Crowella Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 DaveDOT. I think you might be interested in this, maybe others as well like Matt who wants me to demo all my pedals slightly or others that want to build a very simple pedal . Thought I'd play the simple, bog standard Bazz Fuss to some Muse on guitar. Interesting tone when direct. Far too muddy for chords when you have the bass capacitor in there but definitely fuzzy none the less. I imagine I could do it more justice with a more full sounding guitar and not the thinning wangcaster. Basically recorded as Wangcaster > Bazz Fuss > ART Tube Preamp > Mixing Board. [soundcloud]http://soundcloud.com/adamcrowell1990/bazz-fuss-on-guitar[/soundcloud] So yeah, basically, pretty nice for solo notes at least Will post the EA tremolo shortly. EDIT: Recorded the EA Tremolo. Sadly, this is the strongest setting so I only demonstrated one speed and depth. I believe my flashing blue led doesn't help the depth, or at least I think so when I swapped it from a red one. I love the sound of this tremolo on solo guitar but it's not a cutting effect. I've heard other demos where it's stronger so it may just be something with mine or perhaps the Tonepad version of this effect. Who knows. I like the warble. Wangcaser > EA Tremolo > ART Tube Preamp > Mixing Board. [soundcloud] [/soundcloud] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james90 Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 started work on the valvecaster. from the samples, it sounds pretty dark... would changing the input cap from 47nf to 22nf help that? the schematic and layout is here http://www.beavisaudio.com/projects/ValveCaster/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil. Posted January 22, 2013 Share Posted January 22, 2013 started work on the valvecaster. from the samples, it sounds pretty dark... would changing the input cap from 47nf to 22nf help that? the schematic and layout is here http://www.beavisaudio.com/projects/ValveCaster/ Yes, also, pming you shortly re:canon values. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave. Posted January 22, 2013 Share Posted January 22, 2013 @Crowella HHHHHNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGG!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crowella Posted January 22, 2013 Share Posted January 22, 2013 Yeah, pretty much shocked me too cause I never usually use it on guitar and seemed to suit some Muse stuff. Works even nicer with a gain pedal before it too to beef it up and you can get some control from your guitar/bass volume knob to soften it a bit, although I find that it doesn't sound the best at low gain. I remember when I was gigging I used it a bit and I had at least one person a gig ask what the fuzz pedal was, even though it's not good for actually monitoring your own playing. It made me laugh because it's such a stupidly simple pedal and it got the most interest over a custom Thom Yorke Phase 90 I had which I thought would make people moist. It got so much interest that just to prove a point, I even demoed the Bazz Fuss at a music shop to see what they thought and if they'd sell it and they gave it a thumbs up and truly enjoyed it. Quite a few people came in and questioned it too so it sparked some interest. That all said, it has it's drawbacks. It does play around with impedance a little bit so active instruments may upset it like some fuzz pedals. I think a solution to that is to add a transformer to the input to act like a pickup simulator so that the tone is more consistent between instruments. Also when you add some distortions and overdrives with it you can make it sound a bit awful. Maybe I haven't had much luck there. I think some time soon, I'll play around with one properly and design a few things on it such as tinker with an input buffer, better tone stack, possibly a clean blend and maybe a booster gain stage to mix it up a bit. tl/dr. Just build it and enjoy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zooropa1310 Posted January 22, 2013 Share Posted January 22, 2013 Thom Yorke phase 90? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crowella Posted January 22, 2013 Share Posted January 22, 2013 Yep, so good I had two. Well, one got stolen and one got sold so no more for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xut Posted January 22, 2013 Share Posted January 22, 2013 Probably been asked before, but what particular phase 90 is it based off of? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james90 Posted January 22, 2013 Share Posted January 22, 2013 all parts have been ordered for my next build. i'm not sure what all this hfe business means with the transistors though... I could literally only find one place that had them in the USA, so I bought them anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crowella Posted January 22, 2013 Share Posted January 22, 2013 Based off a current one IIRC. The resistor to mod it to script logo was removable. I tried a jumper there once and it went ballistic. Twas a bit of fun. They worked exactly like a Phase 90 should anyway and was my first PCB builds. James, HFE can be measured on a good multimeter. Have you got a specific value you require? Funny that I don't recall learning what HFE is when I've done 3 electronics subjects at uni... