Prentiss Effects

This post is an in depth look at the Ernie Ball VP tone suck mod. It works on all passive Ernie Ball volume pedals and can also be applied to other passive volume pedals. I'll go over why people experience "tone suck" (hint: it's because of impedance) and a step by step on how to install a buffer that prevents this.

I've been looking into making a replacement PCB with these mods built in. If this is something interesting to you then please go fill out this form and let me know.

Now, let's get started!

What it does and why it works #NerdTime

In audio level signals, we look at optimizing voltage transfer to maintain our signal. As the ratio drops, our high end begins to roll off as well. The Ernie Ball VP (and JR) is basically the volume circuit from your guitar and an added output jack for the tuner before the volume pot. The problem with this configuration is that the volume pot in the volume pedal puts a load on your signal which combines in parallel with the input impedance of your amp or the next pedal in your chain and lowers your voltage transfer ratio. Let's look at the math of how that all works.

For starters, your guitar has a high output impedance. Sources vary a lot on what that range is, but Jack Orman and Jack Deville seem to agree that it's somewhere between 10k-40k (and they're both really smart so we'll trust them). I'll use 15k for our purposes. Now standard practices tell us that in order to optimize voltage transfer we want the input impedance of the next object in our signal chain to be at least 10x greater than our output impedance. In fact, the higher we can make the input impedance, the better the transfer will be and less high end will be lost. The reason for this is that your guitar's output impedance can be thought of as a series resistance and the following input impedance as a resistance to ground which creates a voltage divider.

So let's say that we normally have a guitar going into a pedal with a 500k input impedance. That gives us a circuit that looks like this:
We can then look at the voltage divider equation to figure out our ratio. Upon inspection, we can state that if our input signal is assumed to be 1V then we really only need to look at the resistance ratio to figure out our voltage transfer ratio. So by plugging in those numbers we get the following:

So we're going to be seeing about 97% of our signal go through. Great! That 3% that we're losing is coming from our high-end because higher frequencies are effected more by impedance. So the frequencies we're losing are ones we can't really hear.

Now if we add the volume pedal into the signal chain we get a different result.

The pot in the volume pedal is essentially a parallel resistance to our pedal's input impedance. This means that our overall resistance value is going to be lowered. If we do our calculation again then we get this result:

Now we're seeing that we're losing about 8% of our signal. At this point we can start to hear some of that "tone-suck" people talk about, but probably not enough for us to freak out about much. But let's add in that tuner.

When we add in the tuner to the circuit we get a new diagram and equation because of all the parallel resistances. The diagram looks like this now:
Let's go through the equation simplifying along the way:

We're now losing 11% of our signal and that high end is really starting to go away.

In order to prevent this high end loss, we add a buffer in between the input and the split. This turns our high impedance guitar signal, 15k, into a low impedance signal, 10-1k (1). If we plug that value into our crazy tuner equation then we the following:

Boom! We have all audible frequencies and then some to annoy the dog with! This is why the buffer is so useful. It lowers your impedance so drastically that it doesn't matter what comes after, you're going to have a great voltage transfer. Tone Suck Gone! Now let's take a look at doing the actual mod.

Step by Step

Now we'll look at the process of modding your volume pedal with a buffer at the input. I put the buffer on a toggle switch when I do it. This lets me turn off the buffer and still use my volume pedal which makes it so I can use that power jack for something else if I need to. Also, some people use their volume pedal with a Y-split TRS cable as an expression pedal. This won't work if there's a buffer in the circuit. So by putting the buffer on a toggle, it still allows you to use it as an expression pedal if you wanted to.

Aside from the standard tools. You will need the following:

• 1x Completed Buffer Circuit (I use a Klon based buffer, but any good buffer will do)
• 1x DPDT Toggle Switch
• 3x LEDs (of your favorite color)
• 1x 330Ω resistor

The resistor and LEDs are not strictly necessary. Once you have the buffer in place, the actual signal benefits of the mod are done. But  let's be honest, you gotta put LEDs in there so people know you have a super modded volume pedal of awesomeness!

Step 1

Turn over your volume pedal and remove the two screws underneath the black faceplate. Then remove the nuts holding the jacks in place so the faceplate can be removed.

Step 2

Take the faceplate and drill a hole between the input and output jacks for the power jack. Then drill a hole directly above for the toggle switch. Be sure to measure the size of each hole first as they will be different. Go ahead and put the toggle switch and power jack in place when you're done, making sure the toggle moves vertically when switched (I'll go over why later).

Step 3

Solder a wire between the top two lugs of the toggle switch. This will allow you to bypass the pedal when the toggle is in the down position. I do it this way so that if you unplugged your power jack to use on a different pedal and your foot slid off the front of your volume pedal, you can't knock the toggle into a position that would kill your signal.

Step 4

Take the circuit board that the jacks are mounted on and desolder the input jack. You may only need to desolder the tip for this to work. Be patient and don't stay on the solder joint for too long or you may burn the PCB trace.

Note: It may be easier to clip off the tip connection from the jack and then desolder the bit still in the pcb by essentially pushing it through with your soldering iron. This does risk burning the PCB but it can be useful.

Step 5

Bend the tip of the input jack so it doesn't make contact with the pcb and solder a wire from the tip to the middle of the right side of the toggle. Then solder a wire from the other side of the middle of the toggle to where the input jack used to be soldered.

