Ease of build Easy

GlassBlower V1.5
-partscount Low
-density Medium
Parts sourcing Normal Boostrap Booster 27dB based on
Enclosure fitting Normal Merlin Blencowe’s circuit
Debugging level Easy

Overview
Merlin is famous for his knowledge about valve circuits. But from time to time he releases stompbox circuits after his
own ideas. His site: http://www.valvewizard.co.uk/

General
Here is Merlins project page: http://www.valvewizard.co.uk/glassblower.html

The board in rev 1.5 has been changed to remove my noisy implementation of the VU meter.

This is what Merlin says about it:

“The GlassBlower is a high-headroom buffer / booster pedal, specially designed for slamming the input of a
valve amp, though it can also be used as a general-purpose booster of course. Using a buffer before a valve amp can
also cure some forms of heater hum by presenting the input grid with a low source impedance! There are no sound
clips for this pedal since it is purely clean; no tone shaping at all, just hifi quality amplification.

Most other 9V booster pedals run out of headroom around 6Vp-p, or even less, but the GlassBlower can deliver
up to 27dB of boost and 12Vp-p of clean output signal! There are some pedals on the market that can do this (for
example, the VisualSound Truetone), but they use voltage multipliers to increase the supply voltage internally. Such
multipliers are, at best, 80% efficient, so your 9V battery only lasts 80% as long, which is a bit of a waste, considering
you don't actually need all that headroom most of the time.
The GlassBlower is different. I archives its extra headroom with a devilishly-simple-yet-sophisticated rail boostrapping
technique that forces the supply rails to follow the signal. In this way the extra voltage is there ONLY when it is
needed. This is effectively what advertisers call Class G (I disapprove of the term though).”

Schematic
Bill of Materials
Device# Qty Value Comment
Resistors R1 1 10M/6.2M 10M are rather hard to source
R2 1 22k
R3 1 27k
R4,R10,R11 3 20k
R5 1 1M
R6 1 2k2
R7 1 4k7
R8,R9 2 220R
Capacitors C1 1 100n box film
C2,C3,C7 3 10u/16V polarized electro
C4 1 100p ceram
C5, C6 2 100u/16V polarized electro
Pots GAIN 1 50k-lin
Diodes D1 1 1N4001
Transistors Q1 1 BC337
Q2 1 BC327
ICs IC1 1 TL072

Building
Start populating resistors and diodes first, then IC sockets. If you want to socket the transistors you put the sockets in
now. Next do the capacitors, starting ceramic, box film and last pol. electros.
Finally
You now have an easy-to-use boost with lots of reserves to bring down any amp
It’s a boost, so the pot starts with equal amplification and increases when turned.

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