Tuesday, May 24, 2022

EAE: Model feT Preamp

I saw that DirtBox Layouts has done a layout for this from the schematic on PedalPCB - it's one that I've been wondering about for a while after playing with the CODA FX Black Hole Doom Machine.  I had an idea of what was happening, but I was slightly off in some parts around the transistors replicating the power amp stage.  

There are a few small variances here and there, but the bones of it are a JFET version of the Sunn Model T Preamp.  What EAE have done differently is to approximate the output/power amp stage after the preamp to give the preamp something to actually push.  

I tried a straight Model T preamp section emulation with JFETS, and it's not all that exciting - this looks like a different beast.


EAE MODEL FET SCHEMATIC

EAE MODEL FET SCHEMATIC


Fairly standard response for this type of EQ - all volume/gain @ 100% and tone controls @ 50%.  I haven't bothered modelling every option, as this has a lot of knobs...  

EAE MODEL FET LTSPICE


EAE MODEL FET LTSPICE

This is the power amp sim stage, with clean signal in @ 440hz 100mv

EAE MODEL FET LTSPICE

The frequency response is pretty flat, with a little roll-off on highs and lows, which is generally desirable in a guitar pedal.

EAE MODEL FET LTSPICE

It needs a little push before it starts to clip - and the output level is quite high.  You can see the lower side of the wave has clipped on the output.  Being a spice sim, this will not capture some other distortion that might be present simply due to part tolerances or slightly mismatched transistors.

EAE MODEL FET LTSPICE

Same again, but at 50% gain for both channels

EAE MODEL FET LTSPICE

The single channel running at 25% - but this is a LTspice model, so it may not actually run this clean.  Depending on how you bias it, it may well be able to run clean - but why would anyone want to run this thing clean?

EAE MODEL FET LTSPICE




EAE MODEL FET VIDEO DEMO




1 comment:

  1. Delete if not appropriate but I saw the owner of eae pedals comment on a forum about the pedal pcb version…. This is from him

    Mr. pedalpcb really borked the layout and PSU decoupling on this one. The charge pump is nestled in between a bunch of long runs to high impedance circuit nodes and is just blasting out noise everywhere. If you're able, tack a 100nF X7R cap from pin 8 on the charge pump to the nearest suitable ground (probably pin 3 but YMMV). And consider tacking another one across pins 4 and 8 on the TL072, as it has no local decoupling.

    Also, if you find the lower gain tones to be overly muddy, try socketing C8 and swapping it out for a lower value cap. That value isn't correct on the build doc (it should be 270pF) but you can season to taste. I honestly have no idea where he got the 680pF value that is listed on the build doc.

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