1590B · 4 knobs

Jon Patton’s Cru’z Driver

Based on the Jon Patton Cruz Drive· 1 other board clones it

Category: Overdrive
Controls: Gain · Tone · Bass · Volume
Price: €7.02in stock

Buy the PCB at TH Custom Effects Build document

From the vendor

Jon Patton's all-FET take on the Tube Driver: a BS170 MOSFET booster feeding two cascaded 2N5457 JFET gain stages, with an ICL7660S charge-pump rail to give the FETs real headroom. The 3-mode tone stack is the headline feature — three different mid voicings selectable from one toggle. The CruzDriver is Jon Patton's all-FET reinterpretation of the BK Butler Tube Driver. It was originally built for a customer who needed something that sat right in front of his amps at home (a Bruno S100) and on a big Fender — and who specifically wanted "a flat dirty boost in there somewhere." The 1590B version is the larger-enclosure layout of Jon's original 1590A design, giving room for a 3-position MIDS tog

Schematic

The schematic is in the vendor's build document. Open the build document. No KiCad fragment has been drawn for this circuit yet.

Parts list 39 rows

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Ref	Value	Normalized	Notes
Resistors 14
R1	2M2	2.2M	Q1 (BS170) input pull-down to ground.
R2	2M2	2.2M	Q1 (BS170) gate bias resistor — to VB negative rail.
R3	2k7	2.7k	Q1 source resistor — works with GAIN pot for source degeneration.
R4	2k7	2.7k	Q1 drain load — to VA positive rail.
R5	220k	220k	Q2 gate input series resistor.
R6	470k	470k	Q2 gate bias pull-down to ground.
R7	680R	680	Q2 source resistor (unbypassed) — sets gain and headroom.
R8	47k	47k	Tone stack — limits TONE pot bottom-out, prevents full LP cut.
R9	680R	680	Tone stack reference / MIDS switch return path.
R10	100k	100k	Tone stack BASS shelf reference.
R11	4k7	4.7k	Q3 drain load — to VA positive rail.
BIAS1	100k	100k	ACP 6mm or Piher trimmer — sets VA / VB rail bias point. See §05 setup procedure.
BIAS2	10k	10k	ACP 6mm or Piher trimmer — sets Q2 (2N5457) drain bias. See §05 setup procedure.
BIAS3	2k	2k	ACP 6mm or Piher trimmer — sets Q3 (2N5457) source bias. See §05 setup procedure.
Capacitors 13
C5	100n	100n	Box film — coupling and rail decoupling.
C6	100n	100n	Box film — coupling and rail decoupling.
C8	100n	100n	Box film — coupling and rail decoupling.
C18	100n	100n	Box film — coupling and rail decoupling.
C11	4n7	4.7n	Box film — Q2 output coupling (C11) and tone stack input (C12).
C12	4n7	4.7n	Box film — Q2 output coupling (C11) and tone stack input (C12).
C13	22n	22n	Box film — MIDS switch position (mode 1) tuning .
C14	2n2	2.2n	Box film — MIDS switch position (mode 3, scoop) tuning .
C15	82n	82n	Box film — Big-Muff-style tone stack treble cap.
C16	3n3	3.3n	Box film — Big-Muff-style tone stack HP cap.
C7	47p	47p	Ceramic — Q1 drain RFI rejection.
C9	22p	22p	Ceramic — Q2 (C9) and Q3 (C17) gate RFI / anti-oscillation caps.
C17	22p	22p	Ceramic — Q2 (C9) and Q3 (C17) gate RFI / anti-oscillation caps.
Diodes 4
D1	1N4001	1N4001	Reverse polarity protection — observe polarity, band toward circuit.
D2	1N5817	1N5817	Schottky — charge pump rectifier (VA rail). Observe polarity.
D3	1N5817	1N5817	Schottky — charge pump rectifier (VB rail). Observe polarity.
D4	9V1 Zener	9V1	Q1 gate clamp — protects BS170 gate against ESD/over-voltage. Observe polarity (cathode/band toward gate).
Transistors 3
Q1	BS170	BS170	N-channel MOSFET, TO-92. Pinout (flat side facing you, leads down): D – G – S. ESD-sensitive — handle carefully.
Q2	2N5457	2N5457	N-channel JFET, TO-92. Pinout (flat side facing you, leads down): D – S – G. J201 MPF102 work but pinout may differ — verify.
Q3	2N5457	2N5457	N-channel JFET, TO-92. Pinout (flat side facing you, leads down): D – S – G. J201 MPF102 work but pinout may differ — verify.
ICs 1
IC1	ICL7660 S CPA	ICL7660 S CPA	Voltage inverter / charge pump, DIP-8. The "S" suffix is mandatory — non-S parts will not work in this circuit (they oscillate audibly). Use a socket. MAX1044 works but only the SCPA-suffixed version of the ICL7660.
Potentiometers 4
GAIN	C5k	C5k	C taper (reverse log) — overall gain.
TONE	B100k	B100k	B taper (linear) — Big-Muff-style treble/tilt.
BASS	C500k	C500k	C taper (reverse log) — bass shelf cut.
VOLUME	A100k	A100k	A taper (audio log) — output level.

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