Hi and a question

[Dr.EM]

Firstly, hello, I am new here, please embrace me in your warm busom and welcome me into your cosy community.

I also have a question i'd like to ask. This has always been a problem for me when building circuits, the ground symbol, i'm sure you know the one. The little lines under each other. Anyhow, I never know quite what to do with them. I think you always connect them together (?) and then what? Sometimes it seems you need to connect them all to the negative terminal of the power, sometimes to the audio inlet (as is on most these projects). Any advice much appreciated, and again, hi.

[theaxeman]

Hi! and welcome to the forum!

You are partialy right in yor thinking, the ground wires all go to a central place on the board which is attached to batery -.

Rob

[Dr.EM]

Cheers, thats the negative terminal of the battery?

I'm going to try making a fuzz sometime, they dont look too complex...

[theaxeman]

Yes it's the bateries negative terminal (black wire on the clip). For a first build i would recomend a Germanium transistor fuzz face clone, a lot of peaple say they are dificult for a first build, but this is mainly due to biasing the transisitors and dammaging them by soldering. If you get transisitor sockets you should be fine. There is a good schematic (the "PNP Negative ground" version's easiest) on http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/v2/index.php?%20option=displaypage&Itemid=183&op=page&SubMenu=, you can also buy a (very good) pre made Printed circuit board (PCB) from this site. http://www.smallbearelec.com, This is a good site to get your parts thay should have everything you need, including matched transisitors which come with biasing resisitor values with designations (R1, R2 etc) that matche the schematic link i suplied, which makes biasing (a hard part of the project) unnececary. I built one for my first build and it sounds great!

N.B. Small Bear electronics is shut down till August, but it is worth the wait.

Good luck!

Rob  

[Dr.EM]

Cheer! Thanks for all the info. I was originally intending to try the butterfly fuzz, but perhaps the fuzz face clone is a better option. Cool, there seems to be even more schematics on general guitar gadgets to look at. 'Tis a shame small bear is shut, but I presume its an American site? If so, I would need parts shipped over the pond to the UK where I reside. There is an electrical outlet over here called Maplins;
//www.maplins.co.uk
But they are not very well stocked compared to your radio shack etc. Should have the main components though.

[theaxeman]

Hi again!

I also live in th Uk, but buying from small bear is still fairly quick and easy.
Maplin is good for some parts (i buy my wire, resisitors and electrolytic caps from there), but small bear is better. Its mainly the stomp switch, transisitors and case i would get from small bear.

[Dr.EM]

Ok, thats cool. I checked maplins earlier and I couldn't seem to find the transistors I wanted. I guess the postage is cheap on something so light anyway! Will deffo check small bear when its back.