Hey guys -

OK, I bought one of these again, used.

I did the trimmer adjustments recommended by Jack. Makes the pedal more useable in the gain department and the tone controls are more sensitive.

I remember that Coreleone or someone had a magic one that seemed to sound better than most.

I am hoping and asking that that person take the measurements of the trimmers and let me know so I can see if I'm missing something.

Thanks guys.

As long as the trimmers are giving you around 4.5V on the drain of the JFETs, there will not be a huge difference in tone (say, 4.2 to 4.7V).

Yeah, that's where they're at now. Just wondering what a supposed "magic" one measures out at.

Is this the 4-knob TBIAC?

5 knob

i love my TBIAC. its definetly the most
"amp-like" pedal ive played through. id like to try the internal trim pots adjustments. for all i know mine could be set just right. but i would be impressed if mine was set wrong and could sound better than it does now...

Tim

The TBIAC is the pedal that has spent the longest time on my board. It would be difficult to imagine what electric guitar would be like without it.

yeah, I can honestly say my tbiac's have the mojo, especially the 4 knobber I got first. it's been on my board non-stop since I got it years ago and gets constant use. amazing pedal when used right. gotta love it.

John, I've sold about 40 pedals this year and I'm not done yet... the TBIAC was one of the toughest for me to part with, but I needed to thin the herd down to the bare bones essentials. Don't know about mine being 'magic', but it did sound noticeably better than a couple others I heard. I'd read a few accounts of folks messing with the internals & making the pedal sound horrible, so I never tweaked the trimmers. Sorry I can't be of any help on that. And yes, I definitely miss that pedal...

I know how it is. I've sold off about 25 pedals this year, and do miss some of them.

Well, maybe someone like Davei and Jack can desribe how tweaking the bias on the resistors one way of the other would affect the tone??? I guess I could screw with it and at least always bring it back to 4.5v

Cool, thanks guys!

If you keep things at 4.5V, you're getting maximum output with the most symmetric distortion. In a nutshell, your signal kind of "rides" the power supply, so if you tweak the trimmer so it's at exactly half, there is the most room for your signal to "move" (peaks/valleys). If you tweak things off of 4.5V, you will start to get a bit of asymmetric distortion, but if you go to far, you'll get a noise-gate type of effect, sputtering, cut off notes. With a fresh battery, I would stay within half a volt of 4.5V (4-5V) and tweak it by ear.

guys,

please do not mess with the trim pots in a
tbiac. they are not 2n5457 jfets and are
not supposed to be biased the same. they are
custom transistors that need to be biased
properly. if you think that they are not
call us at 909 460 5508.

just because it is put on a website does not mean it is true.

brian
menatone

The problem with putting trimmers in a pedal - you know guys like us are going to twist em.

John -you took my Dirty Blonde? How could you? Jokes, guy. I thought it was good deal too. Thing is, the seller didn't get back to me about shipping to Canada, and Ebay won't allow me to use Buy It Now for some reason (worked in the past). Anyway, hope you enjoy it, and you know who to call if you decide to move it along!

Jeez sorry Nathan!

yeah, good deal, and the guy has great feedback.

If I find it covered by the TBIAC, I'll contact you.

Don't feel bad, John. It's just the way things go. I was surprised that it was a name I recognized who got it. But I am serious about contacting me if you decide to let it go!

You got it -

Funny, I saw it, went and read your post about it, and then picked it up. So it's your fault!