Not far from the Fig tree

Diynot

Well-known member
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:
D933263D-DB0C-4D28-9A31-A4B38470B619.jpeg F7ADF105-0E83-4492-97DF-60426494792F.jpeg
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.
 
Thanks man! I try to keep it tidy. I noticed that @swelchy is using some 0 ohm resistors for his true bypass. Thinking that looks pretty tight and might have to start using those instead of lead clippings
Never even thought about using 0 ohm resistors for the true bypass! I think @swelchy may have started a trend!
 
but is there really any perceivable benefit to using a zero ohm resistor vs. solid core wire ?
I think not huh.. but I think what @Diynot was going for was an aesthetic thing which is what I caught on to too. But now that you say it I don’t think there would be any discernible difference between that and solid core wire. Just a “cool look” thing.
 
I think not huh.. but I think what @Diynot was going for was an aesthetic thing which is what I caught on to too. But now that you say it I don’t think there would be any discernible difference between that and solid core wire. Just a “cool look” thing.
yeah that's a fair call.

i guess you could even argue that they're easier to install
 
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:
View attachment 34442View attachment 34441
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.
I love love love this fuzz. It's my main dirty tone. Sounds really amazing through my Matamp clone. Just so much low end. I've got four other muffs and the only one I've liked close is the civil war/Russian muff. I went with four 2n5088s in this, all around 400 hFE I believe. I think on the second I built for a friend I didn't even match the 2n5088s and it still sounded amazing.
 
@steviejr92 I started using the 0 ohm resistor because I’m lazy and don’t have any solid core wire.. I didn’t like the very thin leads on my Tayda resistors and found that my stash of 0 ohms had really thick leads so I just started bending those to fit 🤣… at first it was function over form but now I do kinda like the look
 
@steviejr92 I started using the 0 ohm resistor because I’m lazy and don’t have any solid core wire.. I didn’t like the very thin leads on my Tayda resistors and found that my stash of 0 ohms had really thick leads so I just started bending those to fit 🤣… at first it was function over form but now I do kinda like the look
If you really think ab it, your signal goes through those very same leads all the way through your circuit🤯, but def more mojo w/ the 0 ohm resistor
 
@steviejr92 I started using the 0 ohm resistor because I’m lazy and don’t have any solid core wire.. I didn’t like the very thin leads on my Tayda resistors and found that my stash of 0 ohms had really thick leads so I just started bending those to fit 🤣… at first it was function over form but now I do kinda like the look
Well i think ill start following suit when i get my 0 ohms in. I think its cool look that i wouldve never thought of to do :cool: Sometimes laziness yields some interesting results :ROFLMAO:
 
@Diynot Your build is clean… I noticed the phat resistors you had…. that’s totally me when I have some oddball part I forgot to order… Not too long ago I did a glory hole that had some gargantuan caps in it… Had to fold them over the pcb 😂
 
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