Topics

I guess October was VFE month for me ... I finally built a choral Reef I had laying around for awhile and last week I built a Dragon. Love them both. They both have more controls to tweak than my simple analog brain can handle ! I scored one of the monthly (October Halloween) custom powdercoat drops from Stompbox parts and it is killer.

Finished a Cliffhanger (Dover Drive) this weekend too ... its working great but still experimenting with the PNP transistors.  I will post my opinion on that when I'm done.

Had this PCB sitting around for awhile waiting its turn behind other projects ... very happy with how it sounds.  Need to get ambitious one of these days and get some of the older VFE boards made using the free Gerber files ... I love most of their older designs.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/fb1igq60h5dyh5jxmuint/Photo-Oct-24-2025-6-49-05-PM.jpg?rlkey=2l988nmbbp4hgkin97bil7fto&dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qnkkvdihwkpdoac72csos/Photo-Oct-24-2025-6-48-00-PM.jpg?rlkey=t19dxtqkltekf5n0v4sgz77dh&dl=0

 Hi-

Built a Rabbit Hole and having issue.  Built it to the Creamy Dreamer spec. in the build document so that is why you see some jumpers in the photo.
Anyway when effect engaged I get no sound.  When I probe it with my signal probe I get a considerable volume loss thru R2 (33k resistor) and then no sound coming out of C1 (110n cap).  No sound at base of Q1.
I checked my Actual Big Muff and the signal carries loud all thru the signal pass (iei no volume drop at R2 and signal on base of Q1 thru Q4).

Any thoughts ?

Hi All-

Just bult a VFE Mini Mu with the included Tru Soft switching board.  I used the latching relay and I jumpered the board approprioately per instruction sheet.

The effect turns on and sounds fine ... everything works in effect mode ... LED lights up.  When I click to bypass LED goes out but I get no sound coming thru at all.  Assume the issue is somewhere on the True Soft Board.

Any ideas on where to start ?  I can post pictures but it is boxed and the True Soft Board is "upside down" (solder side showing).   

 Hi all-

I've aquired a bunch of NOS PNP Germanium transistors and been sorting them by Hfe using a Peak semiconductor analyzer.

Question for you Fuzz Gurus ... I've built a bunch of Fuzz Face and Rangemaster type pedals before using the normal Hfe guidance found here and there, but never used anything much higher than 130 hfe for Q2 of the Fuzz face ... Some of these transistors I have come across have significantly higher gain (150 to 200+ Hfe) and very low leakage (less than 0.1ma).  Is there a better circuit to use these in or should I just experiment around with them in Fuzz Face/Buzzaround/Tonebender stuff ?  Not necessarily stuck on Fuzz either if there are other circuits but I haven't found much online surfing around.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Just finished this Wolfshirt ... this thing rocks ... now I know what the Foxx says 

Hi-

Just finished building a VFE Blues King.
The Switching Board is working fine (9.03 volts to effect board, bypass on and off fine, LED lights up with Effect on).
The Effect itself sounds very "splatty" and not much gain and volume not consistent.
I checked the voltages at the IC's and they are quite different on a couple pins each compared to reference voltages in build document (see below).  Any thoughts on why Pin 3 would be so low on both ?  I'm guessing that per the schematic Pin 3 of IC2.1 is fed by pin 1 of IC1.1 so the issue is upstream of IC2.1.  Any other reference voltages I can check ?  I'm kind of knew to troubleshooting using the schematic.  Thanks for any suggestions.

        IC 1.2        IC2.1        build doc
Pin 1  8.4v          4.6            4.55
Pin 2  8.4            4.6            4.55
Pin 3  0.8            2.3            4.14
Pin 4  0.0            0.0            0.0
Pin 5  4.5            4.5            4.44
Pin 6  4.5            7.1            4.44
Pin 7  4.5            4.5            4.44
Pin 8  9.1            9.1            8.88

Hi-
Building a Rangemaster with one of the original Rangemaster PCB's (so it doesn't have the charge pump/voltage inverter already on the effect board) and I also have a Road Rage board that I want to use to supply the -9v.

Question 1: I've read thru all of the build documents for both in the Road Rage document  says something like "...when using as a voltage inverter for Positive Ground effetct connect the -9V pad and the "G" pad to the effect board  ... but if it is a fuzz just connect the -9v lead to the effect board".  Does this mean for "non-fuzz" effects I connect the -9v as well as the "G" (ground) from the Road Rage to the Rangemaster Board  but if I was building a Fuzz (like a MAngler or Bumblebee" I don't connect the "G" ground on the Road Rage to anything on the effect board ?

Question 2: Do I do anything differently with the sleeve or sleeve/ring connections on the output and input jacks because of using the RoadRage?  (i.e. what Ground do I connect them to ? on the Rangemster Board or Roadrage Board or it doesn't matter ?)

Thanks for any help.  I've never built a Positive Ground effect before and while I can follow the Rangemaster Diagram if I was just using a battery my head got twisted with the Road Rage instructions.

Hi All-

Just looking for some friendly (or unfriendly  ) advice.  Building my first VFE pedal ... I bought a few circuit boards months ago and finally getting around to it .
Is it me or are the soldering eyelets on these boards extremely small relative to others (I have built pedals and amps from all the usual suspects and consider myself a pretty decent solderer) ??
I have the finest solder tip I can find and the smallest diameter Kester solder and still having trouble getting the solder to make the initial adherence to the eyelet without ending up with a big blob running up the lead.
Getting the knack on all of the resistors but I'm worried I'm heating the leads too long when I get to the other more sensitive components.  I always socket the IC's so not worried about those.
Wondering if anyone has some advice on some other technique.

I also realized I didn't clean the board before I started ... most times I gently wipe down the solder side with some acetone to clean off any contaminants.

Thanks in advance !