Tuesday, 2 July 2019

Death by Audio Supersonic Fuzz Gun w. osc ctrl


36 comments:

  1. I see that it's verified. But there's no comments here, so thought I'd confirm it. Just built it and it works like a charm! Lovely, chaotic fuzz - Thanks for the layout!

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    1. Great! This thing is lots of fun and the osc pot adds another dimension. Curious about which transistors you have in there since this circuit can be quite picky when it comes to transistors.

      The layouts which is marked verified but don't have any comments is usually verified by me or occasianally by friend.

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  2. I used the same trannies as your layout - I had read on TagboardLayouts that the original ones don't work well and has since been changed by DBA, too. I made mine from your layout because it's much neater laid out and of course the osc-mod, which is great

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  3. So, could I just wire osc 1&2 to an off/on dpdt switch?
    I'm not sure I could fit 6 pots 🤔

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  4. Also, is it worth omitting the 100uf electrolytic, as it may affect the oscillation?🤔🤔🤔

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    1. I agree with TomTom on this one. I higly recommend using a pot instead of the switch for the oscillator. The switch will take up room and you have to decide which resistor value to choose. Stock resistor value is 10k which is unusable i.e you'll get only "motorboating". Smaller values will raise the pitch though. The power filter cap will not affect the oscillation in this circuit.

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  5. It’s a pain but you can fit six pots in a 1590b. You would have to wire a resistor value into the switch for a fixed value. But you’d have to test to see which value is optimal. And switches take up room anyway. Let us know how it turns out. I have tried maybe six of Oliver’s circuits and kept probably…two?

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  6. Noted. I take your wise advice! Thank you!

    And Tom, which ones were your keepers?

    I have a Belton brick and was 50/50 between the reverb machine or ghost echo

    Cheers!

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  7. I always thought the ghost echo sounded dreamy personally but I haven’t tried to build it. I have my eyes on a Dead Astronaut Chasm personally . I’d buy the board from him. He seems like a good dude. I think he’s in the U..k. actually. I love the DBA stuff theoretically but they’re obviously notoriously tricky to replicate as I’m sure you’ve read. I built a Fuzz War which I like but I had to do some minor tinkering. And I built an echo dream II from a PCBGuitarMania board. I liked the Soundwave Breakdown but it didn’t quite freak out as it should and the red/blue card was great but super dark. I tried dropping the input cap value but it stayed pretty murky. Same with the Interstellar Overdriver. Dark and characterless. But you could try one and strike dissonant gold. I think Oliver Ackerman must’ve scored a bunch of out of tolerance parts that no one else wanted on the cheap and in turn changed trash into gold. Very punk rock and very frustrating. I’ve built one or two others. Ya know, buyer beware but give it a try. But with an expensive brick I may go for a more sure bet personally.

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  9. Good call. Thank you!
    I'm going to do the ghost echo.🤞
    I was really interested by the fuzz gun because I've never made a Fuzz factory I'm happy with (apart from musikding) and don't like buying germanium

    Cheers

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  10. @Ian: If you want something that does what the Fuzz Gun does, but more musically and with silicon transistors, try the Red Witch Fuzz God. They're all based around a Fuzz Face circuit, but modded to death. The Fuzz God has the best oscillation of the bunch.
    Super simple circuit, too, so easy to vero and stuff in a 1590bb

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  11. Thank you I've never heard of that. I see it's over at tagboards.
    I'm definitely going to have a go at the fuzz gun especially since I've ordered the transistors 🙂

    If it doesn't work I'll have to break out the steel Epoxy and fill 6 holes🤣

    Cheers!

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  12. I was going to recommend that too haha. It’s on the tagboardeffects page. Its killer. The fuzz god.

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  13. This is way better than fuzz factory and fuzz god, and a lot less off-board wiring - fuzz god has way too much and isn't that great tbh. Would also recommend Skreddy Lunar Module Mini Deluxe

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  14. Ok bro damn. Jk. I like the Factory and the FG2 personally. I like the Skreddy stuff. I’ll check out the Lunar Module. I missed that guy. I have shell shock from failed DBA stuff. Really wish I was better at troubleshooting. Whatevs, an hour or so wasted.

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  15. I'll report back when it's done🔫

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  17. What other transistors would be ok for the 2n5306/BC517 space? Struggling to find reputable supplies of either one.

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    1. MPSA13 and MPSA14 are very close

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    2. You could also take any 2 low gain transistors such as a 2n2222 or MPSA05 and make a darlington. If you take the emitter of transistor 1 and connect it to base of transistor 2, and connect transistor 1 and 2s collector you have a darlington.

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    3. Ha! Mpsa13 and 14s also in the same boat as the other 2! I contemplated making a Darlington but I know the pedal is real fussy about the gain Q3s gotta be.

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    4. I don't know about your specific shipping situation, but guitarpedalparts and stompboxparts.com both have MPSA13s in stock, but it's weird that Darlington choices have kind of dried up. I got 2N5306 from Tayda not too long ago so they might restock. Just be warned theirs are ECB pinout. I learned that the hard way.

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    5. Pinouts not a problem. I'm likely going to have to make one, I'll see if I got some NPN transistors about measure right I'm UK so none of those sites arent helpful to me I'm afraid. Just eBay here at the moment for those specific transistors which I wouldn't trust.

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    6. Chris, try https://cpc.farnell.com/

      They have BC517's and are UK based

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    7. Thanks for looking, but I'm never using Farnell again. Last time I used them they charge my card, then cancelled it, then charged it again and refused to admit it. Ended up having to go to credit card dispute for it.

      I'll make a darlington up, sure I've got some spare NPNs about that I can hfe measure.

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    8. Banzai has all of the above. It's funny, I was revisiting this layout the same night you guys started talking about it. The prior day I dug out my Harmonic Transformer. That's an underrated one. Sounds right with 2N5088's.

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    9. It's German though so I'd have import tax to pay on it.

      I got it sorted anyways, I just put two 2N3904s together for the Darlington and it seems to have done the job.

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    10. Yeah, I hear you. But parts are getting harder to find these days and I always think, well it's certainly cheaper than buying from the manufacturer. But I'll have to try the darlington trick myself. Thanks for the knowledge OT.

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    11. Threw this together tonight with 2N5088's and a BC517 in Q3. It's great. Very similar to a Fuzz Factory.
      I didn't have the heart to use the DBA PCB that you sent me Ian. It's too cool. Thanks for the layout as always.

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    1. It's always there now if you fancy it! 😊

      I am off to see A place to bury strangers again this month - but we are not supporting them this time. They now sell lots of limited edition brightly coloured DBA pedals at their shows... I'll be trying not to look!

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