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james90 Posted January 22, 2013 Share Posted January 22, 2013 I don't know if my multimeter is any good And only Neil can answer that really, I have no idea what I'm doing (as always) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaicen Posted January 22, 2013 Share Posted January 22, 2013 hfe is referred to as current gain. Basically it tells you how much more output you can have for a given input. Just get anything between 120-300hfe and they will work in almost anything. What are you building? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james90 Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 hfe is referred to as current gain. Basically it tells you how much more output you can have for a given input. Just get anything between 120-300hfe and they will work in almost anything. What are you building? Something that's loosely based on a big muff, or whatever Neil wants to call it these are between 450-900. Is that a bad thing in this case? I couldn't find the same transistors anywhere else edit: mouser lists them as obsolete If these don't work, I need to find an equivalent to the BC550C...no idea what to look for Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crowella Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 If all else fails when you need an NPN transistor for those BC550's, use either a 2N5088 or 2N5089. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil. Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 I don't know if my multimeter is any good And only Neil can answer that really, I have no idea what I'm doing (as always) It's a Muff, modified after a lot of testing. Breadboards ftw. It's got a lot of electrolytes in it lelelel Something that's loosely based on a big muff, or whatever Neil wants to call it these are between 450-900. Is that a bad thing in this case? I couldn't find the same transistors anywhere else edit: mouser lists them as obsolete If these don't work, I need to find an equivalent to the BC550C...no idea what to look for edit: If you search for BC550C, any of the ones in stock (first 10 results or so) are fine. Eg, this http://ie.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Fairchild-Semiconductor/BC550CTA/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMsTKkj12KWLXuW5oDYpP%252bzxZ6TAjgfWiPM%3d That's very odd. There's a whole series of BC###& transistors. the ### part are various little variations, and then for each one the & will represent a letter. So for example, I've about 20 BC550C's at home, I've 30 BC548B's and a few BC520A's. What do the ABC's do? Well if you get really picky about it, there's actually a BC550A, BC550B and BC550C, all with different hfe's, or in terms of muffs, how much gain it'll give to each stage. After much testing, I found C's to be the best, although the ### part of it does very little difference. Nothing I could hear anyway. So james, what I would imagine is that a vast majority of transistors with a C at the end should suffice. I could probably have a look on Mouser for a suitable alternative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james90 Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 so these should be fine then? the seller said hfe was 450-900 BYOC has some BC550s, but there wasn't a letter at the end Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil. Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 sounds about right, just double check the pin outs on them before you solder them down!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james90 Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 sounds about right, just double check the pin outs on them before you solder them down!! Haha I will What would happen if they didn't have the right HFE for this pedal? I'm guessing it wouldn't sound right? or would it go all 'splodey? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaicen Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 Most circuits are designed to work well with a range of Transistor hfe's. There is the rare occasion such as the Rangemaster or Fuzz Face where hfe becomes critical to the correct sound, but mostly just use what you have. I have heard that the muff sounds best when all the transistors are around 200hfe, so right around the 2n3904 gain range. However, that's not to say that the Muff won't work with higher hfe. I would socket the transistors and try a range. I suspect that if you want to use diodes with high forward voltages like LED's or 1N4xxx power diodes, higher gain trannies will help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james90 Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 the diodes he told me to use were all 1N4148 I had to order a few resistors from mouser anyway, so I got the BC550CTAs. Not sure which I'll end up using, or which would be better My PCBs from general guitar gadgets are here anyway, but everything else is still on its way, so I can't start yet Any particular reason you prefer the electrolytics, Neil? I've recently tried this thing in a super lead circuit with mixing cap types in a certain position which made a very interesting difference. Probably shouldn't