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Looks super cool! I think this is my next build.

Okay, I got the Mangler working....sort of. I tested it before I boxed it up and it sounded good and worked fine. But now that I have it boxed, I'm having trouble with the transistor in Q1.

I can get the effect to work, and when I switch to bypass, the signal is fine. But when I try to turn the effect back on, I get no signal until I fidget with the transistor. So far, the only thing I've done to troubleshoot is reflow the soldering joints on the socket.

It seems like 1) the transistor isn't fitting in the socket very well or 2) something keeps shorting out the circuit. I made a quick video and posted the link below. Any ideas?

Cool sketch of J. Mascis on the inside of the Fuzz Factory! Awesome!

UPDATE: All I needed to do was run a cable from both jacks and that solved the problem. Electrolytic caps were in the right position. Thanks for all the help everybody.

Just got home from work. Thanks for all the replies!

Murdog, I'll try your idea first and see if that fixes the buzz.

Yeah it looks like you may not have a ground wire connected. Also check the orientation of that 2.2uF electrolytic cap. I am not 100% sure because I haven't seen a cap quite like that but it looks like it might be in backwards from the picture.

I beleive those are non polar elctros he's using

I think I have the right caps (I think) b/c they had the "-" markings running down the side. However, the 2.2uF cap had a "+" marking instead of a "-" so I flipped it around. Just to confirm, since this is a positive ground effect the negative side of an electrolytic cap runs into the square pad on the circuit, right?

Hi everybody,

I'll preface this post by saying this is my fourth build, but it's my first "non-kit" build that I've attempted. I got the Mangler, I used matched PNP-Ge transistors from Smallbear (and used the Smallbear-supplied resistors instead of the resistor values on the Madbean schematic).

After I assembled the board and went to test it, all I got was a loud buzz. It didn't matter if bypass was on or not. I checked the other elements of my rig (guitar/amp/cable) to make sure they were okay, and they were.

So, based on what I've read on other posts, this means that there's a grounding issue with the Mangler, right? So, I went back and reflowed all my connections and gave it another shot. I also made sure that the pots weren't touching the board. They weren't. I fired it up again and got the same result.

I've included pics - any assistance and insight are much appreciated. Thanks.

Wow! That is incredible!