Chris Hurley
Power User
A typical saturation switch that we see on a lot of amps has a moderate sized capacitor coming off the cathode of the cathode follower for the tone stack, followed by a resistor (or these may be reversed) and finally the clipping elements- diodes, transistors wired as diodes, etc... connected to ground.
I may be wrong and if I am, I'm sure I'll find out momentarily but the size of the capacitor seems to allow signal above a frequency to be clipped while leaving lower frequencies in tact. Depending on how much clipping of the higher frequencies occurs, this can give the perception of a bigger and less dirty low end.
So the capacitor allows the higher frequencies to be clipped by X dB while leaving frequencies below that (presumably on a curve) unclipped... if I'm understanding the circuit correctly.
I wonder if it is possible to have an adjustment for this inside the amp block.
I may be wrong and if I am, I'm sure I'll find out momentarily but the size of the capacitor seems to allow signal above a frequency to be clipped while leaving lower frequencies in tact. Depending on how much clipping of the higher frequencies occurs, this can give the perception of a bigger and less dirty low end.
So the capacitor allows the higher frequencies to be clipped by X dB while leaving frequencies below that (presumably on a curve) unclipped... if I'm understanding the circuit correctly.
I wonder if it is possible to have an adjustment for this inside the amp block.
