I really like (not sarcasm)
Best. Jhs. Video. Ever.
Love it. ❤
Love these electronic videos !
Esta serie es increíble!!! , gracias!!!
Lovin the video. I’ve been experimenting with my copper sound kit that came in this week. Do you think in the series you’ll talk about the steps and any recommendations to turn the breadboard into an actual pedal?
Thank you so much for this Josh. I have been tinkering for years without any knowledge of how the circuit works. This is opening up a whole new world. Any chance we could get some info on the Bazz Fuss? It is super simple diy circuit that sounds cool.
Damn, that germanium sounds like it could carry the whole circuit and the diodes mostly to my ear suck alot of volume. Seems to me, we would have to add a volume gain at the end if the clipping diodes were written in stone. I have never had the opportunity to hear much from germanium transistors but i agree with Josh there is most definitely a sweet something to the tone!
great show.
Gracias!!!
Would be fun to have a JHS production model of that circuit.
HYPOTHETICALLY, if I removed the emitter resistor from my electra distortion circuit and just went straight to ground, and HYPOTHETICALLY if I also replaced the collector resistor with a B100k, and HYPOTHERTICALLY if I turned the B100k all the way down and the pot started burning, could you explain why that may have happened and how I could safely use a B100k on the collector without starting a small fire? Hypothetically, of course. Thanks so much for these videos, I've been learning a ton!
Nothing will catch fire. Try it ✌️
Is there a way to mitigate the crackle when you bias the voltage with the potentiometer? Perhaps a capacitor before the pot? Thanks for all the great info and your generosity Josh
“We’re gonna ignore the clippers today..” Josh, everyone ignores the Clippers.
Oh, I’m told you’re talking about diodes.. well, ok then. As an aside I’m tremendously enjoying this series, perhaps more than anything else you’ve done, which is saying something.
Hi Josh, the Notability app for your diagram annotations might be a good call. It has a momentary draw option which would save you having to undo.
Headroom = Current Voltage / 2
Fuzz is when starving signal hit the ceiling and floor at the same time
Thank you my Guru 🙏🏽
GREAT series, until now I haven't put one together that actually sounds like it works, but hey, I'm having fun , I'm learning and maybe one day...
Awesome
Hearing a dead pan delivery of, "These have gold legs so they sound better" makes me long for the day Josh and I become best friends. 40:38
Darlington transistors typically have a gain of "over 9000." I like to think this might have been the original inspiration for the DragonBall quote, though it probably isn't.
1/2 the supply voltage (nominally 9/2 in this case) at the collector is "center bias" - the amplified signal (voltage across the collector resistor) will have maximum p-p swing before clipping due to saturation or pinch off. Technically, you should subtract the emitter voltage from the supply voltage and shoot for half of that between the collector and emitter, but close enough.
By the way, I've tried this circuit with a 2N3904 with 9V and 3V supplies, and if the bias is close at one supply voltage, it's close at the other, so this topology should be fairly resistant to dying battery syndrome. (If you want to use clipping diodes with a 3V supply, you should probably consider Schottkys for their low Vf. You'll still get close to 1V p-p after clipping.)
Are y'all not announcing the winners of the Substitution Boxes publicly? Of the two Short Circuit episodes I've been lucky enough to catch live from the beginning so far, no winner was ever announced
Josh u could do a 10hr video of u just explaining parts and I'd re-watch it everyday of the week
Josh, I remember when you built the Stew Mac sun fuzz on a live. You made some sockets so you could swap out transistors and experiment. Did you bias the transistors then? Is there a difference between biasing on a breadboard and biasing during a kit build like the sun fuzz? I am an absolute beginner but I am loving this content. I bought the transistor substitution box and the sun fuzz kit. I am planning on making some sockets as you modeled during your build and using the substitution box to find the transistor that sounds best to my ears. However, once I put in the actual transistor(s) I want to want to bias correctly and guard against the kind of random swapping of transistors you were warning against in this episode. Thanks
I may be wrong but I don’t believe there is any fundamental difference between biasing on a breadboard vs in the pedal. You’ll be checking the bias at the collector of Q2 (the transistor on the right as you look at the component side). I would say yes you want to bias both with the sub box and with whatever transistor you end up using since no two transistors are identical. Here’s a big thing - the external “tone” control on the Sun Fuzz is also a bias control! As you turn it up the voltage drops. So you should choose a single default position for the tone knob before swapping transistors, setting the bias with the trimpot, etc. Stew Mac recommends 12:00 when adjusting the bias but you could use a lower setting if you want to really reduce the voltage as the tone control is turned up. Also - Stew Mac tech support is really really good and you should definitely reach out to them with any questions!
@@cspace1974 thank you!
I probably will be rewatching this whole series again when my CS breadboard arrives home probably in the next few days! This is absolutely inspiring Josh and there is no enough 'thank you's' to give your way and what you are doing for people like me with a newfound interest on the pedal building DIY community! Greetings from Copenhagen!
Josh, if no two devices are the same, are you saying that JHS measures and adjusts the bias of every transistor drive that you manufacture? Ha, never mind! I kept watching and heard your answer. Thank you
Thanks Josh. I have a question... with you trim pot, is it possible to make the minimum value greater than zero? You mention the lowest and largest value that will work on a particular transistor, I'm wondering if you can mod the pot so that those values are ignored.
Generally, a resistor in series with the trim pot will give you a new minimum value. 1k in series with 5k pot means you sweep from 1k to 6k. You can mod the functional pot value with parallel resistance. Yes: you can tailor min and max values,.
