meet 'weetie pi

[pinkjimiphoton]

simple stupid original fuzz, ya may recognize the return of one of my simple fuzzes with an added stage to it.
you can get a LOT of sounds out of it. real nice overdrivey fuzz with a strong octave up overtone to it. the voicing control lets ya dial in from sweet to growly, and the output is low z so hopefully plays well with others.
just a  breadboard brainfart that happened earlier. really sweet tone tho, very sustainy with some bite to it. i didn't find a tone control necessary, but you could add one.

the diode clipper off the input before everything can be considered experimental. i used 3 diodes on one side, 2 on the other. use what ya like or have, i used 1n914. its an interesting sound clipping it first. worth checking out. not sure if i will bother with it or not on mine.

this is working on my breadboard, schematic and vero match up so should be good but always breadboard it first before committing.

i used 5089's on this one, but the first stage you can use whatever you like best, just about anything will run in there... si, ge, shit, even some pnp's will run in it, believe it or not.
basically, just twist the 100k trim until ya get the sound that works best.. there's a definite sweet spot where it will come in loud n proud. if your bass notes turn farty on the decay, cut it back just slightly til that stops.

adjust the voice, crank the balls up.... if its not loud enough, go with a 10k pot instead of 1k.

anyways... have fun and enjoy.

stupid pedal trick will happen eventually i imagine.








so whom's circuit did i reinvent THIS time?

[Rob Strand]

Your first stage with the single diode made me think of the last stage of the Foxx Select-a-Fuzz (the mystical beast)

https://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=111037.0

[pinkjimiphoton]

made a mistake on the vero layout, both transistors are 5089

building up the vero now. the one on the breadboard is being really promising tonally... the sweep control really affects the tone of the whole thing.

if ya add a traditional diode clipper in parallel with the 4739 its slightly less noisy and has a tiny bit more compression, i decided not to bother.

the input clipper is kinda neat to play with, and i will explore it more. its particularly cool with another dirtbox before it, to really drive it. very crunchy yet nice sustain.

back to the dungeon!

[pinkjimiphoton]

its been ONE OF THOSE DAYS.
<@#$% me!! GRUMBLE GRUMBLE GRUMBLE>

never knew that freekin 5089's have TWO different pinouts. 

so spent like, two hours debugging the damn vero. on a positive note, it IS verofied and working!! i DID miss ONE track cut at c8 which i corrected on the vero below.

as it turns out, both 5089's i am using have opposite pinouts.. one is ebc, the other is cbe.
that wasted like, 4 hours and some serious dumb@#$%ery.
finally checked with my q tester, and verified that they were opposite.  oyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

sayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy what?

whatever. its verified, sounds great. try and getcha some video tomorrow
here's pics of the ugly board, i did have to rework it some.






here's the verified vero layout. it will fit in a 1590b, but if you're slick ya just may be able to squeeze it in a 1590a i'd go for 9mm pots for that route




rutabaga bob did a perf/pcb layout, he just sent me, cuz he's the bestest!




if ya try this on the breadboard, i think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

shoot for 5089s in the 500hFE range. i used 530 for q1 and 586 for q2

you can use germanium npns <and some pnps, believe it or not> in q1
pretty much any gain range above 200 or so will be ok, too low, and its more of a booster and less a fuzz. in that case, go with a 50 or 100k volume instead of 1k. that will get ya a little more oomph to overdrive your amp.

socket the q's i guess and go with what ya got. 5088's will work. 3904s will work
if ya got ge npn's try one in q1. you may like it. it will be a little softer.

cranked should be a nice edgy overdrivey fuzz,  that cleans up nice and almost acts like a treble boosted compressor as ya turn the guitar down. if ya got the voice pegged, it won't clean up as much.

to bias it, crank up the guitar and strum a couple chords while turning the trimmer.
there's a definite sweet spot about 8 volts or so. pluck your low e string. let it ring. if ya hear weird phasey farty artifacts on the ring out, decrease slightly til it just goes away and ya get a nice natural decay.

the voice control, start here.. turn your guitar down about 3/4 of the way, and strum a chord. turn the voice control til you get the cleanest signal. now when ya turn it up, ya should get noticeable shades of dirt right up to a nice sweet kinda distortion with a hint of octave up thats real dynamic and sings real purty.
this is the time to fine-tune the bias, if ya want to, to get the cleanest possible guitar tone with the guitar down, again, about 3/4's after getting the voice as clear as possible.
that will optimize your dynamic range for solos.. turn it down for clean, turn it up to scream. you know the drill.
not a fuzzface, tho elements were definitely borrowed from it
more like a ...photon phace lol

anyways.. its 3 am. i am outta here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[rutabaga bob]

Updated to include Jimi's newer notes, remove jumper, and to correct value of trimpot.

