Simple squarewave shaper build...

[DaveBullard]

My first build report...
I used this board

with lots of jumpers and stuff and it's great. The circut sounds pretty extreme with a wide variety of sounds. I didn't have the spec tranny so I used 2n3906 IIRC, and I used a couple of 1 meg pots for the wave shaping section rather than the spec 500k. I can't remember the opamp that I used. As you would expect, when the shape pots are at max resistance it really kills the output volume but the output volume control has enough juice to make up for the loss of gain. This thing is loud at the other end of the spectrum though. I worried that I was going to kill my little test amp.
I found that it worked well with open voiced chords, and the lower notes really do sustain for years.
I noticed that biasing the tranny was really toucy and I would recommend using a multi turn trimmer rather than the cheapo one that I used.
For me the biasing trouble showed up in the form of the gating increasing as the pitch of the notes increased. I did find a magic spot where all notes lasted forever, but there was some noise even when bypassed and when I bumped the board I apparently knocked it out of bias! I am using a bench pwr supply @ 9v but I am worried that the slightest change in voltage will screw up the bias again so I don't know if I will go with a battery. Perhaps if I get the suggested 2n5088 some of these troubles will melt away. I hope so because I really love this design!
Thanks Tim!

I probably should attempt to describe the sound a bit. With the shape knobs at min I get a fuzzy buzzsaw with bright edges, as you slowly advance one of the shape knobs you begin to get a mosquitoesque, nasaly character. Which pot you advance does create a subtly diffrent tone. With both in the middle of their range you begin to loose high end untill the last 1/4 of the range when you get a wooly roar that I really love. Honestly the descriptions on Tims page are pretty acurate. Build it! I think that this effect might really shine for bass guitar. I will try it over the holiday and we will see...

ps, I would love to include pictures and sound clips but I don't know where or how to host them. I would appreciate some pointers on that subject

[caress]

you can upload your pics to photobucket.com or flickr.com both great image hosting sites.  i've been wanting to make this and it sounds like fun!