Kale,

The better question is ‘what rightside up / upside down’

The clockwise I refer to means you are holding the unit, and the power adapter input (back/top of unit) is facing away from you, with the circuit board (bottom of unit) facing you. This is in the normal sized Doctor Q, I looked at the nano pictures and it seems to be the same deal. The nano Q picture from earlier is a good example, if I had that unit in front of me, clockwise would do it (if it is indeed the same positioning as the wedge shape Q.

the reason I ask ‘what upside down’ ? Take a look at the nano Q picture from earlier. That is what I mean by circuit board facing you. You can turn that upside down unit in any direction, like rotating the picture 90 degrees, but a clockwise turn will still be a clockwise turn in the potentiometer (basically, no matter which earthly direction the power input faces).

Hope this helps, let me know if you get this trick to work

-Eric

I have indeed, with my bass big muff pi and the original LPB-1 I picked up this summer (http://www.studio1525.com/catalog/images/EH-LPB1-11-1-9-1.JPG – the plug in model)

It sounds awesome, and I am sure that the LPB-1 nano will give you good results as well.

I can’t help but plug is the nano soul preacher, which is what I prefer to run after the bass big muff. It adds volume and compression, which gets a really big sounds out of the big muff, as well as making a more controllable sound for recording and live mix.

Whether you use a SP or a LPB1, you will have to play around and find good settings, hope you find a good sweet spot.

Flick – When I first got this pedal, I didn’t notice the cut because I thought it was just the filter. I first became wary when I used the Q after a distortion pedal. I liked the sound I was getting, but when I turned the Q off, I was surprised at how much volume was being cut – I had to keep the volume on the distortion cranked to get enough signal through the Q.

That was before I tweaked the trim pot, now it sounds quite nice. I was wondering if you can address the use of these internal trim pots – by which I mean, what was EHX’s logic in making them internal controls? I can only imagine that they are placed internally because:
A ) They control a minute piece of the effect that would be too sensitive to mess around with as an external control
B ) It is cheaper to install the small ‘bead’ potentiometer than it is to build a pedal with another proper potentiometer, requiring another hole in the pedal and another knob.

I imagine it is more a combination of these two causes. I am curious as to how much the price would increase for the consumer if these additional knobs were external. Do any of the knobs on the QTron and other more advanced envelope filters mimic the behavior of the Dr. Q internal trim?

Vorvick – I may join the gear page, but please go ahead and link them to this or copy/paste my fix instructions.

Nano Q users – What does your trim pot say next to it? MY nano soul preacher says “TRIM 10K”, but the trim pot on my big Q says “TRIM 100K”. I don’t know what kind of “normal” potentiometer I would need in order to replace these

Hey guys, I bought my doctor Q a few years ago, and just today I figured out how to fix this. Glad this thread was already up.

Here is how I fixed it, this requires NO soldering or re-building of the circuit board:

!. Unplug your pedal. Open the pedal by removing the four screw in the four corners of the top of the pedal. The black back then slides right off.

2. Turn the unit over and look at the circuit board from the back. Right above the foot-switch (Blue box) there is a hole in the green circuit board, towards the bottom. Look through that hole and you will see a small slot, which is how you adjust this trim pot. I had a small jewelers screw driver that worked, something like a martini-sword might also fit.

About the trim pot: This pot appears to control Envelope feedback. When turned to the left (counter-clockwise), it increases the volume cut, and adds a lot more wah feedback. It sounds insane. Turning it to the right (clockwise) reduces the volume cut!
If you turn the trim pot really far right, you lose the envelope effect, so I recommend turning it a bit at a time and then plug it back in and see how the volume cut is.

I performed this today, and I have never been happier! It doesn’t cut the volume of my amp anymore, and now I can put distortion in front of it and get really awesome sound! WIDDLY WAAAAAH

I am a bassist, and I use a soul preacher. It has worked fine for my bass so far. I did adjust the internal gain trim slightly, but after some experimentation I found a good fit for my sound. I have not had the opportunity to try the black finger, but at the price I would probably go for a Keeley Compressor. Reviews vary on harmony central, and I can’t tell who is a bassist on there, but a lot of them also point to the keeley.