What's in the mailbox? 📬 📦

[finebyfine]

Aliexpress 11/11 haul is slowly rolling in. Got this FNIRSI mini-scope, one of their only with FFT. Still learning it but not gonna lie a little disappointed with the readability and scale of the FFT, but we’ll see if there’s something I’m missing. Identifying 2nd and 3rd harmonic is pretty easy but past that it takes some squinting. Great form factor and build quality, super easy to use, but as of now I wouldn’t recommend it over their cheaper options.

Pictured with the input and output of the blue channel of Korg’s Harmonic Distortion pedal.

 

[Feral Feline]

Yeah, I got RAD!!

Dizzy Elk soon stampeding through this house! THANK YOU @peccary !!!



Man O Mandroid!!!!! Same dayum in the postal unit! THANK YOU @tcpoint !!!




The beneficence of fellow forumites is astounding — I'm looking forward to paying kindnesses forward.



Honestly, the Dizzy Tone is one if not the all time favourite fuzz of mine.
Thank you Joe.


I'm into noisemakers and was incredibly bummed when I missed out on the Mandroid (never put off buying tomorrow what you should buy today). Time to dust off the HT8950A I've got squirrelled away and fetch the build doc off my old computer — I'll need to revisit the planned mods I had for the Hazelwanter Pitch Shifter (many of which IIRC the Mandroid already incorporates).
Thank you Tom.




Oh, and the tuner is the first of the 11/11/'23 gifts to myself to show up. Very compact and came with pedalboard mushroom-tape.
I bought it just to rehouse with top-jacks, since there are no true DIY tuners available. Or are there...?

 

[Hirti]

Haven't used an oscilloscope in like 15 years so it was time to add this little one to my collection

 

[PedalBuilder]

A couple of PedalPCB boards courtesy of the one and only @fig! A Chop Shop and a Flock Harmonizing Fuzz. And a cool pick, too. Really looking forward to building both of these.


I also picked up some interesting Soviet transistors from Sovcom in Ukraine, 1T115G and P401. The P401 is very much a grab bag, with gains and leakages all over the place. About half of them are too low gain to be useful (and too leaky to work well as Darlington pairs), but the other half have gains between 45 and 95 and leakage between 10 and 160 µA. If you're looking for a transistors, I'd probably pass on these in favor of any number of other transistor families with more consistent specs. The 1T115G, on the other hand, is a real winner. Gains between 57 and 140, with an average of 93. Leakage ranged from 50 to 200 µA, averaging 110 µA, with higher gain transistors tending to be leakier. These should be great in Tone Benders and any other fuzz circuit that calls for moderately leaky germanium transistors.

 

[jwin615]

Aliexpress 11/11 haul is slowly rolling in. Got this FNIRSI mini-scope, one of their only with FFT. Still learning it but not gonna lie a little disappointed with the readability and scale of the FFT, but we’ll see if there’s something I’m missing. Identifying 2nd and 3rd harmonic is pretty easy but past that it takes some squinting. Great form factor and build quality, super easy to use, but as of now I wouldn’t recommend it over their cheaper options.

Pictured with the input and output of the blue channel of Korg’s Harmonic Distortion pedal.

View attachment 61292

If you're really interested in fft and harmonics, acquiring a copy of SMAART is highly recommended.
Even an older version from eBay or, elsewhere, is very powerful.
Fun fact, I somehow typed DMASRT at first. Dumb fat thumbs.

 

[synthesiserror]

Took a gamble on a hundred "3AX31C" if you believe what the decals on the transistors say . So far, it looks like about 2 in 10 are usable PNP germanium. Most are very low gain or >800 uA static leakage. A few are very leaky with hFE ~900 (!). No two cans are alike, and a few may not be PNP or may have alternate pinouts. I still don't know if this was worth the price of admission. Values are all over the place and sorting through these might take a while.

 

[jwin615]

Took a gamble on a hundred "3AX31C" if you believe what the decals on the transistors say . View attachment 61419So far, it looks like about 2 in 10 are usable PNP germanium. Most are very low gain or >800 uA static leakage. A few are very leaky with hFE ~900 (!). No two cans are alike, and a few may not be PNP or may have alternate pinouts. I still don't know if this was worth the price of admission. Values are all over the place and sorting through these might take a while.

Are those the current production Chinese germs?

 

[synthesiserror]

Are those the current production Chinese germs?

No, they're somewhat corroded old stock. They have no p/n on any of the cans, but someone hastily put stickers on them.

 

[PedalBuilder]

No, they're somewhat corroded old stock. They have no p/n on any of the cans, but someone hastily put stickers on them.

Yeah, those look super dodgy to me. I bought 100 3AX31C earlier this year and they looked more like this:
My 3AX31C worked really well, and ~75 of the 100 were in useable gain/leakage buckets. I've used them in Tone Benders, a Peppermint Fuzz, and a Gemini IV, inter alia, and generally have been quite happy with how they perform.

After that success, I tried buying some NPN 3BX31Bs, only to have what happened to you happen to me. It was immediately evident that the 3BX31B had been relabeled, and 94 of the 100 transistors that I received were completely dead or had no gain. I opened a dispute with AliExpress and got a full refund in ~6 hours, but I'm still searching for NPN germaniums with good specs that don't cost an arm and a leg. If you bought them on AliExpress and want more info about how I handled the dispute, feel free to PM me.

