Easy phaser pedal recommendation?

[peps1]

made my first pedal  , a clone of the Green Sovtek Big Muff!

but now fancy a little Phase action.......any recommendations for something vintage with the classic distortion (but simple layout as im pure noob)

[petemoore]

  Phase 45, two stages, no phasers are exactly 'easy', and the 4 stage phasers still need the 'regular stuff', LFO, power supply, the phase stages are the same wiring, there's just more of them.
  Which brings to the Phase 90, both are fine phasers, the 45 is subtle phase, very nice.
  Both of these are Jfet controlled sweep, that means the 45 is easier to swap till you drop or it starts phasin'...or the Jfets must be matched [preferred method]...basically a whole nuther circuit build right there.
  Yea I swapped a 90's Q's until it got working, can't recommend it..countless rediculous amounts of swapping..of course I had to build the matching fixture anyway.
  The other sweep control methods: LDR or OTA, don't require matching Jfets.
  Mark has touted the mod-ability and basic nice 4 stager, Ross Phaser.
  Suggestions:
  Start at least with a verified layout, if not a PCB, if you can find one with the marked values, that helps IME.
 

[peps1]

Thanks petemoore, like the sound and ease of the Phase90 layout but am having trouble finding 2N4125 and 2N5952 here in the UK......know any substitutes?

[Heemis]

+1 on the Ross phaser.  It's certainly not a "beginner's" circuit, but if you get a pcb, it shouldn't be too bad.  As pete mentioned, the OTAs save you the trouble of matching JFETs.

Tonepad has a particularly nice PCB of the Ross, and many of Mark's fine mods are also documented there.

[peps1]

The Ross looks a little out of my comfort zone, but then iv also never had to match up matching JFETs, although it my be fundamental if i cant find subs.

[peps1]

Found this simple looking JFET Matcher, but could someone explain how to use it

[Fender3D]

Phase 90 for Eddy's sake!!!!!!!!!!!


Banzai got the needed transistors, those matched 2N5952 too...

About the matcher:
simply plug your JFET on D,S,G pins,
plug your DMM on ... (guess what?) DMMs pins and match JFETs for the same readings (better not over 5% difference).
This process assumes you buy at least 20/25 JFET to get the probability to find 4 similar though...

[Mark Hammer]

LM13600s tend to be available from more sources than 2N5952s.  If you're going to do all your ordering from a single source like banzai or Small Bear, then clearly the P90 is a nice compact and good-sounding (nay, "classic-sounding") phaser that lends itself well to mods.  Plus the board layouts posted around fit nicely into a 1590B...just like the original!  Do the JFETs need matching?  Well, certainly the most "musical-sounding" phasing would benefit from matching up the JFETs.  I bought 6 from Small Bear, grabbed 4 randomly, plunked them in sockets on the board, and I liked what I heard.  Is it the best it could be?  probably not, but it sounds okay, and for someone who is just entering the world of DIY, having a phaser sweep up and down just like you hoped it would is going to be reward enough.  Just be sure to socket the JFETs so that if you decide at some future date that the "turnaround" in the sweep isn't quite up to your expectations, you can take the JFETs out, and work to come up with a matched quartet.

Now, if you are limited to buying your parts from a nearby industrial outlet, then the Ross/Ropez is also a very nice phaser.  It does a lot of what the Small Stone does, but without the cost or nuisance of finding CA3094s, or the soldering burden of the (still cleverly implemented) Tonepad Piedrita that uses a transistor pair in conjunction with a (now even rarer) CA3080 to sub for a 3094.  The Ropez is a bit larger than a P90, but generally dead simple, and involves no trimpot setting or component matching.  It too is amenable to lots of interesting mods, some of them more interesting than what the P90 is capable of.

Both good candidates, though, and with so many people having built one or the other or both, you will have no trouble been talked through your build and doing any post-build troubleshooting.

[petemoore]

  GEO...JFet matching Fixture or something like that.
 Watch the wiring/ pinout etc.
 Having a cork or whatever board [cardboard kinda works] to stuff the Qlegs into after you measure makes it easier to keep the sorted Jfets from become assorted Jfets once again. Double stick tape or something to pin them to a sheet which you can write the readings on.
 I indexed 'em low to high, then looked for 'closely clustered' sets, Jfets of near-same numbers.

[peps1]

Take it I can use any any general purpose PNP transistor such as the BC558B to replace the 2N4125, but will any small signal FET will do the job of the 2N5952?

As im getting all my part from here http://www.bitsbox.co.uk/transistors.html is there a FET that will do the job?

[Fender3D]

BF245 for sure (I tried them), 2N5459 maybe
Watch out the pinouts (BC should be reversed, if I remember...)

[peps1]

BF245 for sure (I tried them), 2N5459 maybe
Watch out the pinouts (BC should be reversed, if I remember...)

Thanks Fender3D, I will give it a go with the BC558B and matched BF245s (and watch out for the pin out......the tonepad PCB for the Pase90 has layout for both i believe)