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I don't build from scratch like I used to.  Also, I don't like keeping around as much gear as I used to.  This has had me fall in love with the lil bitty Madbean 1590A builds.  They are fun, don't take up much space, and I really enjoy the compact build experience (my first builds ever were 1590A Green Ringer and BazzFuss pedals).

Anyway, I'd love a 1590A project for a Companion Fuzz with common mods like a volume boost stage at the end and a tone control to shift the mids.  I think it would be a pretty plausible fit.  It is on the verge of fitting using perf board, but should definitely work with a smart pcb.

While I'm here, I'll throw out that I'd love to have a decent tiny Tremolo pedal, whatever circuit makes sense. 

For the hell of it, a 1590A DOD 250 would be cool. 

These builds are super handy.  I've got a Rat, a Hot Cake, the Mutantes Fuzz, and plan to do a Big Muff and Fuzz Face.  It makes it so easy to travel with some extra options.  Madbean excels at these boards and is my favorite place to buy pcbs.

That's very cool of you.  Like I said, I played a commercial pedal that had the same thing going on.  For now, I plan to enjoy it for what it is.

I share your speculation.  I don't have an 18v source to try myself.  I'm glad I like the fuzz so much.

I was just about to update.  I finally got around to spending a few hours just playing the box last night.  I also got to borrow a Vick Audio Overdriver for comparison. 

The full on fuzz does not suffer from the crackling.  The fuzz is just amazing.   Medium gain has some crackle, but there are setting where it is fine.  I can't get much clean boost at all and in that range, the odd heavy picked notes will crackle over the clean tone.  Eventually, I hope to buy or test out some low gain transistors and give them a shot. 

For now, I'm just digging the hell out of the fuzz tones.  It may just be the nature of the beast.

Also, the Vick Overdriver has simiar crackle behavior.  Over all the two boxes sound very, very similar.  It has a bit less crackle at low gain settings, but also has very little clean boost.  The entire unit may roll off highs a bit more, but maybe it's just a trick of the ear.  It is a cool dirt box. 

So I guess I was being picky.  Videos online sometimes show a grainy character, but seemed to have a nice clean boost and light overdrive.  I might still get those sounds out of these boxes, but it isn't as simple as it looks.  That's fine, but the more info you have, the better.  Adjust your expectations appropriately.  Cleaning up by rolling guitar volume down seems to avoid crackle more than using the unit's dial. 

Super Cool.

The Cherrybomb seems to sound the same in a chain of effects or out of it.  If I stack it with a Rat you can't really make out the crackle when both are wide open, but you aren't making much out at all then either.  I'd try a different guitar, but I don't have one right now (this one sounds fine when not using the Cherrybomb).

I've read years old thread on here about this build (unfortunately only after I built mine) and several folks seem to have had similar problems yet there have been no conclusive fixes.  Interest tapers off or folks just accept the crackle/static.  At one point folks seemed to attribute things to a flipped electrolytic capacitor, but in the version of the board I have it seems that cap has been changed to a non-polar film cap (which I used). 

The more I listen to it, it doesn't really sound like a bias issue.  It's not splatty like a off biased of dying battery fuzz.  It also sounds the same across two different power supplies and a handful of 9v batteries.

I've built several dirt boxes and other effects (I had really great experience with a couple of madbean Rustybox projects).  I've not quite heard this sort of sound before.  But I'm just a hobbyist with no theoretical knowledge.

Les Paul with humbuckers direct into the overdrive then direct to the amp.

I tried some other transistors, including 2N5088 and 2N4906 trios.  They all sounded pretty much the same.  Tripple checked the wiring and component orientation.  Couldn't find any problems.

Bummer.

I've recently wired up the 2015 Cherrybomb PCB from the site.  I've also read what I could on the project from this forum.

I seem to be running into the same old problem as others. 

I've swapped in and out several BC109 transistors.

The biggest issue is the crackling that seems to get louder the harder I play the guitar, even starting at very minimal gain settings.  It is very frustrating as it seems like there is this killer dirt sound rocking out underneath the static crackle.  Maybe you can call it splatty, but again, the unpleasant sounds seem to be "on top of" the overdrive sound, which itself seems nice and grainy. 

Is there a definitive answer about this issue?  Is it down to biasing?  If so where should I start?

Thanks.  I'll see what I can tinker with later tonight.

I was thinking this or a resistor, but I won't have a chance to try until this weekend.

Hi folks.  This is my first post here.  I've built plenty of relatively small dirt, fuzz, and misc. projects on perfboard over the years but when it came to something big like the Rustbucket, Madbean seemed like the place to go.

So here's he question.  Is there any way to maybe increase the decay length on the envelope?  The problem in practice is that even on long decay settings the RB will close the envelope when I really wish it would cut of my sustaining note quite so soon. 

I have a pal with a vintage EH model and he says it is functioning normally in this respect, which sounds good and all.  I just wonder if there is anything relatively simple that can be done (maybe switchable) to allow for longer sustain.  The attack sounds great, but if the mod influenced the range of this control as well, that might be ok, especially if switchable.

I have a busted Pigtronix Attack Sustain around somewhere.  This has a decay on/off switch, which would be a great mod for the RB if possible (I know they are related but not the same design).  Of curse the Pigtronix has all its component markings scratched off, so it's tough for me to relate what's going on in there (and currently only the compressor works--it was free after all).

So any of the wizards around here have any ideas?