The Poor Man's Pultec Mid Boost/Cut Modification

This short note documents the results of my attempts to add a mid boost/cut control to the Poor Man's EQP1-A. The simplest way to achieve a mid boost/cut is with a series LC circuit switched across the input arm of the passive EQ attenuator for boost, or across the output arm for cut. Unfortunately, using the same LC values for cut and boost results in very different sharpness (Q) of the resulting curves with the cut being about 8 times sharper than the boost. Alternative strategies were investigated, including using a parallel resonant circuit but these all suffered from the same problem and others as well. I concluded that we would have to accept different Q values for cut and boost. This is not as bad as it seems this is exactly what happens in the well liked Helios Type 68 EQ because they use the same basic circuit topology. So, the bottom line is that, after going round in circles for some time evaluating alternatives, it looks like emulating the Helios Type 69 is the way to go. Using a 20 inductor is somewhat contrary to the Poor Man's philosphy so I will contnue to look for cheaper alternatives. In the meantime here is a table of L and C values with the resultant peak and dip frequencies and their associated Q values. This table is compiled using the VTB9050 inductor available form Audio Maintenance: http://www.audiomaintenance.com/acatalog/Transformers_and_Inductors.html I would have liked to include some lower frequencies, particularly 150Hz and 180Hz because the sharp cut at these frequencies is useful for removing the harmonics of mains hum but to get a decent Q requires an inductance of 5 Henries. Below the table is a sketch showing how the mid boost/cut is wired into the Poor Man's Pultec. Because of having to minimise interaction with the existing controls, this boost/cut circuit works a little differently to the others. The pot is connected in series with the LC so it varies not only the amplitude of the boost/cut but also the Q. The Q starts of low and gets larger as boost/cut is increased reaching the values shown in the table at maximum boost/cut. It also means that the minimum boost is not quite no boost at all so I have included a switch in series with the pot to allow the mid boost/cut to be switched right off. I seem to remember Helios did something similar and incorporated the switch with the pot. The boost/cut switch simply connects the LC circuit in one of two ways. As far as actually building it is concerned, the existing EQ PCB can be used by cutting the tracks between pairs of capacitors e.g between C2/C2A and C3/C3A etc. Nearly all the positions require just a single capacitor so the spare hole can be used to wire to the inductor. It should then be possible to have 12 frequency positions just by fitting a 1 pole 12 way switch instead of the normal 2 pole 6 way type. I don't plan to do a specific PCB for the mid EQ at the moment unless there is a significant demand. Ian Thompson-Bell 12th November 2011

Frequency 500 750 1000 1500 2000 3000 4000 5000 6300 8500 11000 16000

Inductance (mH) Capacitance (nF) 2000 2000 1000 1000 450 450 220 220 160 160 100 100 47 22 22 10 10 + 3.3 6.8 6.8 3.3 3.9 2.2 2.2 1 0.7 1.05 0.7 1.05 0.63 0.95 0.62 0.77 0.7 0.95 0.77 1.12

Qpeak 6.0 9.0 6.0 9.0 5.4 8.1 5.28 6.6 6.0 8.2 6.6 9.6

Qdip