Luke Juke
110 posts
Feb 06, 2010
2:14 PM
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Anyone made one of these. Did it wrk well. Was it worth it.Let me know. I'm thinking if making one one for my ceramic mic
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jonsparrow
2129 posts
Feb 06, 2010
2:27 PM
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what is it?
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Luke Juke
111 posts
Feb 06, 2010
2:37 PM
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I don't really understand the electronics but from what I gather it's like a stomp box that contains an op amp, a couple of capacitors and a couple of resistors and it improves the tone of crystal and ceramic mics somehow.
Apparently g.weber will build one for over $200. And randy at lonewolf builds them into his line of harp pedals. I'm just wondeing if it's worthbuildingas a stand alone pedal
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tookatooka
1163 posts
Feb 06, 2010
3:21 PM
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Luke, from what I read it's much the same as an impedance matching transformer. The jayphat box matches the impedance in a different way than purely inductively via a transformer. $200.00? The circuit components that I saw could probably be purchased for under £10 in the UK. It's not a pedal as such, you wouldn't need to turn it on and off while playing, it would be permanently on.
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isaacullah
688 posts
Feb 06, 2010
3:28 PM
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It's a unity gain buffer circuit. Cheap as chips to build, and super easy. A beginner in electronics can knock one out in an evening. Yes, as tooka says, it basically achieves the same thing as an impedance matching transformer does, albeit in a different way with potentially different sounding results. It basically amps the current without amping the voltage. So you get current gain (to drive long cables and punch up the impedance) without volume gain. You can do this yourself for under $20 with parts you can find at radioshack.
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The magnificent YouTube channel of the internet user known as "isaacullah"
Last Edited by on Feb 06, 2010 3:30 PM
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Luke Juke
112 posts
Feb 06, 2010
3:46 PM
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Have you tried one Isaac. I'm wondering whether I should build one
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JTThirty
56 posts
Feb 06, 2010
5:04 PM
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Yes, Luke, I made one and they work very well, especially with crystal elements. They bring out the beast in those elements--fatter, fuller tones. Ceramic, controlled reluctance, controlled magnetic and even dynamic elements benefit from a jayphat, but the difference is not as dramatic. An amp that is designed with a 5+meg input will match the load that a crystal mic wants to see and the difference will be less dramatic also.
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Stickman
187 posts
Feb 06, 2010
9:38 PM
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Sounds like it is time for a DIY Instructable Isaac
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The Art Teacher Formally Known As scstrickland
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htownfess
14 posts
Feb 08, 2010
12:02 AM
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It's a simple JFET common drain buffer circuit that isolates the mic element from inadequate impedances downstream, so you get the full mic tone regardless of what's in the chain (including longer/multiple cables as mentioned, within reason). G. Weber does not build them, but high-quality signal splitters like the Kendrick A/B/C box will have some kind of buffer circuit to prevent the parallel-impedance problems you can get running multiple amps at once (three 1Meg amps @ once yields 333K, for example). The Lone Wolf pedals have Randy's own buffer circuit on their inputs, and the Kinder Maximizer is a buffer circuit that is also incorporated into the input of their AFB+ box.
Biggest impact is on Astatic crystals, but with any high-impedance mic, a buffer is essential to get the most out of non-harp pedals. Even the cheap ones from Danelectro or whoever can sound remarkable if you buffer the mic, and the pedals' bypass mode will also work properly. A Jayphat is cheaper and more convenient than modifying the pedals themselves. That may be most people's best reason for building one--a lot of people have got those cheaper effect pedals around but wish they worked better.
It is also good for running a lot of hi-Z bullet mics straight into a modern PA, if you get caught in that situation.
One useful Jayphat variant is building it with two outputs so you can easily run two amps at once. Just do two output jacks in parallel; you could even do three.
Rick Bush did a Jayphat build series at his Back in the Day blog, about June 19-July 3, 2008. It took that long because he was finding out that retirement means less time of your own and he had to backtrack a couple times to fix mistakes he made. Nonetheless, a Jayphat is a good first electronics project, given the simplicity, low cost and all the use you can get out of it. Easy on batteries too.
Don't have a shortcut to Rick's posts, scroll to about 2/3 down this page to get to June/July:
http://bushdogblues.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-06%3A00&updated-max=2009-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-06%3A00&max-results=50
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Luke Juke
113 posts
Feb 08, 2010
12:34 AM
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Thanks for the info guys. I'm gonna try and build one next weekend. My delay pedal is a cheap behringer analogue delay which sounds ok but hopefully will sound better. I'll let everyone know what Difference it makes in a couple of weeks.
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tookatooka
1171 posts
Feb 08, 2010
3:31 AM
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Luke Juke. I'm almost certain you'll need to ground youself when handling the JFET. I think they are electrostatic sensitive and can easily be ruined by simply walking across a carpet with synthetic fibres and picking up the device. Take precautions.
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Luke Juke
114 posts
Feb 08, 2010
4:56 AM
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I'm one happy bunny!!!! I've just checked my e-mails and I'm the winner of a lonewolf V2 delay on the lonewolf forum!!!!so I won't be needing a jayphat. Well happy!!!
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toddlgreene
740 posts
Feb 08, 2010
5:00 AM
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Congrats, LukeJuke-I have one, and it's a great pedal.
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Todd L. Greene, V.P.
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isaacullah
698 posts
Feb 08, 2010
10:03 AM
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Well, that's certainly quite good for you! Congrats!
@tooka. Yup, all FET's are quite sensitive to static. MOSFETs are even more sensitive than JFETs, which is why you have to put a diode (preferably an LED b/c of the higher voltage knee) from source to drain so that any static charge at the input of the circuit will bleed off to ground through the drain resistor. This trick can also be used for JFETs, but I find them less sensitive than MSOFETS, so it's not always necessary to do this with EVERY JFET circuit, but still a good precaution. Reverse polarity protection (another diode based circuit) on the power source is also a very good idea. You can blow a FET in heartbeat if you accidentally connect the battery upside down.
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The magnificent YouTube channel of the internet user known as "isaacullah"
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mrdon46
25 posts
Feb 08, 2010
10:40 AM
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Luke, congrats n winning the V2 Harp Delay. I did build a Jayphat early on, but now just use one of my LW pedals to provide impedance buffering. What I DO use my Jayphat for, and recommend it for, is as a signal splitter if I want to use 2 amps. Just build it with 2 outputs, and because it's active and has a pot to increase gain, it compensates for any signal loss caused by splitting it. If you incorporate a small 1:1 transformer into one output, that serves to isolate the grounds of the 2 outputs, and eliminate any ground loop hum issues. And as Isaac points out, it's really cheap to make.
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