Love the series (keep going) but maybe wire in an LPB-1 on the output stage to gain up the audio...I'm watching it on a TV and have the volume turned up to hear Josh and then it goes to ads and it is absolutely blastingly loud
I would buy a pedal called “Darlington.” 🤘🏻
hi, i´ve watched the types of the overdrives and there was the ¨cascading transistors¨ type, its there a simple cascading circuit ? it would be cool to see that type of circuit. Great series.
Episode 1-3 is this series!
@@jhspedals oh cool, i watched those like 2 times and i dont remember josh saying "cascading transistors" or cascading circuit anytime, maybe he didnt explain it like that, thanks
Great video, but I’m not sure I’d remove the base resistor from the Ge circuit. The transistor needs a DC operating point. You’ve just removed it. That current starves the collector. It might sound good right now, but it makes the circuit much more sensitive to transistor parameter and temperature variations.
QUESTION ON THE PEAK ATLAS DCA’s!!!! Okay so I am literally days away from buying either a DCA55 or DCA75. I build everything from germanium fuzzes to modern overdrives etc. is the 75 actually worth while??? It’s a lot more money.
CK722, one of the first easily available PNP germanium transistors.
On your coppersound breadboard you have a bypass switch, a resistor and an indicator led. Where does this fit in for example in the LPB-1 circuit? And does the resistor and led not effect the circuit or tone? Or am I missing something here?
He says it in another video but the switch is just to turn it on and off and the led is to show you if the effect is on, you need a resistor whenever you're connecting an led to power otherwise it burns the led out
I saw that part in one of the first videos, but in a pedal you often have the same thing. Foot switch with led. I didn’t see that in the schematic. I don’t understand how it fits in. I am pretty new at this so excuse my noob questions.
@@Where_are_my_teeth oh right sorry I though you were wondering if it was like true bypass or buffered or something lol I read that wrong, I'm not an expert but google a dpdt switch, the middle part of that switch is connected to the input and output jacks, the top is connected to the input and output of the pedal and the bottom part has a jumper between the lugs. When it's turned one way the input and output jacks are connected to the in and out of the effect and when it's the other way the input jack is going straight to the output jack completely ignoring the effect. Idk how I'd relate it to the schematic but like imagine there's two jacks before and after the effect and when it's bypassed there's a line going from the input jack around the bottom of the effect ignoring it entirely and going straight to the out jack. The led is connected to the third row of a 3pdt and it just turns the light on and off depending on what position the switch is in. Sorry if I didn't explain it well I barely know this lol
Anyway you want!
If every transistor needs to be biased to sound good...how is this achieved for mass produced pedals? Is this where the cost comes in, paying extra for consistent valued parts?
Matching components is rare but not unheard of. Some transistors and opamps are solid in matched sets ($$$). When you look at components there are tolerances such as 5% and 1%. Meaning they will be +/- the percentage of the component value. That said there are slight differences between mass produced pedals. For my pedals I don’t match components; I will if I make more than one. When it comes to diy things like mic preamps or refurbing an eq I will match wherever possible.
@@jacksonreazin6042 thanks for the reply. This is all really interesting. So when biasing the transistor you would generally just go with a fixed resistor that you know will get you in the ballpark of 4.5v, rather than tuning a variable resistor like Josh is doing in the video (which I appreciate is more an educational exercise)
@@paulburton5150 exactly, spot on. There are formulas for calculating resistors in parallel or series which is how you get values that aren’t standard (220 ohm is common, 174 ohm is not). Opening up a pedal or amp there might be (tracing the circuit) 2 or more resistors in series or parallel to get a specific resistance. It goes down the rabbit hole fast but its super fun. Every bit of what Josh has been sharing this in series is pure gold.
@@jacksonreazin6042 thank you. Yes, I'm getting really inspired by this series. I can feel a new hobby developing 🙂
Believe it or not, you don't necessarily have to use the same exact transistor that's specified in a lot of these old vintage pedals, you'd be surprised at just how much you can get-away with in terms of transistor substitutions, I once built a 4-Transistor Triangle Big Muff pedal and substituted four BC108C NPN high gain small signal transistors for the original ones, and guess what? it still sounded like a Big Muff.
When is the next episode going to be?
you mentioned darlington transistors (or darlington pairs) what about sziklai pairs ??? ever play with those? ill try and superchat it next time if nobody gets to this
OK y’all going to be the Dave Pensado of petals
I missed it. AGAIN 😭
DATASHEET won't tell you the exact specs, sometimes complety wrong.
Love this stuff ❤
Can you swap the resistor next to the 'pedal is on' LED for a trim pot so you can set brightness level, or will this affect other stuff?
Have seen the 'TC1 Multi-function Tester' recommended as a $20 ish alternative to 'atlas DCA Pro'
Not accurate enough to make a pedal company but gives lots of useful info on components, any thoughts 👍🤔👎
(Question caveat: Hope my questions help you teaching and shy others watching (and moslty me mostly 😄) They're never a stamp-my-little-feet demand for answers, but for your and my sake of brevity and clarity I don't want to use lots of words for waffly kindnesses. Every second of waffly kindnesses bring us a second closer to death 🎸👻)
Make a pedal using a selenium rectifier.
I’m so lost it’s ridiculous. Interesting, though.
Please visit Uncle Doug
fitymi
So many bags of transistors. Seems like he's a..."collector"!🤐
Yes, but he also makes things with them and sells them, so he's also an "emitter"
Can we not make such baseless claims about Josh?
I already LOVED this channel and now you went circuit nerdery and BEACH BOYS on me??? Would it be weird if I asked a TH-cam channel to marry me?
you are birthing a community of wanna-be pedal builders! the not-a-klon was the clear evidence. JHS you are onto something
“TRANSistor” has a whole new meaning in 2024! Lol.
First!
Love these. Thank you!