真空管でしっかりしたブースターを作ろうと思いセットを参考に回路を考えてみたものです。

　クリーンブースターの場合いは、初段の１２ＡＸ７Ａのみで出力に繋がれます。真空管に通常の高電圧電源で動作
　させますので、ダイナミックレンジもとれアンプの出力で波形をあてて歪ますように動作させます。
　基本的な歪みは、３段目のアンプで出力波形をオーバードライブすることで作り出します。低域での歪みを抑える
　ためにこの段の低域ゲイン特性をカソードに付けるコンデンサーの値を小さくすることにより実現させています。
　　出力のトーンコントローラは、好みからフェンダータイプにしています。

 
 　　電源にそれほど凝るつもりはなかったが、オーディオで使用したＳＩＣのショットキーダイオードが良かったので
　採用することにした。ヒーターにはシリコンのショットキーを使用した。トランスは、ケースのことを考えヒーター用と
　分けて 2 個使いにして小型を採用した。

   

　　

Mike Bland

Music student, semi-retired programmer, and former Googler

 mbland@acm.org

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MXR Micro Amp True Bypass Modification

Modifying the MXR Micro Amp for True Bypass switching, requiring tricky circuit board surgery
due to its original surface-mount DPDT switch

04 Jan 2013 - Boston
Tags: effects pedals, guitar gear, mods, technical 

Discuss: 
As promised, here’s my first effects-pedal related posting, in which I describe why
and how I modified my MXR Micro Amp from its default “hardwire” bypass
switching to “true bypass”.

For folks who normally follow me for Google stuff, if you’re geeky by nature, you
might find enough technical detail to tickle your fancy and/or amuse you for a few
minutes, even if you aren’t otherwise intrigued by music or electric guitars. The
process of making these modifications certainly helped me understand
the systems side of electric guitar playing, of which I’d remained blissfully ignorant
for years.

Click for a larger image.

I’d already modified my CryBaby—affectionately now called my FrankenBaby—

and Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer for true bypass switching, so I had a bit of practice
before tackling this job, which was much trickier than the other two. I’m posting
about this mod first for two reasons: It’s the project I most recently completed; and
due to the risk of bricking a pedal with an originally surface-mounted switch, it’s
hard to come by any step-by-step instructions on how to do it, as well-known
modders don’t want to attract the ire of lesser-skilled amateurs who ignore
disclaimers and assign blame to the author. Figured since I’m not a well-known pedal
mod ace, I’d risk throwing it out there.

But if you’re at all inclined to follow my instructions, understand this: If you brick
your pedal, it’s your own damn fault, not mine! I assume precisely zero responsibility
for the success or failure of anyone else’s attempt to replicate the process described
below. This goes triple if you’ve not even bothered to learn how to solder properly in
the first place. Plenty of YouTube video instructions on the subject, so there’s no
excuse.

Oh, and this’ll definitely void your warranty.

True Bypass
Options
The Challenge
Wiring
 Circuit Tracing
Desoldering
Carving
3PDT insertion
Finished Project
Wrapping Up
Footnotes

True Bypass

There are many good resources on the web describing true bypass switching and
why one’d want it in one’s pedals—or not—so I’ll briefly summarize here. One of the
best resources for this information and pedal modding in general is Andreas Möller’s
website.

True bypass (TB) means that, when the pedal is bypassed (i.e. deactivated), there’s
a hard connection between the input and output jacks of the pedal with zero
electronic components in between (other than the switch itself, of course). The
upside is that the pedal itself has zero influence on the signal passing through it. The
downside is that, given a string of TB pedals connected by a series of cables,
followed by the cable running to the amplifier, when all the pedals are bypassed, the
effective length of the cable through which the original guitar signal must pass is
extended, which does have an influence on the guitar’s tone. The effect is due to
cable capacitance lowering the resonant frequency of theRLC circuit composed
of the passive guitar pickups1 (inductor), the cable (capacitor, composed of signal
wire and shielding), and the input impedance (AC resistance) of the amp/first
activated effect/first buffer, and manifests as high-frequency rolloff. 2 Anyone—even
non-musicians—can hear the difference between a ten-foot cable and a thirty-foot
cable plugged directly into an amplifier; a ten foot cable plugged into a string of TB
pedals connected by another five feet of cable, with a fifteen foot cable running to
the amp is, effectively, a thirty-foot cable when all the pedals are bypassed.