 

[jwin615]

Sound alike rusky germs by the full case may be the better gamble.
I at least feel better about the full case not being presorted opposed to a random lot of 20-50.
Though, I enjad pretty good luck with bigger lots on eBay from sovcom/alexer1. Just make sure to log in on desktop and "request total from seller" for shipping discount on multi item orders.

 

[synthesiserror]

Yeah, those look super dodgy to me. I bought 100 3AX31C earlier this year and they looked more like this:View attachment 61428
My 3AX31C worked really well, and ~75 of the 100 were in useable gain/leakage buckets. I've used them in Tone Benders, a Peppermint Fuzz, and a Gemini IV, inter alia, and generally have been quite happy with how they perform.

After that success, I tried buying some NPN 3BX31Bs, only to have what happened to you happen to me. It was immediately evident that the 3BX31B had been relabeled, and 94 of the 100 transistors that I received were completely dead or had no gain. I opened a dispute with AliExpress and got a full refund in ~6 hours, but I'm still searching for NPN germaniums with good specs that don't cost an arm and a leg. If you bought them on AliExpress and want more info about how I handled the dispute, feel free to PM me.

Thanks, but it was a third-party seller on Scamazon. For the amount I paid, if I get 10 usable (if questionable) transistors I'll be satisfied.

 

[Fizz]

Haven't had much time with it but it sounds great right out of the box.. I'm impressed.. a lot of tone in a small package

 

[Fama]

Bought someones DIY 12V Electric Mistress (with a SAD1024 in it, apparently) and Voodoo Vibe (big one), and got three broken pedals as a bonus. I'll definitely try to fix the Bad Monkey and the Red Llama with a boost, not sure if I should try fixing the Crybaby or build something else in the enclosure. It also had a "Whipple Wah" sticker tagging along which seems like an aftermarket upgrade for the pot?

Edit: ...so the Crybaby has definitely been modded for true bypass, and it looks like someone cut the wires (literally just a straight cut in those wires) you add in the true bypass mod? I reconnected the wires and it works fine? That's weird. But I guess that one's maybe fixed now (well, need to solder the wires, just tied them together for testing), and it sounds roughly like I would expect a Crybaby to sound like.

 

[jimilee]

Bought someones DIY 12V Electric Mistress (with a SAD1024 in it, apparently) and Voodoo Vibe (big one), and got three broken pedals as a bonus. I'll definitely try to fix the Bad Monkey and the Red Llama with a boost, not sure if I should try fixing the Crybaby or build something else in the enclosure. It also had a "Whipple Wah" sticker tagging along which seems like an aftermarket upgrade for the pot?
View attachment 61440
Edit: ...so the Crybaby has definitely been modded for true bypass, and it looks like someone cut the wires (literally just a straight cut in those wires) you add in the true bypass mod? I reconnected the wires and it works fine? That's weird. But I guess that one's maybe fixed now (well, need to solder the wires, just tied them together for testing), and it sounds roughly like I would expect a Crybaby to sound like.

A bad monkey? Hell, you can retire now.

 

[Fama]

A bad monkey? Hell, you can retire now.

Heh, like I said I got it for free on top of the other ones since it's broken, there's also one for 20€ that was sold on the local classifieds. The hype died down quite quickly over here (well, there's still one hopeful with a "make an offer" for a Bad Monkey).

But it's pretty much the first pedal I ever had so I might keep this one, although tbh I didn't know what I was doing and used it mostly to try and tighten up my metal tone, which I don't think worked amazingly well, plus I don't really play metal anymore.

 

[jimilee]

Heh, like I said I got it for free on top of the other ones since it's broken, there's also one for 20€ that was sold on the local classifieds. The hype died down quite quickly over here (well, there's still one hopeful with a "make an offer" for a Bad Monkey).

But it's pretty much the first pedal I ever had so I might keep this one, although tbh I didn't know what I was doing and used it mostly to try and tighten up my metal tone, which I don't think worked amazingly well, plus I don't really play metal anymore.

I think the hype has pretty much died down all together. I’d like to see the prices drop just a little bit more, though. I’ve never had one, other than what I’ve built. I feel like I need one though. I want to find one with the box for my collection.

 

[KR Sound]

Couple fuzzes came in blue boxes. Played around with the old Fuzz/Fig Buster and a fuzz face thing with a mosfet polarity protector. Seems to work.



Bonus points to anyone spotting the foul on the green board.

 

[DGWVI]

A few of the new drops, some bypass boards, and a couple Chop Shops because they're cool and half price

 

[PedalBuilder]

Couple fuzzes came in blue boxes. Played around with the old Fuzz/Fig Buster and a fuzz face thing with a mosfet polarity protector. Seems to work.

View attachment 61469

Bonus points to anyone spotting the foul on the green board.

JLCJLCJLCJLC! Took me a second to process that I wasn’t in EasyEDA and the placeholder text should be an order number. Out of curiosity, why don’t you put that on the back of the board? I try to put mine on the back under a pot or a switch so that it’s invisible even if the board is taken out the enclosure.

 

[KR Sound]

JLCJLCJLCJLC! Took me a second to process that I wasn’t in EasyEDA and the placeholder text should be an order number. Out of curiosity, why don’t you put that on the back of the board? I try to put mine on the back under a pot or a switch so that it’s invisible even if the board is taken out the enclosure.

It was supposed to be on the back, but after flipping the ground plane a few times, I forgot to move it to the back. And then on top of that I forgot to check the box to put their number in the wrong place lol.