Death by Fuzz (Desperation by Fuzz...)

[homeoffice]

Hi everyone!

I made the mistake of thinking, that the Death by Fuzz is a great second build.
After a lot of work and many mistakes I finally got it in something similar to a working condition. However, there are a few things that seem odd and make mine operate quite differently than this one here (https://forum.pedalpcb.com/threads/death-by-fuzz-i-fuzz-war.2719/).

1. I get some signal creep when the pedal is unpowered and engaged. It's minor, but it's there.
2. The gain is disappointingly low. Only when I crank the Fuzz pot, it sounds like (I think) it's supposed to sound. The jump happens in the last 10%.
3. The Tone pot is very dull in the left position (as expected), it thins out as I turn it up after 12 o'clock it gets a quite significant volume boost. This seems to be expected but it's really massive...

Ideas?


EDIT: I switched out the transistors to some higher rated ones and that solves question no2! That was easy...

 

[Barry]

Was C9 left out intentionally? Not familiar with this one

 

[homeoffice]

Yes. C8 and C9 are in parallel.

 

[homeoffice]

Another odd observation (this seems to be new):

The Volume of the unit is quite unpredictable. It sometimes turns louder or quieter when enganged (like a ghost operating the volume pot), stays at a certain volume and then may or may not change again. Sometimes it also does this between switches (on (loud)/off/on (quieter)).
Ideas?

 

[Betty Wont]

There looks like a lot of possibly cold solders. If it is behaving inconsistently, I'd touch up the wiring joints especially.