Crunching Korg CX-3

It all started when JH and I discussed overdriven organ sounds.
Many things like uneven outputlevels, scratchy tube preamps etc. came up.
I started to investigate on it and had to learn that I know only little about how these things impact sound quality.
So I started to do some tests and to search for more information.

I own two Hughes & Kettner Crunch Master which are tube preamps and intended to use for blues, jazz and other medium distorted sounds. Although it's possible to put some heavy distortion on the input signal Heavy Metal application is not the main use of this box.

First I did some simple testrecordings:
Organ without Crunch Master: no_HK-CM.mp3 (933600 Bytes) WAV (4862006 Bytes)
Crunchmaster hooked up to "high" output. Organ at "Preset I", nothing else is set or used:

Gain Position	MPG3 compressed File	Size (Bytes)	alternate Format	Size (Bytes)
9h	HK-CM-1.mp3	972480	WAV	4583326
11h	HK-CM-2.mp3	824208	WAV	4229296
12h	HK-CM-3.mp3	1156848	WAV	5208012
13h	HK-CM-4.mp3	1327968	WAV	5693500
14h	HK-CM-5.mp3	1519728	WAV	6341932
15h	HK-CM-6.mp3	1451664	WAV	5680812

(The audibly clicks when changing to the next note are the result of my slipshod and impatient playing. Sometimes I was playing legato and sometimes not.)

Currently I'm exploring my H&K Crunch Master and became quite unhappy with it meanwhile!
With increasing gain I was expecting at least some sort of compression of the input signal before and while getting "squeezed" and mildly clipped, rather than hearing a sawtooth like overtone behaviour with an exceeding amplitude (I think the scope proofs my ears right):

almost not distorted a little shifting occurs
that is what I don't like even worse

Note: The higher the pitch goes the more the shape becomes like a real sawtooth.

I you want to see those pictures in motion you can get this little movie (168kB Quicktime).
The sine is produced by my CX-3 (220Hz). The fluctuation of the amplitude comes from my attempt to keep it in the visible area of the screen while increasing the gain of the H&K box.

Meanwhile I found a schematic of the H&K Crunch Master on this site.

Meanwhile I had the chance to talk to a collegue who brought his H&K Tube 50 and Fender Hotrod guitar amps for some rehearsal.
He seconded that the H&K has much less sustain and therefore compression than the Fender which is much more intended for Blues and Jazz than the H&K.
Well - although I stated elsewhere that I like the sounds of Jon Lord and Ken Hensley as well I can't even get close to this big fat smoky jazz sound like a Jimmy Smith gets.

Now I'm in search of a better tube device to achieve this since the H&K stuff uses a design which doesn't fit my needs.

(to be continued)

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