Friday, October 30, 2015
Montarbo Sinfhoton
Here's a unique fuzz box from Italy for #fuzzfriday. Long, warm sustain like a Big Muff, but with better articulation when strumming chords. There seems to be a couple different ways to build this (circuit is the same, just a few components vary), and it's ripe for modification. Using high gain silicon transistors like MPSA18 or 2N5089s and playing with the value of the resistors going to the collectors from the voltage rail is a good place to start. Check out the FSB thread on this effect for more info. Diodes weren't listed in the schematics I saw, but 1N4148s should do the trick.
Verified.
ReplyDeleteI think Bass 3 should connect to Treble 1, but I would recommend experimenting with a different tone control altogether. The bass control here really just determines the range of the treble control's frequency cut.
Stock setup sounds OK. Thick and with lots of sustain. I tried 2N5089's and MPSA18's for the transistors, but settled on some 2N3904's. 1N914's for the clipping diodes.
I did a few simple mods:
-Following a comment from the vero layout site, I replaced D3 with an orange LED. The change made the effect sound more open and aggressive and also increased the volume. I tried replacing both D3 and D4 with LEDs, but I though the LED/Si combo sounded better.
-Replaced treble and bass controls with AMZ's SWTC 3. Kept the 10ka volume pot. I think I would have tried the SWTC 2 if starting over, but the SWTC 3 was really easy to implement with this layout.
-Added a 100ka pre-gain pot in front of the circuit. This lets you dial back the aggressiveness added by the D3 swap.
Thanks for all the layouts!
After playing around with it some more, I think the pre-gain pot I added isn't necessary. The circuit sounded best with the pre-gain full up or only slightly backed off. The diode swap did make the effect sound more aggressive, but not to the point of being harsh.
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ReplyDeleteehi guys, without BC149 this pedal will never sound like original. trust me, the "legato effect" of the fuzz is possible only with BC149. all the others make it sound "good", but it's soooo far from the effect of the original one.
ReplyDeleteTi bc183 sound great in it
ReplyDeleteIn the stripboard versione D3 and D4 have opposite layout than in pcb version...which one is correct? Thanks
ReplyDeleteThat likely comes down to labeling. It's just a symmetrical clipping setup, so it's fine.
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