Built 2 identical Octavias one is way brighter

[strassercaster]

Hello I just finished a second Tychobrahe octavia. They are identical . Even the forward voltage on the exactly matched diodes is within .01 . The only difference between the 2 is I used a foot switch on the brighter one instead of a toggle. My guess is its either the subtle difference in transistor gains or its the difference in the identical transformers. Anyone have this happen before. Its about 20 percent brighter and its a little tinny sounding I sold the first one and now I miss it ha ha., It is ok but not great . The first one is far more pleasent sounding. Any suggestions? Thank You in advance

[mth5044]

Did you measure your in/out cap values? Make sure they are not only the same printed code, but you can use a meter to measure the actual cap.

[Gus]

They are not identical unless you match the parts in the builds

Did you measure the transistors beta/hfe and match them circuit to circuit
Did you measure the resistor values?
Did you measure cap values(as mth5044 posted)?

transistor and battery voltages referenced to circuit ground of both builds will help find an answer

[R.G.]

All horses are identical. They all have one hoof per foot/leg, one head, sticky-up ears, long, flowing coarse-hair tail and mane.

Well, OK, some of them are different colors. And some are different sizes. And some run fast and win races, others are HUGE and pull beer-wagons. And - and - and

Differences matter. And it's important to know **which** differences matter. Clydesdales make poor racehorses, but you don't want to try to pull heavy wagons with thoroughbreds. And both of these are better than zebras for humans to ride.

Moreover, if you get different results from "identical" setups and can't understand why, Mother Nature is whispering in your ear that there's a difference you don't yet understand.

[PRR]

I dunno horses.

I DO know I can confuse orange and red, stick 2.2K where I want 22K, and look at it a hundred times and never see the difference. (Partly darn fluorescent lamps; mostly the human disconnect between what we see and what we think we see.)

Different switches opens the chance they are not wired the same logical connection. (I would discount "capacitance" differences; circuit and cable capacitance overwhelms switch capacitance.)

[CodeMonk]

Even if there is less than a 1% difference in the values of some of the parts, well, lots of little things tend to add up.

[strassercaster]

Thanks guys.Point taken identical was the wrong choice of words.  I made the input output caps slightly larger it did the trick. I like it better than the first one now.i did order a couple more transformers for future builds and to swap them out and see if that was the issue. this is an awesome circuit. the fuzz is very nice .

i still think it is a subtle difference the transformer. i used metal film resistors and polybox caps . the caps are usually within 3-5 percent and the resistors are within 1 percent in theory but but both are even closer in actual test measurements.I used to measure every single component and write it down . i stopped doing that to save time. i did stay within 10-30 hfe for the transistors just because the batches i got are running really close. I realise that can add up and that could be the issue as well. it seems the output cap had a bigger affect than the input cap . I will go back to original values  when the new transformers get here just to see. Happy Holidays . Thanks for the awesome reply RG on the octave circuit question i posted a couple months ago.