Erik S
Well-known member
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This is a cool circuit!
I watched the Keeley video to try and wrap my head around what was going on with the controls - I think he said it's based on a tonebender, but with an active 20db boost/ cut eq similar to a metal zone. He also said he's using a Japanese germanium transistor around 100 HFE and whatever it is is very consistent across each unit.
A few folks had reported that selecting the right Germ was important, so I made the bold/ shameful decision to install a socket. I hadn't used one of these To-5 sockets before, but I have a pile of them from an estate lot and they're much nicer than the snap-off inline sockets I've used before and had problems with. These grip a lot tighter and are hollow all the way down the pin so they accept a longer section of leg. Hopefully it doesn't come back to bite me later.
@Mentaltossflycoon said their audition winner was an MP38a over 100hfe, so I had pre-selected one of those with pretty low leakage, but I didn't end up liking it and was glad for the socket. After that I just grabbed everything NPN and started plugging in random stuff. My favorite ended up being a cool looking Sylvania 2N214 that probably came from the same TV repair-guy estate. 70hfe and a little higher leakage, but I liked that it had a little more range of clean up with the volume knob than some other candidates.
Two weird things about this layout - Dual gang in the middle of the board is a little bit of a bummer for insulation purposes (made worse by my socket with it's long untrimmed tube-legs) And the LED location on the paper template is at the top, but the LED pads are at the bottom, so I had to run some wire. But overall still a pretty nice layout. Plus @Robert was thoughtful enough to stock both the 6428 transistors and the dual gang pot in the store which is nice.
I've had a hard time connecting with the handful of old school style fuzzes I've tried, but this one might stick around for a while.
And check out that pink LED! First time I've used one of those, and pretty excited about it.
I watched the Keeley video to try and wrap my head around what was going on with the controls - I think he said it's based on a tonebender, but with an active 20db boost/ cut eq similar to a metal zone. He also said he's using a Japanese germanium transistor around 100 HFE and whatever it is is very consistent across each unit.
A few folks had reported that selecting the right Germ was important, so I made the bold/ shameful decision to install a socket. I hadn't used one of these To-5 sockets before, but I have a pile of them from an estate lot and they're much nicer than the snap-off inline sockets I've used before and had problems with. These grip a lot tighter and are hollow all the way down the pin so they accept a longer section of leg. Hopefully it doesn't come back to bite me later.
@Mentaltossflycoon said their audition winner was an MP38a over 100hfe, so I had pre-selected one of those with pretty low leakage, but I didn't end up liking it and was glad for the socket. After that I just grabbed everything NPN and started plugging in random stuff. My favorite ended up being a cool looking Sylvania 2N214 that probably came from the same TV repair-guy estate. 70hfe and a little higher leakage, but I liked that it had a little more range of clean up with the volume knob than some other candidates.
Two weird things about this layout - Dual gang in the middle of the board is a little bit of a bummer for insulation purposes (made worse by my socket with it's long untrimmed tube-legs) And the LED location on the paper template is at the top, but the LED pads are at the bottom, so I had to run some wire. But overall still a pretty nice layout. Plus @Robert was thoughtful enough to stock both the 6428 transistors and the dual gang pot in the store which is nice.
I've had a hard time connecting with the handful of old school style fuzzes I've tried, but this one might stick around for a while.
And check out that pink LED! First time I've used one of those, and pretty excited about it.
Maybe if I buy a few more boxes of ebay germs I'll find the money tranny, right? Right??