Buffered bypass means that when the pedal is bypassed, the signal is passing
through circuitry that isolates the signal entering the effect from the load following
the effect, typically providing high input impedances of 500k-1M Ohms to mimic an
amplifier’s input and preserve high-end response. This means that the length of cable
that your guitar pickups has to drive signal through is cut off at the first buffered
device. For this reason, it’s considered ideal to have most of your pedals be TB but
have at least one buffered pedal (or dedicated buffer device) to preserve the guitar’s
high-end response when all pedals are bypassed. Either that, or have one of your TB
pedals always on, such that it effectively behaves as a buffer, since its activated
circuitry will achieve the same effect. That said, it’s also ideal to minimize the
number of buffers in one’s chain, as they typically degrade the signal ever slightly,
and multiple buffers magnify this degradation.
Hardwire bypass is the worst of both worlds. The effect input is always connected
to the input circuitry, and the switch selects between the direct signal and the
effected signal from the circuitry’s output. This is the most straightforward (and
cheapest) switching arrangement, but what happens is that the input impedance of
the effect circuitry and the load following the effect (be it another effect, a buffer, or
the amplifier) are in parallel, andparallel impedances produce an effective overall
impedance that is a fraction of the smallest impedance in the circuit. This means
that the more hardwire bypass pedals in your chain, the more high-end rolloff—aka
“tone suck”. If you’re hip to Python, play around with the figures thus:

>>> def ParallelImpedances(impedances):

... return int(1.0/sum([1.0/i for i in impedances]))

...

>>> ParallelImpedances([1000000, 500000])

333333

>>> ParallelImpedances([1000000, 500000, 1000000, 1000000, 1000000])

166666

>>> ParallelImpedances([1000000, 500000, 500000, 1000000, 1000000])

142857

Now, in the case of the MXR Micro Amp—and in my case, Rev. D, as designated on

the circuit board—there’s a 22M Ohm resistor providing a high input impedance, but
this is misleading given the parallel nature of hardwire bypass. In my current chain, it
is—it was—my only hardwire bypass pedal, followed by my Boss TU-3 Chromatic
Tuner, which is widely believed to provide a 1M Ohm input impedance. 3 So plugging
in those values gives us:

>>> ParallelImpedances([1000000, 22000000])

956521

Doesn’t seem like a big enough difference to worry about does it? Certainly isn’t
audible. But when you’re a geek, on some level, no matter how insignificant the
scale, does that really matter?

No. No it doesn’t.

Options

The first option is just to leave the pedal alone. As my earlier calculation
demonstrated, the effective impedance of my current setup was still >950k Ohms,
plenty to maintain the human-audible high frequency content of the direct guitar
signal. But no, I lack sufficient self-control for this to be a viable option.

The second is to buy or build a true bypass looper pedal, and use that to route
around the Micro Amp without requiring modification. But that means an extra pedal,
consuming extra space on my pedalboard. My NYC living experience is still fresh in
my mind, and the less space used, the better. Looper’s out.

So, hence, I rationalized the final option: Taking up my soldering iron and Dremel
cutting tool to hack on the Micro Amp circuit board directly. A Micro Amp is a
relatively common and inexpensive pedal, so if I bricked it, I could just buy another
and try again pretty easily!

The Challenge

A lot of pedals are easy to convert to true bypass, most notably the CryBaby and
Tube Screamer mentioned earlier. A lot of newer pedals, even newer revisions of
older pedals from MXR,4 are true bypass by default, with pedals manufactured by
Boss and Ibanez being notable exceptions.

The problem with recent-issue, mass-produced MXR pedals that aren’t already

wired for true bypass is that they use surface-mounted Double Pole Double Throw
switches. I’ll explain what that means in the next section, but suffice it to say that
the standard way to convert a pedal to true bypass requires a Triple Pole Double
Throw switch, which is slightly larger, and doesn’t attach directly to the circuit board
(and wouldn’t fit even if it was a surface mount unit). In other words, I had to
physically carve a chunk out of the circuit board in order to get the new switch to fit.
Scary stuff.