[pinkjimiphoton]

thanks larry!
gonna go downstairs and get a little video shot of it before i box it up.
stay tuned!

[pinkjimiphoton]

major discovery so i need to update, but q2 has to be REVERSE BETA'd for the circuit to work right .. will update asap

sorry for any inconvenience

stupid pedal trick on the way

[Rob Strand]

major discovery so i need to update, but q2 has to be REVERSE BETA'd for the circuit to work right .. will update asap

So the schematic should be drawn with C and E swapped?  For both transistors?

[pinkjimiphoton]

no, rob, only q2.

q1 top to bottom
c
b
e

q2
e
b
c


here's video, but somethings broken on my laptop so there's an annoying echo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAIUM0OuzHs&feature=youtu.be

updated schem and vero asap

[Rob Strand]

no, rob, only q2.

OK got it, cool.

Sounds great.

[pinkjimiphoton]

THANKS! sorry bout the echo... gotta suss that out right quick, sooooo annoying..

heres updated corrected schematic and verified corrected vero layouts

edit.... oooops... brb almost diddit again




ok.... schematic

[Rob Strand]

heres updated corrected schematic and verified corrected vero layouts

Q1's "C B E" markings should have C to the Voice pot - yeah?
OK yeah, you updated it!

So with Q2 flipped as shown, we adjust TRIM for 3.8V on the emitter of Q2 (not the 8V mentioned above)?

[pinkjimiphoton]

heres updated corrected schematic and verified corrected vero layouts

Q1's "C B E" markings should have C to the Voice pot - yeah?
OK yeah, you updated it!

yeah i guess i wasn't quick enough on the draw

So with Q2 flipped as shown, we adjust TRIM for 3.8V on the emitter of Q2 (not the 8V mentioned above)?

yeah, depending on the transistor, some wanted closer to 8v but 3.8 is a nice balance of pot ranges.
louder with the higher voltage and a bit different tone

the voice pot can be wired for whichever taper you prefer, the sweep is subtly different cuz ya only use 1/2 0f the pot, you can make it linear or audio or reverse of either kinda depending which two poles you wire to and which direction you turn it.

let me know how ya make out, rob... gonna box mine tonite

[pinkjimiphoton]

boxed.
rendering the repaired video, used audacity to realign the tracks and win moviemaker to glue it back together with

[pinkjimiphoton]

with fixed audio

its still uploading, but will be here:

https://youtu.be/yFV4ZupHics

[Rob Strand]

yeah, depending on the transistor, some wanted closer to 8v but 3.8 is a nice balance of pot ranges.
louder with the higher voltage and a bit different tone
...
let me know how ya make out, rob... gonna box mine tonite

Thanks, it will be a while before I get to try it out.

Oh, I almost forgot ...

http://www.muzique.com/lab/reverse.htm

[pinkjimiphoton]

holy shit, jack orman strikes again!!!! thanks rob, AND jack!!
funny, i remember glancing at that years ago on the old muzique site i think, but i never read it,

funny how i ended up with almost jacks circut verbatim !

i just pulled the 470k resistors for the second stage voltage divider randomly... and flipped the transistor cuz i thought the pinout was different. what a trip!!
that explains everything!!

http://www.muzique.com/lab/reverse.htm

[pinkjimiphoton]

larry worked up an updated perf/pcb
hahah.... well... the switch may be overkill...
it sounds different wired different, but i mean you can use the wiper as input OR output, and each side will react different.. like, make wiper in and lug three out will sound different than lug 3 in and wiper out or wiper in and lug 1 out or lug one in and wiper out. all combinations result in different sweeps! obviously, some combos will sweep left, some right.. but they all sound a little different. as shown on my schematic/layout is the one i chose.
ya gotta think outside the box with my stuff lol

[Rob Strand]

holy shit, jack orman strikes again!!!! thanks rob, AND jack!!
funny, i remember glancing at that years ago on the old muzique site i think, but i never read it,

I was going to check the 3.8V/8V thing and web searched "2n5088 reverse beta" and Jack's site came up.  I don't even know why I bothered searching since the reverse beta is quite low, roughly 5 to 10.   Jack's got heaps of stuff hidden away on that site.

funny how i ended up with almost jacks circut verbatim !

There's more than one path to the same ends.  (there might be a Kung Fu Tao'ism for that.  )

[rutabaga bob]

Oops!  My mistake!  Connect the blue wire to lug 2, and the green wire to the center of the switch.