Vintage transistors usage - suggestions?

[balkanizeyou]

for starters - you can add tone control if you want. A simple RC lowpass filter would be nice place to start, you can use a big muff type tone control if you want a single pot to blend between a lowpass and a highpass. You can have a switch to select between feedback diodes (3 position switch for Ge, Si and red LED maybe?). Just some simple ideas.

Yes, the pot is a volume control and no, it shouldn't be crackling - maybe the wiper is losing contact with the rest of the pot?

I don't think that changing the collector resistor is going to change the gain much in the grounded emitter amplifier - you can add another gain stage - maybe a LPB-1 stage in front of the bazz fuss?

[Resynthesis]

If you get into making fuzzes (e.g. Fuzz Face or Tonebender) you might also like to check the leakage of the trannies. Some designs are quite sensitive

[jurek]

what this? it's a lost of a current?
is a darlington's pair also sensitive for this?