Guitar Gear Forum

Germanium Fuzz Face clone. Used NPN Transistors so I can run it off my power supply. I also built it without using a layout, I'm proud of that.






Swamp Thang Tremolo Clone.






Currently working on a delay and then I'm going to build a Crunch Lab clone. Building pedals is kind of addicting

Nice builds. I love the FF clone.

I have built a couple of pedals, but they were kits. I'm still learning how to read schematics. How did you work out the layouts? Do you use a breadboard and prototype it?

You're right that building pedals (and amps) can be highly addictive.

good stuff man!

looks a shit ton better than that abortion posted to the fb group last night

Chops Malone wrote:Nice builds. I love the FF clone.

I have built a couple of pedals, but they were kits. I'm still learning how to read schematics. How did you work out the layouts? Do you use a breadboard and prototype it?

You're right that building pedals (and amps) can be highly addictive.

I highly encourage you to continue learning to read schematics. The FF is a great place to start as its really really simple circuit. The clone I did I just went by the schematic and didn't do I formal layout before I started soldering.

For more complex stuff you can get the layour for pretty much anything here:
http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/

Its easy to just go by layouts and never learn anything about the actual electrically engineering involved, so I recommend looking at the schematics and reading up on stuff as well.

Great work on those! Did you use the header strip for the transistors so that you can try out different ones? Are you planning to solder them in?

GRIMESPACE wrote:Great work on those! Did you use the header strip for the transistors so that you can try out different ones? Are you planning to solder them in?

yeah! I actually tried a bunch of different combinations of Si and Ge transistors. I settled on using both Ge. I probably won't solder then in, the connection is excellent as is and I'll probably want to swap them out again sometime in the future.

most people usually don't like to solder GE trannies and use sockets because they could easily be damaged by too much heat from the iron. I've soldered GE trannies in and haven't had a problem, but it's nice to socket and try out with different combinations, especially on a fuzz face.
Did you buy pre-matched transistors?

rock flag and eagle wrote:most people usually don't like to solder GE trannies and use sockets because they could easily be damaged by too much heat from the iron. I've soldered GE trannies in and haven't had a problem, but it's nice to socket and try out with different combinations, especially on a fuzz face.
Did you buy pre-matched transistors?

Yeah, that was another reason I went with the sockets. Those are actually from an opamp socket I cut in half.

I bought prematched transistors from Small Bear. Came with all the resistors too.

I bought some old matched AC128's off ebay that worked great in my fuzz factory build and fuzz face, I also bought some of the cheaper matched ones off Small Bear which also sound good.
If you're doing anything that requires matched transistors, I think Small Bear or a good seller on ebay is definitely the way to go.

and yes reading schematics is really good because it's helped me in debugging some pedals that didn't work right at first.
I started using a small breadboard from radioshack and building fuzz pedals off schematics, like the bazz fuss and other small easy fuzz pedals, and progressed into fuzz pedals with more parts. it's definitely good to know how to do that.
Now I just etch my own boards using other peoples layouts.

rock flag and eagle wrote:and yes reading schematics is really good because it's helped me in debugging some pedals that didn't work right at first.
I started using a small breadboard from radioshack and building fuzz pedals off schematics, like the bazz fuss and other small easy fuzz pedals, and progressed into fuzz pedals with more parts. it's definitely good to know how to do that.
Now I just etch my own boards using other peoples layouts.

I want to try etching at some point

_ej_ wrote:I highly encourage you to continue learning to read schematics. The FF is a great place to start as its really really simple circuit. The clone I did I just went by the schematic and didn't do I formal layout before I started soldering.

For more complex stuff you can get the layour for pretty much anything here:
http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/

Its easy to just go by layouts and never learn anything about the actual electrically engineering involved, so I recommend looking at the schematics and reading up on stuff as well.

Thanks for the link to the tagboardeffects site. Cool site. I also started checking out the DIYStompboxes forums too.

Good advice on continuing to learn how to read schematics. The hardest part for me is transposing the schematic over to a layout. I'm going to build out some fuzzes to learn with first, because they seem to be a fairly simple circuit.