Pyrite Ge Fuzz -- or, An Ode to Solder -- or JWin freakin finished something

jwin615

Well-known member
Fu..in @Ginsly made me build something. And finish it.
But first, this build is sponsored by ChipQwik. Their SMD3SW solder is freaking expensive and awesome! Almost as awesome as this build and circuit. Did you know that not only is it a no clean solder but it also smells like burning soap farts? Even better, if you have security issues and have to clean every bit of flux from your builds, it washes off under hot water in a couple of seconds. The flux doesn't harden, instead leaving a sort of oily viscous film that just dares you to try to clean it with conventional methods. But you just need hot water. Everything else is an interior cleaning method. As for my $52.85, it was money well spent as every other solder I have tried is interior(inferior). This stuff wets and reflows awesome. I have been a kester guy for 20+ years. F*** those nerds. Use promo code "52FINDOLLARSFOR8OZ" at www.hotgirlzinyourareas.biz today!
Anyway,

The build: Easy layout via @PedalBuilder.
I used 3 house/MIL/possibly random numbered Moto Germs that measured 42/52/72 in Q1/2/3. No measurable leakage Evee en when heated. Nichicon QXY, YXQ?, QXW?, I forget, Nichicon discontinued magic unobtanium foil caps. There. Also silver micas for the smaller values up to 2n4(2n2 on the board, 2n3 measured). The only other alterations were 24k resistors in place of 22k, because I have 57.3x more 24ks and am almost out of 22k.
For the enclosure, SBP 125b/1590sumthin. Wreckless behavior of adding water to lye, burning primer and spray paint and some stamps from the big rock candy mountain adorne the outside coated in duplicolor clear something something that didn't make the stamps run.
Cliff jacks because Cliff is a cool dude who likes D&D and still owes me 20 bucks.
SPC single core wire throughout with some fuckery with the ground wire. Maybe it's art? Maybe it's laziness? You decide!
Some Raytheon pointers on slightly misaligned holes, but the tips don't touch!
And a big stoopid LED because.
Oh, and I screwed up my measurements because. So, I hand to bend the pot legs back where there ankles were so far behind their heads they screamed.

The sound: I dig it. It does the roll back on the volume pot/touch sensitive thing. Had to roll way back but was using hot buckers because I'm a caveman who didn't want to open a guitar case to try single coils.
The depth pot adds a lot, though curiously. At full CCW, it's a fuzzrite, I think. Then at about 9-10oclock you/I/we hit maximum feedback/phase cancellation. Good garage rock and rockabilly stuff here. And the tone just gets bigger from there.
I can attest that a s***** power supply will make itself very evident very quickly with this
circuit as well.
I'll try it out on the bigger amps tomorrow.
Anyway, taint shots or it didn't happen!
IMG_20260609_215655799_HDR_PORTRAIT.jpg IMG_20260609_215525403_HDR.jpg IMG_20260609_215217809_HDR.jpg IMG_20260609_215026379_HDR.jpg
Thanks @Ginsly and @PedalBuilder
 
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Interior. F'n flat thumbs and autocorrect. Leaving it for legacy.
(y) 🤘😻

Love this build.

It's one of those that has that certain je ne c'est quoi where the whole is more than the sum of the parts.

One notable that must be mentioned are the serrated-washers on the jacks — that just looks so gooood. Might have to get me a baggie of those, and another for the 3PDTs, but since I'm thinking about it why not for toggles, too? Pots, no, even for the Davies 1900-style, serrated washers would be overkill.


The Pyrite keeps creeping up my build-queue with build-reports like this one.
 
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Not so fast, J- you’re trying to pass this off as a build, but it is clearly a Soviet-era Ghost Containment Unit… ☢️

Unreal dude!! Sooo happy to see this.

Did you try all lower gain transistors (like the MP40A ~30 or so hFE) before you opted to bump it up a bit?
 
I didn't. I had that bag of motos marked 30s-40s. Pulled 10 out and took the lowest 3. Thought to myself " I wish these were in the right range. But the pinout matches... Ah, that's what the volume pot on the guitar is for."
Kinda regretted it as I was boxing it up, but it was too far to turn back.
Plus, hFE doesn't necessarily track 100% with hfe, so we're just dealing with approximations (with hFE) anyway.
 
I didn't. I had that bag of motos marked 30s-40s. Pulled 10 out and took the lowest 3. Thought to myself " I wish these were in the right range. But the pinout matches... Ah, that's what the volume pot on the guitar is for."
Kinda regretted it as I was boxing it up, but it was too far to turn back.
Plus, hFE doesn't necessarily track 100% with hfe, so we're just dealing with approximations (with hFE) anyway.
Yep I tried it with Ge in your range and it worked well, albeit with a slightly higher noise floor and even more splat!

Those out-of-phase settings you mentioned are so much fun, and I find em more useful than in a standard 2-transistor Fuzzrite.
 
what the fuck is that light housing I need it yesterday
16mm 9-24v variety. I used a 100r CLR iirc.
They look more black in the product photos(I wish) but they're plastichrome. I obviously roughed up that one and painted.
The tricolor ones are cool for multibuilds and whatnot. Careful, some of the smaller diameters are probably too deep for some builds(≤12mm)
 
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