[Harp-L] Re: Jayphat like Ron Holmes' box?



If I got this circuit from Ron Holmes, why would I be crediting it to
Greg Schlacter, ca. 2001?   Marble Amps in Holland was selling a box
they called the Marble Max around the same time that seemed to perform
a similar function, given that it matched crystal mics and had an
output level knob.  I don't know what was in it, as I never bought one
or knew anyone who did.

Greg told me at the time he built the JAYPHAT that it was what he came
up with after looking at buffer designs in the public domain on the
Net.  If you had bothered to read the JAYPHAT posts, you would have
seen a link to www.muzique.com/lab/buffers.htm, with me explaining
that the second schematic on the page is a generic design for the type
of buffer circuit used in the JAYPHAT (thanks to Bruce Saunders for
spotting that one).  Using a JFET this way, in other words, is not
even patented, licensed, whatever.  It wouldn't surprise me if the
JFET's manufacturer came up with the design in the first place and
gave it away, the same way the tube manufacturers spread generic amp
schematics in order to sell more tubes.

I just located the first email I got from Greg about the JAYPHAT, on
an old hard drive.  It's dated Oct. 31, 2001:

Stephen,

I have researched/experimented/built a JFET impedance matching box to
interface my guitar/harp mics to my low impedance solid state pre-amp
and the Reverbatape tape echos for direct recording.

It would be well suited for your application, you said something about
needing to match impedance to some of your stomp boxes from a crystal
mic.

It uses 18 volts=two 9 volt batteries for the necessary headroom of a
high input voltage swing like a hum-bucker or crystal mic to prevent
clipping, but these batteries would last close to forever at about <5
ma of current draw.

It sounds very transparent and has no noise, a volume pot allows you
to adjust the gain from less than unity or beyond to overdrive a wimpy
tube amp.

I can put in a 10 meg or so input resistor for very high crystal mic
input impedances.

I only own one pedal effect, a Danelectro slap back echo, but I will
try the JFET out on this and on some tube amps as well to see how it
does.  It did extend the high end of a crystal mic and increased
apparent gain, as expected, when I plugged direct into my recording
preamp.

Anyway, I will gladly build and ship you one of these boards (metal
foil resistors throughout, very few parts and compact, feel free to
mount it into a big funky stomp box of your liking) in exchange for a
big favor....

[The favor was scoring a giant resistor assortment that the seller was
not shipping to Canada and doing the shipping myself.] <snip>

I have been able to get some stunningly good sound out of my
Reverbatape echo units by direct recording, with very low noise by
using the JFET in-front for impedance matching and some gain.
Replacing all the carbon resistor [sic] to metal foils will drop the
noise even further.

<snip> [part # on resistor assortment]

I can send the JFET board and a postal MO for the total + shipping in
advance if you need the cash flow.

I will be off to Paris next week, but can send the JFET board and MO
after then if you agree.

If this is just way too much of a pain, feel free to tell me to piss
off ;)

Thanks,
Greg


Now, Jeff, does that sound to you like my friend is copying a Ron
Holmes design and passing it off as his own?  Would you mind checking
the archives for us about what you say Ron was sending out, and get us
a date on that, please?  I definitely had the JAYPHAT box in my hands
by Mar. 29, 2002, as I just found an email where Greg is telling me to
try it with a Pioneer SR-101 outboard reverb unit he'd revived for
me.  IIRC, Greg gave up on SS recording in his home studio, went back
to a tube mic preamp, and didn't need the JAYPHAT anymore, so he sent
me his prototype--hence the chains of resistors in the schematic I
originally posted, which is drawn directly from the box I have--chains
of resistors happen when someone is testing and hasn't got single
resistors of the needed value; you might recall that Greg had to order
a resistor assortment through me.  (The currently posted schematic has
the chains simplified and some additional refinements people have
suggested after building their own.)  That again, seems like a lot of
trouble to go to in order to conceal the design's origin, if it was a
steal from Ron Holmes as you imply.

What I do remember Ron doing was offering the matching board he
installed in delay pedals, ~not~ an outboard box, and that board sold
for around $50 to people who wanted to modify their pedals
themselves.  I don't think he sold many, and maybe he decided to give
the schematic away--would you mind tracking that down in the archives
for us, please, ascertain exactly when he did that?  Then produce a
reliably dated copy of Ron's schematic, if he was indeed giving them
away.  I don't think the designs will be the same--there's more than
one way to do this, though I believe Ron likes JFETs himself.

You may consider the length of the above answer to be directly
proportional to how insulted by your question I feel.  The short
answer to your question is no, not that I know of.

Withdrawing your question publicly would be acceptable as an apology.

Stephen Schneider




On Jul 15, 11:43 pm, Blueha...@xxxxxxx wrote:
> Ron Holmes was sending out a schematic for a small little box described in  
> use very similarly to the impression I'm getting of the Jayphat discussed here.
>  I think it was sort of an outboard device to do replicate the mod he was
> doing  on the Danolectric delay pedals. He was making them himself for awhile,
> selling  them for around $50.
>
> Is this the same circuit?
>
> Jeff G
> Denver CO
>
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