madbeanpedals::forum

This thing is very aptly named, especially with the tone switch up

Here's my build. Usual method of coaxing an AI (Gemini here) into giving me something close to what I want, vectorizer.ai to turn it into a decent .svg, inkscape for the rest and scribus to convert the colors and export the layered PDF for our friends at Tayda.

(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20250808/b3d50fcdfc605308b95ba66b9bc0bee0.jpg)

(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20250808/4411c04c50f5511d3f56d8400c0dcb97.jpg)

Gosh Tone isn't a mid scoop, it's a mid grave :-) Also with the gain past noon it's basically a noise amplifier, you hope you have a humbucker or two pickups wired in opposition:-)

I love it !


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Love me the super-fuzz! What do the DIP switches do? Control the shape of the scoop?

That looks very cool.


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Quote from: jessenator on August 08, 2025, 04:08:21 PMLove me the super-fuzz! What do the DIP switches do? Control the shape of the scoop?

Yes, they change the value of a capacitor in the tone filter to "tame" the scoop (sound a bit less like a dentist drill)... I haven't played with it much yet.

I've switched to a modified version of slapping a pot in place of the switch. Can give me just a touch of low end without the mids dropping out completely.

I'm glad you like it. The Bonesaw is probably my favorite fuzz I've built in the last year or two. It's just gnarly.

Quote from: jessenator on August 09, 2025, 01:33:34 AMI've switched to a modified version of slapping a pot in place of the switch. Can give me just a touch of low end without the mids dropping out completely.

How do you wire the pot ? A mix between the scoop and non-scooped path ?

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Quote from: madbean on August 09, 2025, 02:12:15 AMI'm glad you like it. The Bonesaw is probably my favorite fuzz I've built in the last year or two. It's just gnarly.

I suck too much at guitar to really appreciate it to its fullest But yes I love what I hear so far, can't wait to see what the kids do with it when I bring it over !

I also *really* like your standard design. Being able to use those nice semi-rigid ribbons instead of a pile of wires between the main PCB and the foot switch is really neat and saves time (I hate soldering wires :-)



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Quote from: benh on August 09, 2025, 02:47:47 AM

Quote from: jessenator on August 09, 2025, 01:33:34 AMI've switched to a modified version of slapping a pot in place of the switch. Can give me just a touch of low end without the mids dropping out completely.

How do you wire the pot ? A mix between the scoop and non-scooped path ?

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Let me dig out my modified schematic. I mean, you could just wire it in 1-2-3 in direct pin-pad replacement of the switch, but there are some alterations that prevent a weird level drop I encountered while just replacing it straight up

Okay, here's a comparison. Forgive the top (original) drawing, because it's terrible (my first redraw of a schematic) and the part numbers differ :( . Compare to the bottom (modified). These are mods I pulled from the interwebz, not my own original ideas. NOTCH was renamed FILTER in the new schematic. R21 and R22 are removed, C14's value is changed, pin 3 has been reconnected at the net between R23 and R24. and pin 1 is grounded.

super-fuzz-filter-mod.png

You'll also notice the clipping trimmer. I find 1k is sufficient, but maybe for larger amps it makes a difference to go up to 10k.

Thanks ! I'll try to breadboard it next week maybe and compare.

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Interestingly, I saw in your schematic you use a 2n5088. Out of curiosity I checked around what others use.

AionFX notably has a whole doc section on transistor selection.

The main thing I noticed there is that it recommends higher hfe at the beginning and lower at the end, especially Q6.

When I built mine I sorted my 2sc828s (to match Q4 and Q5) and did the opposite, I put the highest hfe I could find in Q6, possibly naive attempt at compensating the signal loss from clipping and tone :-)

Your 2n5088 would I suppose be similarly high gain.

I still love the sound :-) it does get very loud and noisy with the balance pot anywhere past noon but who cares ? :-)

I might try to breadboard or even build another one with a different transistor arrangement for fun.

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Hah, yeah after a number of good folks here suggested it, I went back to mid to mid-low gain transistors. I mean, 5088s will work, but going to lower gain reduced some of the unpleasant tones.

I read that write-up of Aion's as well after my first (terrible ;D ) version of it, which helped incredibly.

https://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=34540.msg330176#msg330176

I went and made silly names for the combination of NPNs that I tried, even. 

(https://i.imgur.com/AOuzj2H.jpg)

I'm not sure if the Qx part numbers line to Brian's , but I'll post it later tonight or tomorrow.

Quote from: jessenator on August 09, 2025, 11:32:31 PMHah, yeah after a number of good folks here suggested it, I went back to mid to mid-low gain transistors. I mean, 5088s will work, but going to lower gain reduced some of the unpleasant tones.

I read that write-up of Aion's as well after my first (terrible ;D ) version of it, which helped incredibly.

https://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=34540.msg330176#msg330176

I went and made silly names for the combination of NPNs that I tried, even.

(https://i.imgur.com/AOuzj2H.jpg)

I'm not sure if the Qx part numbers line to Brian's , but I'll post it later tonight or tomorrow.

Which one end up your favourite out of curiosity?

Kevin's PCB has extra holes for accommodating different pinouts, with Brian's you have to cross the legs to use a 2N390x but that's not a huge deal. Interestingly Aion's "tone pot" mod seems to be strictly to replace the switch with a 50kB.



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Quote from: benh on August 10, 2025, 03:20:58 AMWhich one end up your favourite out of curiosity?

Probably HAIRY or CRUNCH CITY PART II --- you can use any low-gain NPN in Q6, the A5T ones are unobtanium, but there might be some MPS6512s around. PM me if you want a set. Maybe I can send them in a flat mailer on the cheap  ;)

Sorry to have taken over your build report... Here's my drawing:
(https://i.imgur.com/sM2IowH.png)

Quote from: jessenator on August 10, 2025, 03:53:37 AM

Quote from: benh on August 10, 2025, 03:20:58 AMWhich one end up your favourite out of curiosity?

Probably HAIRY or CRUNCH CITY PART II --- you can use any low-gain NPN in Q6, the A5T ones are unobtanium, but there might be some MPS6512s around. PM me if you want a set. Maybe I can send them in a flat mailer on the cheap  ;)

Sorry to have taken over your build report...

Nothing to be sorry about, those discussions are great !

Today I finally brought my build to my son. Tele in, joyo 5F1 clone out. It sounds awesome:-)

While I am allowed to fiddle and make another different one, I am forbidden to touch that one further :-) My Q6 measures around 190 with my GM328 (the other ones are closer to 120). Still far from a 2N5088 :-)

I'll see what I can find around here before I bother you with shipping to Australia :-)

Also for the Ge diodes, I used some black band allegedly -1N34A (from stompboxparts iirc) with a Vf around 0.3V. I'll play around with other options on the ProtoBoard for build #2, I have some D9E's that have been great with Misfit around 0.35 and allegedly-1N34A around 0.4V. They seem to all have a bit of reverse current so maybe legit Ge....


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I really like the D9E and D9D in this one. I also tried silicon here but it was really harsh, but breadboard it; you might like it  :)  Here are a few other NPNs that have that are pretty low, <100 hFE mostly. I measured these with a T7 component measurement tool:

part num	type	min	max
MPS3394	NPN	60	90
MPS4274	NPN	70	90
MPS5131	NPN	20	100
MPS6512	NPN	30	90

Swap in "2N" for "MPS" and they may show up that way, too.

Another thought was you might try piggybacking two NPNs to get a lower value. It'll make an already thick circuit a bit thicker, but worth trying.

1710307277248.png