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I always thought it was weird that MBP was still offering a Thunderpuss. Great booster, but not a surprise to see it go. Looking forward to the sale and esp. the new projects.

Without an LED, expect between 0.5 to 2 mA of current. With the LED, 5-10 mA is a save bet.

Will do. I'm busy with a FF PCB attempt in Eagle and I've implemented your suggestions. Took a bit of effort to get everything as neatly laid out as I had it before, but I'm getting there

Hey thanks Stecykmi. Will try that.

Not sure if this is the right subforum, between general, tech and mods there seems to be a bit of a bleed through. Anyway, here it goes.

I build a NPN Mangler/Fuzz Face with some excellent OC type transistors. I totally love the pedal, but I noticed it's a bit picky running of power supplies (I loathe batteries, not an option for me). It mostly works fine on its own, but daisy chaining in any way induces noise. It works well with a Visual Sound One Spot, but there's a background whine when using a Godlyke Powerall (similar to what I noticed when using it with a Mosfet Boost aka Thunderpuss).

This got me thinking about better power filtering options in the Mangler (and Thunderpuss). One idea that I've seen a lot lately is using a film cap in addition to the electrolytic cap because they apparently don't work equally well on all frequency bands. What value would be appropriate? About 100nF would be my guess. Is higher better?

Also, usually there's also a small resistor used for power filtering, like 100R. Will this mess with the function of the 470R resistor in the FF circuit and would lowering it to 10R still have some filtering function?

Also, I've understood from Brian that a RoadRage would take care of some filtering when using PNP transistors and having them work at 9V. Is there a way to utilize the Road Rage for +9V? (I'm guessing that this won't work with a 9V regulator?)

Anyway, any other tips and insights into filtering the power in this type of circuit are very much appreciated.

I got a virus report trying to open that site

One thing I'm starting to do a lot more of with my layouts: using smaller signal traces, large supply and ground traces and no grounding plane.

Why the smaller signal traces?

Just started messing about with Eagle and Brians library. Very grateful!

I built a Russian and Ram's Head spec. They're different, but both very cool. Russian is a bit more aggresive, Ram's is a bit muddier/fuller, to my ears.

Quick question: I'm designing a PCB for a Fuzz Face type circuit. If I use the Road Rage board to power it (pos. ground with -9V), is the power to the effect already filtered and rev. polarity protected? Put differently: is it still useful/sensible to incorporate those parts on the FF pcb?

Additional notes: the Plextortion is quite a bit more 'modern' and higher gain than themPlexi Drive. Don't know a DIY version of it.

If you're feeling adventurous: the PD is basically 3 cascaded single JFET boosters with a tonestack at the end, the Grapevine resembles the famous BSIAB2 layout with some tweaks. That might be a good starting point to cook your own. The basic recipe is to take two buffered Mini Boosters, tweak the capacitors and add a tone control. So if you happen to have two Mini Boosters around, add an EQ pedal and see if you can get something you like. You could then use the AMZ double booster board as a starting point, you just have to add the tone control between the two boosters or after them, on vero. I've got one of those PCBs that I'm looking to sell. PM me if interested.

The Plexi Drive by Wampler is great for 80s hard rock/metal, think GnR to 80s Priest. I find the Carl Martin Plexitone to be a different pedal, despite the similar name. Quite frankly, I didn't like that one. Similar to the Wampler is the Dirty Little Secret, which was an old Madbean project by the name of Grapevine. I think Haberdasher can get you that one on PCB. There's a few component values you can tweak to make it a bit more aggressive. That pedal also reacts very well to being boosted into even more overdrive/distortion by just about any gain/boost pedal.

I also did a version of the PlexiDrive with some modifications. I've got a PCB of that left, but there were a few (minor) mistakes and I don't have a complete build doc. It is otherwise verified and sounds slightly sweeter than the Wampler.

Best bet: go for a Grapevine and play around with some capacitor values.

Dang, ordered too soon! Guess I'll have to order more

I've often wondered about the input/output buffers of the TS. Do they contribute to the sound? I think it would at most be a very small contribution. Originally it was also part of the switching system, but the
circuit can be adapted to have a high enough input impedance not to need the buffer (Eternity/SoS). The output of the second opamp is quite adequate at driving the rest of the chain. I see Screamer clones with and without the input/output buffer or just one of them and always wonder why...One of my upcoming projects is a Screamer Lab based on Green Bean...Might make the buffers switchable or leave them out all together...

@BraindeadAudio: did you ever succeed in doing this? I just had a discussion with a very audio electronics savvy guy, and he is very prssimistic about switchingop amps because adding wire gets you in trouble with capacitances...