Orpheum Fuzz help

[black mariah]

I built the Orpheum fuzz, but it doesn't sound right... err... wrong... whichever.

The initial hit is very compressed, and not in a good way. The volume drops and blooms when you hold the chord. Cool sounding, but not what I'm looking for. I want something closer to the clips in Dragonfly's album, like this: http://aronnelson.com/gallery/albums/album109/orphclone1.mp3

I used 2N2222 transistors since they were handy.

Q1
C = 6.7
B = .56
E = .1mV

Q2
C = 3.3
B = .54
E = .1mV

Battery was fresh from the packaged, measured at 9.75V. Makes me wanna watch crappy commercials for late-80's RC cars. How 'bout you? The only deviation from the layout is that I used a .15n cap for C2 instead of a .1, which I didn't have. My pickups are both single coils, so that should be an issue like I know humbuckers can sometimes be.

[MartyMart]

May be some help in here :
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=52314.20

Seems like the bias is very shakey on this and perhaps the trannies have a big
effect too.

[black mariah]

I just noticed that my Q2 C voltage is nearly four times that of the others that have been posted. Methinks a trim pot is in order.

[black mariah]

Correction. I did something wrong. Don't ask what. It's dumb.

The Q2 voltage is more like .85, not 3.3. I'm dumb. Derp.

[MartyMart]

No worries, we all do it, my BEST one is wondering why there's no output
and then looking down at an empty "IC socket" !!!!   

[smnm]

I want something closer to the clips in Dragonfly's album...

I built this a few weeks ago and was disappointed with the sound at first - like MartyMart says, the transistors have a big effect.
To my ears 2N2222s can be very shrill, but it's down to taste. I couldn't find the 2n903s that Dragonfly used, and tried a few diff combinations of what I had around, ending up with in a couple of BC547s - they sounded closer to the clip, but still not as good.
I'm going to do a methodical audition of various transistors sometime when I've got nothing better to do. I find my ears get tired easily and what sounds great one day sounds bad the next. I'm thinking BC141s might be good, to retain a bit of bottom end...

I tried a lot of transistors in my Fuzzrite before I liked it, too.

[black mariah]

Did some experimenting. I removed R3 completely so power is only going through R5. That helped quite a bit. I also changed the tone pot to 250k for no reason in particular. Didn't change much. Maybe a higher value would work better.

The best mod was to put my LPB in front of it. I swear that thing is magic. It's still too farty and not squishy enough (could I BE more vague?) but it's workable.

I'm gonna just have to break down and build a Superfuzz and do it RIGHT.

[doug deeper]

No worries, we all do it, my BEST one is wondering why there's no output
and then looking down at an empty "IC socket" !!!!   

i do this once a week!

[black mariah]

No worries, we all do it, my BEST one is wondering why there's no output
and then looking down at an empty "IC socket" !!!!   

i do this once a week!

EVERY build I do has at least one major "How the hell did I miss that?" moment. For the Orpheum I got it all wired up, plugged it in... no sound. Dig around, reflow joints... then notice the battery ground came loose.

[MartyMart]

I did have "more" problems a year or two ago, until learning a very obvious lesson, probably
inspired by RG's advice, which leads to this :

First choose a "known good" project - be it schematic and/or layout, some thing that's been built
many dozens of times, ROG/Tonepad/GGG are good places to start.
Follow it through slowly and carefully, check resistor and cap values - measure if you're unsure and
look up/download data sheets for any fets/BJT's or IC's that you'll be using.
Check the pot and output wiring, are pots marked "CW" or "CCW"  ?
Use sockets for trannies and IC's when possible.
Once completed, go over the circuit with your schematic handy and "tick off" every connection with
a highlighter pen.

If built correctly "THE CIRCUIT WILL WORK" otherwise you have a mistake/error and just need to
find it, sometimes it's a silly one and sometimes a bugger to find like a cold solder etc.
I now very rarely have a "non-worker" and have only been beaten by two circuits, which I was
laying out myself, one was a P-90  !

MM.