ACID RAIN Fuzz

[MichaelW]

I was so surprised when I got the email notification that PedalPCB had "received my order" when I hadn't placed an order.

Or at least I didn't remember placing an order, but I had to think through the panic.....maybe I DID place an order.....late at night half asleep in bed with my iPad browsing PCBs........(yes, this does happen...) What did I buy? How much did I spend? How am I going to explain it to the woman sleeping next to me that functions as our household CFO? All these questions dancing around in my head when I noticed it was for $0.00!

Turns out it was a gift from @PedalPCB who saw my mention of interest in this pcb in another thread. How totally awesome!!!

Thank you so much Robert!

Of course when it showed up I had to bump it to the top of the list and I started with the drilling last night and buttoned it up today after my last work meeting.

So for someone that is a fuzz neophyte and has very little experience with fuzzes, turns out I LIKE FUZZ PEDALS!!!

I'm not completely sure how to use them in the context of a song but for now I'm just having fun making noise.

This is a very different sounding fuzz than the Marigold I built a couple weeks ago. I used the BOM specified BC549C. I picked out 4 that were roughly the same 600-ish HFE, not sure if this makes a difference or not. But they're socketed and I may experiment with some other trannies I have, or different BC549C's.

But it sounds AWESOME as it is. I decided to pick some garish colors to emphasize the "Acid" part (although I was more of a Mr. Natural kinda guy as opposed to Magic Dragon back in the days of my misspent youth....)

I also incorporated some additional build ideas that I'm stealing from @fig. (When I grow up I wanna build pedals like @fig!)

Didn't quite come out the way I envisioned but definitely less messy wires, everything's neatly routed under the board. I used a mix of solid core and stranded.
(Actually, I only used stranded for the LED because of the bend.)

So now I have an Si transistor based fuzz, a Hybrid Si/Ge based fuzz and the next fuzz I want to build is a full on Ge fuzz. I have a set of "matched Ge transistors" from GuitarPCB for a ToneBender so that's probably next. Maybe the PedalPCB Tone Vendor MkII? (Open to suggestions)

 

[zgrav]

Thanks for the narrative too. It resonates with me and probably others as well.

 

[Harry Klippton]

I'm glad you discovered that you like fuzz. Be careful though, I only like fuzz

 

[Grubb]

How am I going to explain it to the woman sleeping next to me that functions as our household CFO

The only question that matters

 

[phi1]

Great build! It's a cool circuit and nice backstory. A point of curiosity, how did you measure the hfe of the BC549Cs? 60 hfe is well down into the typical Ge range, the BC549Cs are generally several hundred.

 

[fig]

Great build! It's a cool circuit and nice backstory. A point of curiosity, how did you measure the hfe of the BC549Cs? 60 hfe is well down into the typical Ge range, the BC549Cs are generally several hundred.

I thought a 0 was omitted. 600-ish sounds way better.

Great build Michael!

Thank you for the marvelous compliment! You’re way too kind

 

[MichaelW]

Great build! It's a cool circuit and nice backstory. A point of curiosity, how did you measure the hfe of the BC549Cs? 60 hfe is well down into the typical Ge range, the BC549Cs are generally several hundred.

Thank you! And great catch, that was a typo, I fixed it. Yah, 600-ish. I think the lowest was 582 and the highest was 621. I don't know enough to know what these values will do to the sound if I swap them around a bit. The other BC549C's I have are both higher and lower, so I may experiment a little.

 

[szukalski]

FWIW, the most enjoyable fuzzes I have thus far with Ge:

Fuchsia Fuzz
Twin Face
Gnat Fuzz

 

[MichaelW]

FWIW, the most enjoyable fuzzes I have thus far with Ge:

Fuchsia Fuzz
Twin Face
Gnat Fuzz

Thank you! I actually have the Twin Face in my cart right now. That looks pretty cool. Actually, I have TWO boards in my cart based on your recommendation....hahah...I have the Constrictor in there as well.

 

[DAJE]

I'm glad I help inspire your interest in this pedal.

I was using mine today, and yes, it is a great fuzz. Highly recommended. I'm pretty sure the BC549Cs in mine are right around the 600 hFE mark too.

 

[Feral Feline]

Another fine build, Michael,
another fun-to-read build report!

You just keep knocking them out, out of the park. So prolific.
You inspire me to build more — thanks for that.

 

[szukalski]

Thank you! I actually have the Twin Face in my cart right now. That looks pretty cool. Actually, I have TWO boards in my cart based on your recommendation....hahah...I have the Constrictor in there as well.

I got the VTL5C10 from Aliexpress here, if you're struggling for a source.

I just finished a Muffin Factory, which is really fun, a lot more gain than the Twin Face though.

When playing the Twin Face, I found I have to use it like a Fender Champ-type amp. Crank it up and then use the guitar volume to manage your gain, lots of sounds to be had there. Really nice with single coils. I need to get my build reports and sound-clip game up..

 

[MichaelW]

I got the VTL5C10 from Aliexpress here, if you're struggling for a source.

I just finished a Muffin Factory, which is really fun, a lot more gain than the Twin Face though.

When playing the Twin Face, I found I have to use it like a Fender Champ-type amp. Crank it up and then use the guitar volume to manage your gain, lots of sounds to be had there. Really nice with single coils. I need to get my build reports and sound-clip game up..

Have you found these vendors on AliExpress reliable? I see lots of components, including many unobtanium types available. I ordered from eBay but it's probably from the same seller hahah.

 

[szukalski]

My experience so far has been decent. Any resistors / caps have flimsy connectors, and they're cheap enough to buy at a regular place (Mouser/Tayda).

I have bought a bunch of stuff through AliExpress and you either get the real deal, just like the chinese manufacturers would get (Mosky et. al get their parts from somewhere right?), or it's mis-labelled/out-of-spec.

My experiences have been pretty good, mainly using these sellers (but I am not vouching on them of course), Fantasy Electronics, Landtone, and Daier.

I have had good experiences with trim pots, TL072, LM386, LM358.

I also got a bunch of 2N2222, 2N5088, 2N5457, 2N3904. They didn't align with the spec of the same stuff from other suppliers, but they are usable (and in some cases I preferred them).

I treat anything on ebay as coming from similar sources, unless they're verified.

I do get my foot switches from Landtone or Daier, they haven't failed me yet but I am not on the road or using them commercially. Half-price is nice though.

 

[DAJE]

I do get my foot switches from Landtone or Daier, they haven't failed me yet but I am not on the road or using them commercially. Half-price is nice though.

I've bought a few boxes of footswitches from Landtone, the black ones in particular are my favourites.

However, they had to refund my last purchase because they're in Shanghai and locked down hard. Very hard indeed. I believe it's opening up again there now but I'll wait a while before I order from them again.