Cheapskate's Airbrake

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nickt
Posts: 435
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2006 3:22 am
Location: London, UK

Cheapskate's Airbrake

Post by nickt »

You might have seen some comments from me on DIY Airbrake about removing features from the Airbrake until it's just a one setting pad. :twisted:

Ok its built and tested

The circuit is basically 3 resistors and a cap.
- 25R 40W
- 25R 40W
- 50R 20W
- 0.1uf 600V (in parallel with the 50R)

One 25R goes from input to ground.
Second 25R goes in series with the 50R/0.1u pair
The 25R/50R/0.1u network goes from input to output (25R to input)

This equates to the airbrake
- MINUS lots of it's power handling
- and set on "Bedroom" at about 10 o'clock on the rheostat

Does it work? is it any good?
- yeah it works
- don't know how an airbrake sounds so can't compare
- good? maybe it will mean I play a bit more often (hmm... not sure that's good :D )

I've built it in a box that's er... way too small but it didn't get hot with my Deluxe - time will tell.

Will post pics after I get over the flu if anyone's interested :wink:
Last edited by nickt on Sun Sep 02, 2007 12:50 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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RJ Guitars
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Location: Los Alamos, New Mexico
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Re: Cheapskate's Airbrake

Post by RJ Guitars »

Nickt, Sure post an image, I'd like to see it. I was thinking that with just a few components you could easily add in a half power switchable option right into your amp build.

I've been going through a AirBrake build (taking my time about it) but before I built it I wanted to make a schematic and understand what it was doing.

After I mapped it all out and started calculating the impedance in all the various settings. It strikes me that as you crank up the attenuation to max, the impedance rises to about 20+ ohms. Now it might still sound poor at high attenuation regardless of the impedance, but I'm curious what effect the high impedance has on the tone.

rj
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nickt
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Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2006 3:22 am
Location: London, UK

Re: Cheapskate's Airbrake

Post by nickt »

Ok RJ here it is! It's built into a small diecast aluminium box.

Hope it's useful for someone.

cheers
Nick
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