This begins my build reports for the slew of boards ordered after being the beneficiary of some of @fig copious generosity. This is the Shika fuzz. I have not listened to Boris ever and understand that the Hizumitas/sustainer is basically a Big Muff, I even have a modded Muff already, but I have never BUILT a muff so here it is:
The knobs are the “ripple” style instead of the Marshall that eqd uses and holy crap they are tall. Was going to use BC549b’s with hfes in the 400 range, but remembered reading around here that Muffs with lower hfe trannies sounded better so I went with some pn2222 q1-168 q2-175 q3-218. Q4 is a 3904 coming in at 280. All are socketed for possible experimenting later. As for the sound? I was a little surprised. Maybe it’s the low gainer transistors, but my initial thought was “crispier”. Def not as wooly as my other Muff (I believe it has BC549s) Also, this thing is LOUD AF. Unity is at ab 9 o’clock. May be in part to the use of a linear volume pot instead of log. For reference I was playing a p90 loaded guitar. On guitar I was very meh with it. Then I tried it on bass and hot damn! This is where the fun is. all the bass, none of the mud. Will it be my go to bass fuzz? Maybe. I switch out pedals and combinations regularly to try and get the next weird sound so it may see some play time. Ultimately, I did as Fig says, I built something because he said so and so should you. More to come once I sit down with GIMP and make some art work for the rest of my haul.
The knobs are the “ripple” style instead of the Marshall that eqd uses and holy crap they are tall. Was going to use BC549b’s with hfes in the 400 range, but remembered reading around here that Muffs with lower hfe trannies sounded better so I went with some pn2222 q1-168 q2-175 q3-218. Q4 is a 3904 coming in at 280. All are socketed for possible experimenting later. As for the sound? I was a little surprised. Maybe it’s the low gainer transistors, but my initial thought was “crispier”. Def not as wooly as my other Muff (I believe it has BC549s) Also, this thing is LOUD AF. Unity is at ab 9 o’clock. May be in part to the use of a linear volume pot instead of log. For reference I was playing a p90 loaded guitar. On guitar I was very meh with it. Then I tried it on bass and hot damn! This is where the fun is. all the bass, none of the mud. Will it be my go to bass fuzz? Maybe. I switch out pedals and combinations regularly to try and get the next weird sound so it may see some play time. Ultimately, I did as Fig says, I built something because he said so and so should you. More to come once I sit down with GIMP and make some art work for the rest of my haul.