Any comments on the Shin-Ei Companion FY-2?

[Wild E]

I have a non-working pre-boombox portable cassette radio that has a number of transistors marked:
C536
GOL
While searching for the data sheet I ran across http://members.fortunecity.com/uzzfay/fy2/fy-2schem.html that shows it uses C536's. Is this effect worth breadboarding? I don't have all the caps or the pots . The caps are cheap and common in other ckts. but not the pots as I recall. What do you think?(about the fy-2)

[glops]

I absolutely love this circuit.  Some people hate it but when you get one to work properly, I think it's quite amazing.  I am actually boxing two of these for friends tonight.  The first one I built came out perfect.  Then I built the two for friends using pretty much the same parts but they sounded poor.  I did voltage readings and found that the collector voltage was way too high on the second transistor.  I dropped the 1M2 feedback resistor down to a 330K resistor and got really close to the reported voltage readings of an original.  I think Mark Hammer posted these readings:  

"I have an original. With a fresh battery that gives a V+ of 9.78VDC, I measured the following:

Q1: E - 0v, B - .59v, C - 3.40v

Q2: E - 0v, B - .55v, C - .9v"

Before I fixed the problem my collector voltage on Q2 was around 3 or 4 volts.  Sounded misbiased and crappy.  Dropped the feedback resistor down and got the singing buzzy fuzz.  Sounds great with guitar and bass.  Give it a try.  

And the pots are 50k linear pots.  You can get those anywhere.  I use a 25k for the fuzz control, there seems to be more useful sounds throughout the rotation as opposed to the 50k.

Here's my first one to give an idea, sounds much better in person:        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt7EpLqBVd4

[glops]

I forgot to add - it's a very nasty  and sick but unique sounding fuzz.  I have read as many posts as I could here and elsewhere and its seems that a lot of people that didn't like it thought it was too shrill and splatty and not useful.  I had this on a breadboard for a couple of weeks a few months ago and felt the same way.  After tinkering with it, I got it to sound pretty good and will probably consider it one of my favs forever.  But it depends on your taste.  Give it a  try.  It's a pretty low count easy build....

[Wild E]

WOW! That is nasty cool, but I can't think of any use for that other than for background fills. I'll have to think that over.

[glops]

Keep in mind,  the sound on the video is compressed.  Sounds decent but is missing a lot of the fuzz's character.  I just fired up a finished one for a friend for the first time.  It sounds amazing.  Better than my first one.  It can be quite pretty as well if you pick lightly.  In the video I was hammered and hitting the strings hard cause I was a drinkin'...

[Mark Hammer]

If there was a 10-pt scale of "how much you're going to leave it on for extended periods", a compressor, reverb or EQ would rate about an 8 for many, a Tube Screamer variant somewhere between 7 and 9, a phase shifter about a 4, a ring modulator and vibrato would rate a 1, and the FY-2 would rate about a 2-3.

So, it isn't the sort of thing you'll use regularly, but you'll use it more than some things, and you'll appreciate its "strength of character" when you do.