the hornet anyone build it ?

[jra2217]

it looks fun and i want to build a nice distortion pedal, i built the tweak-o and got everything to function correctly . This one doesn't look to unmanageable anyways i was wondering who all had built one and what they thougt of it.

http://www.diystompboxes.com/pedals/hornet.jpg

If i read the schematic right it takes 2 nine volt batteries correct? It's just i have never seen a pedal with two battries before is all.

[petemoore]

Nope, those 9v's come from the same source. one battery, it's a 9V circuit, as long as your components are all rated at the voltage you apply to them you're ok, but I'd run this one at 9v.
 Generally when you see multiple 9v, Gnd. or 1/2v [sometimes lableled 1/2v or Vref], these points just connect together.
 ITC they connect together. Also they're connected to V+ [9v].

[Stevo]

This uses one 9-volt battery.If I can remember all the resistors are trimpots,some do change the sound a bit!  The thing to do is make the first transistor which will be your germanuim a socket to try different NPN germanium transistors ..I you notice it is basically a fuzz face but the output comes directly off of the second trans collector not after the resistor like in a fuzz face..This makes for high gain and quite a drive compared to the fuzz face   I have two one is PNP and one is NPN to see how my germaniums sound in a box before I make other fuzzes out of them....Its challenging with all the trim pots but once you have it right it is a lot of fun :lol:

[jra2217]

very cool, thanks for the good info .

i was thinking about playing around with transisotrs a bit , i want more like a defined powerful distortion, then like a fuzz face but i wasn't exactly sure which on ones would work better if i would even want to switch them out.

Does any one have a sound clip or something they can compare the disotortion to ?

[KORGULL]

Hi, the Hornet was the second pedal I built. I think it's great - tons of volume, lots of gain - but very crisp and clear- good note definition - not too fuzzy.
There are a couple of schematics around - the NPN negative ground one which is in the schematics link at this site, and the PNP positive ground one which is on the Small Bear site.
I built the PNP version using the transistor pair sold at Small Bear. That schematic also includes some extra parts for power filtering and prevention of switch popping.
This is a good one if you play metal, though it can do lower gain stuff good too.
You might also want to socket the in/out caps to further tailor the sound to suit your needs.
Don't forget to search the forum for all posts containing "hornet" for more info.

[Stevo]

If you are wanting to mess with transistors you have to build a fuzz face...Always remember that not all transistors have the same pinouts.. I hope your meter has a hfe checker to see the orientation of the pinouts. Radio Snack is bad they have garden packs that have all different pinouts.. You should stock up on some stuff from Mouser.com and they have data sheets to tell you pinouts. here is a FF http://www.muzique.com/schem/fuzzface3.gif    Put one together with silicon trans and if you want add two diodes before the end cap to make more distortion..It is easy and the sound is pretty good and the diodes will make it like the Lava Rim,, All sound good for high distortion.  

[petemoore]

I believe there are so many types of Faces that finding the one that works for you is easy...they all work good, they're all different, building one soon leads to 'building' another...actaully you can probably do alot of most Face types on one 'testbed' Fuzz Face board.
 Change a part or part value and the FF will sound either a little or a lot different.