The Pompeii

After some critical listening this weekend, I'm going to play around with dropping the transistors down to either Q1 = BC549B/Q2 = BC549B or Q1 = BC549A/Q2 = BC549B.

The C gain bucket transistors I've secured are good for other things and they are very consistent but they just have a bit too much of everything for this circuit.
 
This is awesome! For what it's worth, I got some BC549b recently and they were all around 360 for hfe, so definitely less than the 549c. They may be just what you want here.
 
This is awesome! For what it's worth, I got some BC549b recently and they were all around 360 for hfe, so definitely less than the 549c. They may be just what you want here.

Yup. I have all tjeee in stock right now and the BC549B are bang on around 340.

I’m thinking Q1 = BC549A (285) and Q2 = BC549B (340) is going to be the best middle ground.
 
Yeah, that should be great. Lower gain in Q1 seems to allow for good volume knob cleanup in the silicon FF.
 
I know you won't but you could always write some bullshit copy like "painstakingly chosen asymmetrical gain buckets impart creamy breakup upon the silicon units..." when in reality we all know tone is in the casing of the sausage resistors ;)

I can't wait to see the demo to see it in action after all kinds of nasty buffers.

Great job so far!
 
I know you won't but you could always write some bullshit copy like "painstakingly chosen asymmetrical gain buckets impart creamy breakup upon the silicon units..." when in reality we all know tone is in the casing of the sausage resistors ;)

I can't wait to see the demo to see it in action after all kinds of nasty buffers.

Great job so far!

I'll leave that kind of PR to our man Chase Tone. :ROFLMAO:

I can say that here among friends as well. Might get me the ban hammer again over on TGP.
 
On second thought, I shit on Chase Tone all the time because of the promotional tomfoolery, but who the hell else is selling really good Fuzz Faces for < $150? His presentation, enclosures and packaging is definitely a few level above the advanced hobbyist and he is occupying a no man's land between giving pedals away and charging too much.

To the point where I can't see how he is actually making any money on them. But that is more of a curiosity on my part than a criticism of his pedals.

Which is always what I go back to: His pedals sound good. I just hate the idea of using the word magic as an adjective to describe the sonics of a distortion pedal.
 
I wonder if any business school student or economics academic has done a serious study of the pedal market? I would be surprised if there weren't a bunch of unusual features compared to more traditional markets.

I wonder how any boutique builder makes a living wage, unless they are charging high rates. I've built a lot of pedals, I'm probably average speed for someone with my experience, and it still takes several hours to build one pedal. If I was doing batches of the exact same pedal, I'm sure I could realize some efficiencies. But clearly some of these guys are doing build-to-order, on-demand. I enjoy it as a hobby, but don't think I'd look at it so fondly if that's what put food on the table!
 
I wonder if any business school student or economics academic has done a serious study of the pedal market? I would be surprised if there weren't a bunch of unusual features compared to more traditional markets.

I wonder how any boutique builder makes a living wage, unless they are charging high rates. I've built a lot of pedals, I'm probably average speed for someone with my experience, and it still takes several hours to build one pedal. If I was doing batches of the exact same pedal, I'm sure I could realize some efficiencies. But clearly some of these guys are doing build-to-order, on-demand. I enjoy it as a hobby, but don't think I'd look at it so fondly if that's what put food on the table!

This is a good point.

I have the luxury of trying it as a side hustle. I can’t imagine needing to do it as a full time gig.
 
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