go into detail though, otherwise I might accidentally the whole thread Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaicen Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 the diodes he told me to use were all 1N4148 I had to order a few resistors from mouser anyway, so I got the BC550CTAs. Not sure which I'll end up using, or which would be better My PCBs from general guitar gadgets are here anyway, but everything else is still on its way, so I can't start yet Any particular reason you prefer the electrolytics, Neil? I've recently tried this thing in a super lead circuit with mixing cap types in a certain position which made a very interesting difference. Probably shouldn't go into detail though, otherwise I might accidentally the whole thread I'm interested to know this too, I tend to avoid using electrolytics wherever possible. I'm not sure why but I do think they sound grainy for some reason, but that depends on the circuit in question. Same with ceramics, I use resin dipped if I absolutely have to but never put ceramic discs in the audio path. My caps of choice are Mylar if you were wondering Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil. Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 Haha I will What would happen if they didn't have the right HFE for this pedal? I'm guessing it wouldn't sound right? or would it go all 'splodey? It'll be less gainy, and more muddy. From my own experience, the way that particular version of the muff is, it seems to need higher gain to sort of drive through the mud. Brute force ftw. As chedda will probably explain, sometimes you just need to force it a little. Most circuits are designed to work well with a range of Transistor hfe's. There is the rare occasion such as the Rangemaster or Fuzz Face where hfe becomes critical to the correct sound, but mostly just use what you have. I have heard that the muff sounds best when all the transistors are around 200hfe, so right around the 2n3904 gain range. However, that's not to say that the Muff won't work with higher hfe. I would socket the transistors and try a range. I suspect that if you want to use diodes with high forward voltages like LED's or 1N4xxx power diodes, higher gain trannies will help. Yeah diodes are fun. I tested a huge amount of diodes in this circuit. LED's, 12AX7's (triode what!?), opamps, mosfets, BAT### series ones, anything odd I could get my hands on really. 1N4148 performed the best. Same as the Tone Wicker version. the diodes he told me to use were all 1N4148 I had to order a few resistors from mouser anyway, so I got the BC550CTAs. Not sure which I'll end up using, or which would be better My PCBs from general guitar gadgets are here anyway, but everything else is still on its way, so I can't start yet Any particular reason you prefer the electrolytics, Neil? I've recently tried this thing in a super lead circuit with mixing cap types in a certain position which made a very interesting difference. Probably shouldn't go into detail though, otherwise I might accidentally the whole thread No particular reason for the electrolytes. I tried a variety of those too, even things like 0.1uF ones and non-polarised ones. The main reason for them is their values, but that being said, the Tone Wicker uses a few 4.7uF ones along the way, which is very high for a muff. There's an additional 1uF cap you can optionally put in just before the tonestack, but it doesn't do enough to justify putting it in. I have a 4.7uF in before the tonestack on one of my cannons, just for when I want ridiculous bass mud, but that's very seldom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james90 Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 IMA FEELIN DAT 1 BRO Also, getting solder out of a tube socket isn't easy, so I started over I'm not sure why I'm using such expensive "high resolution" (what?) capacitors and NOS mil-spec carbon comp resistors... surely there's not going to be much of a difference in something like this but i'm doing it anyway. just because. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaicen Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 Damn bruvva, thems are some big ass caps! I wonder if they're the ones with little electrolytics inside I jest, but seriously, what the hell are they?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james90 Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 For a second I thought you were talking about those multi section electrolytics I have a few of those too if you want to see them? haha the yellow one is something called an auricap or something like that. I can't remember what it's actually made of. That huge ampohm cap is a 1uf 630v polypropylene...they went out of production in 2009 I think. UK made. I know it's not going to require anywhere NEAR that voltage, but I have all this space inside the enclosure, so why not? the other two are just 1970's paper/mylar caps - I think they're similar to the sprague 225P (not sure if these are still in production). Only really using those as I bought a case full of different values at a garage sale not long ago...many of them measure WAY off though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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