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  #1  
Old 08-05-2005, 09:12 PM
michael_ibrahim michael_ibrahim is offline
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MI Audio Blue Boy IC

Hi guys,

I've been mucking around with a bunch of different ICs in the Blue Boy, and I think I found a favourite,...

I tried:
- JRC4558D (stock)
- RC4558P
- LM833N
- TL072
- LM358
- LM1458

My favourite was the LM1458! Even I was surprised. VERY VERY VERY smooth. The ones I had were marked 'TESLA',... very strange,...
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  #2  
Old 08-05-2005, 09:30 PM
Ryan Ryan is offline
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Awesome! When are you going to be able to start making more of them? Are you going to put the new IC in?
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  #3  
Old 08-05-2005, 10:20 PM
erksin erksin is offline
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I'm really digging mine with the LM833 in it. How does it compare with the LM1458..?
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  #4  
Old 08-05-2005, 11:11 PM
michael_ibrahim michael_ibrahim is offline
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I will be making more of them. It will probably be about 3 months before they start to roll of the production line again.

I'm not too sure if I should put that IC in there or not. It's not a popular one, and not often used in the guitar community. The reality of the matter is that many guitarists have already made up their minds about what the best IC is, namely the JRC4558D. If I shipped the Blue Boy without the JRC4558D, I'm sure I'd receive at least a few emails per day asking for a 'custom' order with the JRC4558D IC.

Having said that, 95% of the tone comes from the pedal design, with the IC contributing 5%. Changing ICs does make a difference, but won't cover up for a bad pedal design. It also won't change the tone of the pedal dramatically,... for example, changing the IC in the Blue Boy won't turn the pedal into a high gain monster, or anything like that. It's a lot more subtle.

I found the LM1458 to be very similar to the LM833, but it's a bit smoother. The strange thing is that I also found it to be very very low noise, which is strange, because the LM1458 is just meant to be an ordinary IC, not a low noise deisgn or anything like that. Perhaps it's the batch that I have,...
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  #5  
Old 08-06-2005, 03:12 AM
El Jimbo El Jimbo is offline
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I guess it's not practical to offer a choice of IC at the sale point.

I'd love to try one of these IC's Michael, as smooth tone is my cup'o'tea. Can I get one off you when I get a Tube Zone a a lil' bit? (I'm assuming the BBD can take the different chip).

BTW, any update on the TZ?
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  #6  
Old 08-06-2005, 02:30 PM
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gkelm gkelm is offline
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Michael...I'm currently enjoying a Tube Zone, and also have a BB.

An idea: if you could stock enough ICs, you might offer an "IC Pack" with several popular ICs...most of use would pay a reasonable price for this rather than try to track these down through electronics suppliers.
Greg
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  #7  
Old 08-06-2005, 07:31 PM
58lespaulman 58lespaulman is offline
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Michael please get the Blue Boy back soon.. And offer it with a couple different IC's, people would love that... And I cannot believe you ran out of enclosures...
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  #8  
Old 08-06-2005, 11:21 PM
michael_ibrahim michael_ibrahim is offline
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Hey 58,... working on that,...

Also, I've thought about the idea of an IC pack, but you guys get the ICs much cheaper in the US. It's not worth it from your perspective, and shipping is expensive (it costs the same to ship one IC as it does a whole pedal )

on a completely different note, I've resurrected the Tube pedal idea. I'm working on a prototype at the moment. It's going by the working title of 'Gainius Maximus',... Here's a picture of the protos guts,....



It's a 2 channel pedal, with independant Gain, low, mid, high and volume per channel. There are also 2 master volume controls, and a global presence and resonance control. You have 4 footswitches:
1) Bypass
2) Channel Select
3) Boost (to go from crunch to high gain on either channel)
4) Master Select.

It also has 4 outputs:
1) To guitar Amp
2) To Power Amp
3) To Headphones (Speaker simulator)
4) To Mixing desk (Speaker simulator)

This design gets all its tone 100% from the tubes. No solid state anywhere, and the tubes run at nearly 300V. Even the EQ is the classic passsive tone stack, like a tube amp. The only solid state in there is for driving each of the outputs to get a low impedance output. But it's basically pure tube.

The idea behind this pedal was looking at the stuff available today, you either get lower gain tube pedal, or the high gain stuff is typically hybrid (mostly solid state), and often running the tubes at low voltages. They're also typically quite basic in terms of features. I want to make something which is flexible, real tube at real voltages and full-featured.

I'll hopefully get this up and running within the next few weeks. If this ones doesn't work out (and I've built quite a few prototypes which I wasn't happy with), I'm canning the project!
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  #9  
Old 08-06-2005, 11:28 PM
fractal fractal is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by michael_ibrahim
on a completely different note, I've resurrected the Tube pedal idea. I'm working on a prototype at the moment. It's going by the working title of 'Gainius Maximus',... Here's a picture of the protos guts,....



<snip>
This sounds interesting. How much do you think it would go for?

-Garrett
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  #10  
Old 08-07-2005, 12:33 AM
michael_ibrahim michael_ibrahim is offline
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I am trying to keep the cost of the thing under US$400. US$350 would be great, but that might be a stretch. Anyone who's worked with metal knows that the big killer for small production runs is the cost of tooling. I can't use a standard 'hammond' type casing. I need to have custom work done, so that's my big problem at the moment.
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  #11  
Old 08-07-2005, 07:46 AM
michael_ibrahim michael_ibrahim is offline
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ohmygodohmygodohmygod,... I just fired up the Gainius Maximus,... heaven,.... I'm so excited, I'm shaking,...

yaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy
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  #12  
Old 08-07-2005, 08:09 AM
jlagrassa jlagrassa is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by michael_ibrahim
ohmygodohmygodohmygod,... I just fired up the Gainius Maximus,... heaven,.... I'm so excited, I'm shaking,...

yaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy
Go head....Rub it in!

Looks like a cool project, Best of luck with it
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  #13  
Old 08-07-2005, 08:41 AM
Rollo Timbre Rollo Timbre is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by michael_ibrahim
Your circuits look almost as great as they sound.:AOK I'll be looking forward to hearing more about this one.
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  #14  
Old 08-07-2005, 09:02 AM
michael_ibrahim michael_ibrahim is offline
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Yeah, it's a neat little PCB.

Tomorrow, I'm going to test the speaker sim outputs.
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  #15  
Old 08-07-2005, 09:16 AM
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gkelm gkelm is offline
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That new ped sounds like a way cool concept...looking forward to it.
Greg
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