Pro Tip: If you don't have a set of soldering "third-hands" then you can clamp the wire down on the jack using some blue tack or a bobby pin.

Note: If you had to cut the connection to the jack then you will still need to bend it a bit. When you're soldering the wire to the tip, scratch the metal a bit with a knife or some sandpaper to help the solder flow better. You may also want to do the bobby pin trick to keep the wire from sliding around while you're soldering.

Step 6

Find where you want to place your buffer circuit inside the pedal and tape it in place using double sided tape. I place mine above the input jack on the faceplate. Then solder the input and output wires from the buffer to the remaining two lugs on the same sides as each input/output jack.

Note: At this point if you don't want to add the LEDs, you can solder your power and ground buffer connections to the power jack (make sure to connect your power jack's ground to the chassis ground or you'll get hum) and you're done.

Step 7 (Adding LEDs)

Pick three LEDs (same color is usually best) and a 330Ω resistor. I personally love green and blue LEDs for this, but I've seen some awesome purple ones too. You will be putting one in each bottom corner and one in the top center (angled slightly upwards). We're going to take advantage of the ground connections from the jacks in the bottom two corners and solder the bottom LEDs to them in the next step.

Step 8

In the bottom left corner, take the negative end of your LED and push it through the ground connection of the jack while heating that joint with your soldering iron to make the solder flow. Get the LED right up next to the solder joint and make sure that it's a firm connection. Repeat this process in the bottom right corner. 

Step 9

Take the negative lead for the LED in the top center and do the same process you did for the previous LEDs, but push just enough of the negative lead through in order to center it. 

Step 10

Solder one side of your resistor to the positive ends of your LEDs. I find it helps to angle the LED leads towards the center of the pedal and then bend the resistor lead to wherever it needs to go. Also, another time where blue tack or the bobby pin trick can be helpful. 

Step 11

Connect a wire to the other side of your resistor and run it to the power jack. Solder in the power connection from the buffer and the resistor at the same time to make it easier. 

Step 12

Connect your power jack's ground connection to the buffer ground and the chassis ground (you can use one of the input jack's like you did with the LEDs) and you're all done! 

There you go! You now have a tone suck free volume pedal with some awesome LEDs to prove it.


References

1. Jack Orman - http://www.muzique.com/lab/pickups.htm
2. Jack Deville - Mr. Black Pedals Blog - Buffers, Impedance, and Other Internet Lore
3. Endolith - How important is impedance matching in audio applications
4. Impedance Bridging -  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impedance_bridging
5. Voltage Divider Tutorial - https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/voltage-dividers
6. Parallel Resistor Calculator - http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-paralresist.htm
7. Voltage Divider Calculator - http://www.raltron.com/cust/tools/voltage_divider.asp

The 1776 Unicorn Breath Buffer is based on the buffer circuit in the famous Klon Centaur but with a little something extra that makes it a really cool/handy little project.  I'll be going over the bare bones of why you would want a buffer in your signal chain and then what makes the Unicorn Breath unique

What a buffer does...

Everyone's heard the debate over buffered vs. true bypass pedals so I won't be going over that in this post. But general consensus is that true bypass is great, unless you have a bunch of cabling and pedals between you and your amp. The extended cable lengths (through cable capacitance and signal impedance) create a low pass filter that cuts off more of your high end as the cable length increases. A buffer near the beginning of your signal chain alleviates this issue by lowering your signal impedance which raises the cutoff frequency of the high pass filter. I won't go into any more detail on that here, but if you'd like to know more then leave a comment below. On to the board!

Unicorn Breath Buffer

There's a bunch of reasons I like the Unicorn Breath. It's designed around being a DIY project so there are some aspects of the board layout that are really geared towards the builder. That being said, I'm just going to go through my favorite things about it.

1. It's really small. The board itself is only 1" x 1". This makes it perfect for small boxes like the 1590A or 1590LB. It's also a great size for modding pedals like the Ernie Ball VP JR because it fits neatly inside the faceplate. 
2. It has the LED board mounted. I like this because I can just wire in the LED without thinking. Plus I can mount my LED without a bezel if I want to. 
3. Uses a dual op-amp. Most Klon buffers call for a single op-amp. This uses a dual op-amp pinout which is a more common part that you're more likely to already have (hooray for no special order parts!).
4. Voltage buffer. Your reference power voltage is buffered. This means that if you were to use the Vref on the board in another circuit, then the current draw wouldn't be an issue. It's not strictly necessary for this circuit, but it's a nice feature and uses the other half of the op-amp.
5. Extra ground ports. I like have extra places for ground so I can wire my power supply to the board as well as my jacks rather than having to snake wires all over the place. Plus most people don't wire a buffer as true bypass, so you can do all your connections to the board.  
6. Tight layout design. There's no wasted space on the board. All the components are neatly aligned with no strange spaces in it. It's just quite nice to look at both before and after it's been populated.

As far as sound goes, it's a buffer. Because it's IC based it's going to be unity gain (transistor buffers tend to have a tiny amount of loss). If you aren't currently running a buffer somewhere in your signal chain then build one of these. You'll get some high end back that you didn't have before which may mean tweaking your knobs a bit, but it also means you'll get consistent sound regardless of cables or number of pedals.

Overall, I really like this board. It's an incredibly useful circuit and the layout is just great. It can fit in a small box that won't take up a bunch of room on your board and your getting a great quality IC buffe. Plus, it's a fun, quick build due to the low parts count and layout.