Fuzz Pedal and New Soundclip

[Doug H]

http://home.cfl.rr.com/dbhammond/doug.htm

Scroll down below the Meteor. This is a Tonebender Mark II variation I call "Hot Silicon". Gus Smalley shared some ideas for a silicon Tonebender MkII. I added Aron's idea of using a "Sweet Thing-like" tone control which he used on his Ge Tonebender (called "Hot Fuzz").

It came out pretty nice. I like the thinner input cap for more "pick and string sounds", but the pull fat switch comes in real handy for more of a "vintage" sound. The tone control is real nice, adding some midrange when you push it or turn it down for a flatter fuzz tone. It cleans up pretty nice with the guitar volume too.

Thanks to Gus and Aron for their help and inspiration on this one.  My apologies to Robin Trower for the sound clip... :oops:

Doug

[Ansil]

damnit man..  that is mean..  is taht real bass or do you midi it. i didnt' know how you did your clips but they kick ass

[Doug H]

The bass and drums are midi.

Thanks!

Doug

[Ansil]

cool i was wondering. i need to get into that i usually just dub it in the computer or on teh mini recorder when i do some.  i couldn't talk you into dropping  some of those cool drum loops and stuff on to a cd. could i .. i would gladly pay u..

[M.D.]

is there another link i can follow to the sound clip bad gateway here

[Doug H]

cool i was wondering. i need to get into that i usually just dub it in the computer or on teh mini recorder when i do some.  i couldn't talk you into dropping  some of those cool drum loops and stuff on to a cd. could i .. i would gladly pay u..

I just build these in the midi editor of vision and drive the s/w synth with them. Pretty simple stuff. In all honesty, it's just not worth my time to fool around with dumping them off somewhere.

Doug

[Doug H]

is there another link i can follow to the sound clip bad gateway here

Sorry, can't help you there. :cry:

Doug

[Marcos - Munky]

Wow, another cool one.

[Ed Rembold]

Nice Doug!
nice playing too.
Ed R.

[M.D.]

bah just my luck a sweet sound clip and i cant hear it :cry: lol oh well the reviews are cool good job

[M.D.]

yessss it worked    my quick time player had dust on it until all the sudden it fired up and there was a mark II rocking out a jam,nice work nice sound but you missed a note lol just kidding ,play hard.

[brian wenz]

Hello Hello--
   What about using some low- noise BC-183 or BC-184 in the circuit??
Thanks-
Brian.

[zener]

Sounds cool !

Can I substitute 2N5088 for 2N5089? What might be the difference?

Any PCB layout coming?

Thanks.

Zener

[Doug H]

Thanks to everyone for the comments.

2n5088 will work fine. I don't know enough about the "BC*" transistors, but I would think any general purpose small signal si transistor with high enough hfe should work fine. I think the hfe of my 2n5089's are around 800, but it may not need to be that high to sound good. Just need to experiment.

Doug

[mattv]

That sounds really, really great! It's nice that there's people finding a way to get lovely sounding boxes with just run of the mill BJTs.  Who needs germanium?  

[Gus]

The gain stages were designed so almost any Si could be used.  The first stage has a gain of about 10,  The resistors were picked for stablity, gain, Ic and load for the pickups in a guitar.

The last stage is a EF so anything over hfe 200 min tone change with transistor changes.

 the 2nd and 3rd transistors are setup with the same circuit as in the 3tran.  The 100 ohm and 10k on the 2nd reduce the openloop gain of that stage.   Again >=hfe200 would be good.

 I like to use higher gain, low noise transistors.  Use what transistors you have.  Use what caps you have as well.  I do like Doug's cap values.

 A hint  look at the hfe vs Ic curves.  I believe this it what people hear with different Si transistors in FFs etc.  This Hfe change with Ic seems to affect the tone of effect circuit, because of gains we use in distortion/ fuzz effects.  In low gain circuits  Si transistors  seem to sound the same to my ears.

 Doug did the fine tuning of this circuit.  The sound clip sounds good Doug.

[Doug H]

That sounds really, really great! It's nice that there's people finding a way to get lovely sounding boxes with just run of the mill BJTs.  Who needs germanium?  

That was kind of my thought...  I love me hybrid Easy Face but after building this and playing with the FT70 I'm starting to believe there's nothing particularly special about Ge transistors. I love a Ge in a Rangemaster but then again the Brian May Boost sounds just fine to me, with any number of Si transistors. But for these fuzz circuits I see Ge's as mostly just a noisy PITA to deal with more than anything else. :lol:  :lol:

Doug

[Doug H]

The last stage is a EF so anything over hfe 200 min tone change with transistor changes.

I forgot about the follower. Yes, you can use a lot of different things for that. If you don't have a BJT you can directly sub a JFET in there too. I tried that and I think a BJT sounds slightly better with clearer highs but it's a subtle difference.

Use what transistors you have.  Use what caps you have as well.

That's my philosophy exactly.  Use what you have on hand, tune and tweak on the breadboard and let your ears be the judge.

Doug did the fine tuning of this circuit.  The sound clip sounds good Doug.

Thanks Gus!  And thanks for all your help!

Doug

[zener]

Hey Doug,

It may be obvious for experts but I'm just a newbie. What's the polar orientation of the C8 (47uf) in Hot Silicon.

Thanks.

Zener

[petemoore]

IFAIK these larger caps like this...that go between Pos rail and ground...
 Always the neg side of the polarized capacitor will be conected to ground.
 C8-    >ground
 C8+    >to 9v