- Build Rating
Hi Everyone,
First major post here. I've built quite a few PedalPCB boards as well as a smaller few from Tayda's PCB offerings. My latest build, as I've been wanting to venture into Tone Bender territory, is the two tone fuzz.
For transistors, I went with the GT402B/Ds that the RambleFX unit uses. I had some GT402B transistors that I purchased a while ago from stompboxparts.com. I sourced the GT402Ds from Sovcom/Alexer1 off ebay last summer. I evaluated my gains and leakages Using the R.G. Keen method. My room temperature during this testing was around 70ºF (21.1ºC).
Based on my testing, these are my transistor selections for each part of the circuit:
Q1: GT402D
hFE: 79
uA: 129
Q2: GT402D
hFE: 68
uA: 56
Q3: GT402B
hFE: 114
uA: 117
I made a short video with one setting, so people can get an idea of how the circuit sounds with the above selections:
My initial impressions are that I am quite happy with the pedal. I was quite surprised by how much gain it has (in Mk.II mode). It is almost Big Muff Territory. I have enough gain at around the 12:00 position for the Attack knob with my Teles. I don't own or have ever played through a Tone Bender Mk.II pedal, so I really have no benchmark when it comes to the gain. Please let me know what you think in this regard. It definitely has that ToneBender snarl/bite/however you want to describe it that I've heard on recordings. I socketed the transistors in case I want to experiment with some different ones.
My main amp, and the amp I am playing through in the above short video is a Deluxe Reverb reissued. Since the black panel DR has a dip in the mids, I really like the eq switch where you can give the pedal a mid boost.
The enclosure is the hammered silver from Tayda. Maybe one day, I'll wrap my head around UV printing. However, I don't have a problem in remembering which is the gain and which is the volume on pedals with the volume on the left side and the gain on the right.
Anyway, this has been a fun build. I plan on attempting a stripboard Mk.I next. I think I have some GE transistors in my collection that may work (we'll see). I'll have to evaluate them on the breadboard.
First major post here. I've built quite a few PedalPCB boards as well as a smaller few from Tayda's PCB offerings. My latest build, as I've been wanting to venture into Tone Bender territory, is the two tone fuzz.
For transistors, I went with the GT402B/Ds that the RambleFX unit uses. I had some GT402B transistors that I purchased a while ago from stompboxparts.com. I sourced the GT402Ds from Sovcom/Alexer1 off ebay last summer. I evaluated my gains and leakages Using the R.G. Keen method. My room temperature during this testing was around 70ºF (21.1ºC).
Based on my testing, these are my transistor selections for each part of the circuit:
Q1: GT402D
hFE: 79
uA: 129
Q2: GT402D
hFE: 68
uA: 56
Q3: GT402B
hFE: 114
uA: 117
I made a short video with one setting, so people can get an idea of how the circuit sounds with the above selections:
My initial impressions are that I am quite happy with the pedal. I was quite surprised by how much gain it has (in Mk.II mode). It is almost Big Muff Territory. I have enough gain at around the 12:00 position for the Attack knob with my Teles. I don't own or have ever played through a Tone Bender Mk.II pedal, so I really have no benchmark when it comes to the gain. Please let me know what you think in this regard. It definitely has that ToneBender snarl/bite/however you want to describe it that I've heard on recordings. I socketed the transistors in case I want to experiment with some different ones.
My main amp, and the amp I am playing through in the above short video is a Deluxe Reverb reissued. Since the black panel DR has a dip in the mids, I really like the eq switch where you can give the pedal a mid boost.
The enclosure is the hammered silver from Tayda. Maybe one day, I'll wrap my head around UV printing. However, I don't have a problem in remembering which is the gain and which is the volume on pedals with the volume on the left side and the gain on the right.
Anyway, this has been a fun build. I plan on attempting a stripboard Mk.I next. I think I have some GE transistors in my collection that may work (we'll see). I'll have to evaluate them on the breadboard.