I’m a huge fan of these Visual Sound videos. The first one I stumbled across was their video on buffers. Totally amazing and worth a watch – I wrote about it here – “Visual Sound (buffered bypass) and Route 808“. Ryan of Rukavina Guitars let me know about another Visual Sound video, but this time it’s on the myth of Op Amps.
I’ve been dabbling in a few pedal builds over the years, and currently on my bench I have a 808 project I’m working on, and while doing some research, I did run across lots of talk about the Op Amps in those pedals.. and what you *have* to do if you want to do it right.. so this video was excellent timing.
But let’s step back for a second. Some of you might be asking – “What the hell IS an Op Amp any way”. Well, and Op Amp is short for “Operational Amplifier“, which is a chip used to manipulate the voltage to the circuit. Usually, this is often the *key* to the tone of the better tube screamer style pedals. This video by Visual Sound goes into detail about different Op Amps, and how little (if any) change it actually does to the sound of the pedal. Brilliant!
Let me know what you think about this by commenting below!
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10 years ago
I’ve built and modded many pedals as an amp tech and musician. I bought an original Tube Screamer in 1980. I didn’t care for the pedal. I swapped out the cheap, cheesy JRC4558 with a bifet. I was rewarded by more top end complexity and the pedal responded better to dynamics.
I’ve modded many TS’s for friends and customers. I socket the IC and give them an old JRC4558 (I have a lot of them) and a TL072. Not one ever kept the JRC4558 in.
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