Univox Super Fuzz with a Noise Gate?

[chuckfalcon]

Hi everyone!  I have completed my first pedal but I am still a noob at heart and I have found myself a real situation.  I have breadboarded a Univox Super Fuzz going on 14 times and it is SOOOO close to where it needs to be but its not there yet, and it is driving me nuts.  It doesn't sound quite like the Univox Super Fuzz or the Wattson Super Fuzz that I used to own. 

To my ears, its not as pronounced and it sounds kinda splatty and fizzy at times.  One thing I noticed was that if I amp playing hard and then immediately quiet the strings, is sounds as if there is a noise gate engaging for a second and there is complete silence and then then typical hum of a fuzz/distortion starts again.  Its very strange. 

Here is what I currently have breadboarded:






The last pic is of Q4 and Q5.  All of the pin voltages are pretty spot on except for the the collectors.  I am supposed to be getting 2.1v but I am getting 1.8v.

Does anyone have any ideas of what I am going through and what is causing all this trouble?

Thanks,
Chuck

[chuckfalcon]

let me correct that, I just tried on a different amp and it is no longer fizzy and splay.  I sounds great except for the signal drops.  The happen right after I play hard.  If I did one quick palm muted "chuck" sound then you would hear what I am talking about.  I may have to do a sound clip.  From what I remember, this never happened on my other super fuzzes.

[chuckfalcon]

Here is some audio of what I am talking about with the volume drops after the hard "hits"  it kinda sounds like if I was turning my guitar's volume knob up and down, but I'm not.  I hope this helps.  I have no idea what it could be.

[digi2t]

What are all the other transistor pin voltages? What transistors are you using? Which schematic?

From what I've read / experienced, using high gain transistors will tend to give you that "drop out and blast" effect. It seems to be a characteristic of Superfuzz circuits in general, just in varying degrees. Nature of the Beast.

I found using low gain (2N2222, etc.) transistors has a tendency to minimize this.

[duck_arse]

also, check ALL your 10uF caps are 10uF, not 100uF or something larger. it might be our old favourite, blockkking dist.