Wiring

Double Pole Double Throw (DPDT) switches contain two sets of independent
switches (poles) which toggle between two sets of contacts (throws). In the Google
Drawing-generated diagram below and those that follow, “on” connects the lower
two sets of contacts, while “off” connects the upper two sets:
This translates into the following default Micro Amp DPDT switch wiring, with the
colored poles indicating that the effect is engaged; bear in mind that the signal from
the input jack is split between the input to the effect circuitry and the switch:

Converting the pedal to true bypass—while maintaining the LED on/off indicator—as

a hobbyist is easiest using a Triple Pole Double Throw (3PDT) switch, which is
exactly like aDPDT except that it has an extra set of switches. The Taiwan Blue
3PDT from Small Bear Electronics is the most common switch for this application.
When it’s wired up, it looks like this (with the colored poles showing the switch in
“on” position):

Notice that it includes wire jumpers to connect two poles to the signal from the input
jack, and a wire jumper to connect two poles to ground (which is usually the ground
lug of the output jack). The input jumper is required to pass the signal through in
both on and off positions. The ground jumper is used to ground the input to the effect
circuitry when “off”, which helps prevent loud “pops” when switching the effect back
on, and just makes extra sure that both ends of the LED are grounded out. It’s
perhaps not strictly necessary.

Circuit Tracing
First, we need to trace the circuit, both schematically and physically. The Micro Amp
is a well-known circuit, and good schematics exist; I used the Micro Amp
schematic from theDIYstompboxes.com schematics page.

Then, we trace the physical circuit itself using a multimeter to check for continuity
between points. Find a good continuity checking tutorial and poke around the
circuit to confirm your understanding of the schematic.

Click for a larger image.

Click for a larger image.

Notice that there’s circuit traces on both the top and bottom of the board. By
studying the schematic and tracing the circuit with my multimeter, the only
significant, yet minor difference between the “classic” schematic and the Rev. D
printed circuit board is that theLED is wired up as power → resistor → switch
→ LED → ground, rather than power →LED → resistor → switch → ground. Not a
difference that matters for this operation. It is also apparent that the contact point
for the input signal falls between the input resistor and the input capacitor, requiring
me to cut both circuit traces around the input contact, then to jumper the resistor
and capacitor contact points together.

Also worth mentioning is that the gridwork on the bottom of the board is a network
of traces all connecting to ground. Some of the traces on the board are connected to
this gridwork, as opposed to the traces that clearly look like they’re isolated from
the gridwork. Still, for the final connection to ground from the 3PDT, I’ll connect to
the ground lug on the output jack, rather than some other ground connection on the
board.

Here are the critical contact points corresponding to the 3PDT switch wiring:

 Effect input: R1/C1 (in parallel)

 Effect output: R6

 Power: R19

Desoldering

The first step is to desolder the surface-mounted DPDT switch. This was a pain for
me, taking a long time, likely because I didn’t have the best tools for the job: a 40w
iron with a medium tip, a braid of desoldering wire, and a plastic solder-sucker. I
eventually got it out, but it likely would’ve gone much faster if I’d used a pencil-tip
and a better solder-sucking tool. Applying a bit of new solder and then sucking
everything back out seemed to help. Suffice it to say, MXR pedals are built like little
tanks, and parts don’t come off easily.

I also desoldered the critical contact points a bit, in anticipation of applying fresh
solder when attaching the wires from the 3PDT. Then I took an X-Acto knife to cut
the two traces around the input jack contact, checking with the multimeter that the
traces were indeed cut—kinda undoes the whole true bypass operation if they aren’t.
Part of the continuity checking at this point required plugging a cable into the input
jack, as the input contact is grounded when a cable isn’t plugged in.

Carving

Now for the scary part! Since the 3PDT can’t physically fit where the DPDT was
connected, we need to physically carve a chunk out of the circuit board. What
complicates this operation for this particular board is that there are small traces on
the bottom of the board (connecting the switch from the DC jack that disconnects
battery power when using an AC adapter) and the top of the board (connecting the
DC jack to the power capacitor, the trace residing under the “R19” label) that we
need to take care to leave intact. Well, actually, we can always reconnect these
points manually with jumpers if we cut them, but I did my best to avoid having to do
so:
 Click for a larger image.
Notice the trace under the “R19 label” from the DC jack to the capacitor remains intact.

Click for a larger image.

Notice the trace from the DC jack switch to the battery circuit remains intact. Also notice that
I’ve already cut the two traces around the input jack contact, and jumpered the contacts for R1
and C1 together.

I used a Dremel EZ Lock cutting wheel to carve out the board, wearing both
protective goggles (which I also use while soldering) and a breath mask to avoid
breathing in fiberglass dust. Then I used the multimeter to make sure the contacts I
aimed to avoid were indeed preserved.

