Panspermia.. anyone build one of these? Sustain control issue

saucy_boss

New member
Built a Space Fuzz clone and notes decay fast and when sustain is low or at 0, it produces no sound. It's far more gated than any demos I can find on youtube. I double checked component values, checked for shorts, I get full voltage at the board. Is this just how this clone sounds? It is in the same ballpark as demos of the Space Fuzz, but less sustain and notes die faster.
 

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When I hear this complaint, the first thing I always think is " How well is your guitar set up?". Low output single coils set too low to the strings can sound very much like what you're describing. Try a different guitar with louder pickups?
 
Actually, there is errors in the original schematic drawing that was never corrected, it was traced at the freestompboxes.org forums, if you go through the thread you can see photos of the board, what is mentioned as missing and/or incorrect.

First off, both pots are B100K Lin (this is mentioned but never gets corrected).
Second, the 1N5817's a drawn backwards, cathode should go to IC1 Pin 2 and anode to Pin 3 (tracer actually drew it like this at first, but changed it cause it looks like Escobedo's Rambler, never corrects this).
Third, the germanium is actually a 1N4148, not 1N34a (also mentioned, but tracer likes germanium better and never corrects it).
Fourth, there is a 22k resistor soldered onto the volume pot itself (not on the pcb) between lugs 1&2, which makes it parallel to the 1M that is also between lug 1&2, meaning it's more like 21.5k, which could be why the taper is off on the volume pot (this is also mentioned but never gets added).

I've drawn a new schematic with these corrections and it should now be a 100% clone of the Sepukku Space Fuzz.

Sepukku - Space Fuzz (schematic).png
 
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Forgot to mention I also build the Panspermia using a kit from Musikding with these corrections, and there are no problems with it, you can have sustain pot low and unity gain isn't at 3 o'clock-ish or whatever.
 
Just about to start my own Panspermia build using the PedalPCB board and I wondered if anyone else had modified their builds according to the notes above from @aelling...

I also wanted to ask @Robert if happened to incorporate any of the notes from @aelling into the current version of the Panspermia board (or if his own research had shown any truth or fiction to those notes)?
 
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