3PDT insertion

Before installing the new 3PDT switch, I soldered in the jumpers for the input signal
and ground connections as illustrated in the above diagram:

Click for a larger image.

Then I put it in the pedal housing, and laid the board on top of it, and…well, first, let
me point out another detail I’d missed earlier. This is the view of the installed Micro
Amp switch from the side:

Click for a larger image.

Notice the notch in the shaft of the switch. Turns out there’s a corresponding guide
tab sticking out from the side of the hole for the switch in the pedal housing,
meaning there was effectively only one way to orient the switch, leading to this:

Click for a larger image.

Yeah. Kind of not the ideal fit. The board still rests on top of the switch a little; as I’ll
show below, the pedal still fits together despite this. But if it bothered me more than
it did, I’d either carve through the power → capacitor trace on the top of the board
and jumper the contacts together, or drill out the guide tab from the switch hole so I
can turn the switch however I want.

Finished Project

After getting the 3PDT to fit, wiring the switch to the appropriate contacts was
relatively quick and straightforward. In the images below, the green wires lead from
the input jack, to the effect input, from the effect output, and to the output jack; the
red wires lead from the power and to the LED; and the black wire connects to the
ground lug on the output jack.

Click for a larger image.

 Click for a larger image.
Notice that the circuit board is tilted a bit due to resting on the 3PDT switch.

Click for a larger image.

Click for a larger image.

Despite the tilt of the circuit board resting on the 3PDT switch, the DC power jack is still perfectly
accessible.

Click for a larger image.

Notice the connection from the switch to the LED is much more visible from this angle.

Wrapping Up

The end result: Success! The Micro Amp is now perfectly true bypass, powers up and
works as-advertised. Though a little funky, the angle of the board resting on the
3PDT doesn’t seem to be hurting anything. If if does somehow break something one
day, oh well—time to get a new Micro Amp and repeat the operation. Or, perhaps by
the time that day comes, a newer revision of the Micro Amp circuit with true bypass
will already have been released!
And how does it sound? Well, just like it did before. Can’t really tell a difference. But
now my ideological unrest over having a hardwire bypass pedal in my chain is
relieved, and I got to exercise my geek impulses to boot. Totally worth it.

Ah, but there is one final catch: The size and orientation of the 3PDT makes it
impossible to fit a 9V battery properly anymore. I have a pedalboard—well,
pedalboards—with power supplies (T-Rex Fuel Tank Jr., various Voodoo Lab
products), but I still want to be able to tear the Micro Amp and the TU-3 off the
board, stick ‘em in my gig bag, and plug ’em in at a jam without having to resort to an
AC power adapter, such as my 1 Spot. I mean, I’ll do what I have to, but…are
there other options?

Turns out there is one especially attractive option, namely building a small, portable,
rechargeable 9.6V battery-powered supply that can power several (typical) pedals.
The parts are on the way, and when I get around to putting them together, I’ll let you
know how it goes!

Footnotes

1
Active pickups, by design, are not impacted by cable length, as they buffer the
signal directly from the guitar itself; but they require battery power, and if you
like fuzz pedals, particularly Fuzz Faces, they’re likely not for you, as fuzz effects
generally interact poorly with buffered signals. Hence the advice to place fuzz
pedals before any buffered effects in your chain.

2
User “chervokas” on The Gear Page has frequently explained this phenomenon
at length in the “Effects, Pedals, Strings & Things” forum. However,
do not follow that link to TGP. If you do, I’m not responsible for time, money,
relationships, jobs, livelihoods, hope and sanity lost.

3
“Widely believed” because the current manual doesn’t publish this spec, and
neither I nor anyone has actually measured it (or at least published the results).
However, the predecessor model, the TU-2, did have a published 1M Ohm input
impedance.

4
MXR has a list of true "hardwire" bypass and regular hardwire bypass
pedals but it isn’t perfectly up-to-date; I confirmed in an email with a Jim Dunlop
tech that my Phase 90 Rev. F is true bypass. Though new MXR pedals
have DPDT switches still, they make use of the Millenium circuit to toggle the
on/off LED without needing to resort to a 3PDT. This is effectively more reliable
and cheaper for mass-produced pedals, as I understand it.

Copyright 2013 Mike Bland.
 Except as noted, MXR Micro Amp True Bypass Modification by Mike Bland is licensed under
a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Permissions beyond the scope of this
license may be available at https://mike-bland.com/policies.html.