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Thanks maysink, that answers another question I had about the order of placement but I'm still wondering if the transistor hFE rating is more about it's distortion characteristics or more about overall volume output.

I'm experimenting with swapping transistors in a Mudbunny (BMP).  Everyone talks about 2n5133's vs xyz tranny and so forth and also about the mystical hFE ratings.  Does a higher hFE rating imply that its effect in the pedal will make it sound more saturated / distorted?  OR does it relate to the overall loudness in terms of volume?

For example, I put 4 BC239C's in the Mudbunny and the distortion was sweet but I had to dime the volume on the pedal to get the volume where I needed.  Unity was probably at 3 o'clock.  Conversely I had some 2n2088's in there that sounded saturated (but not as nearly as sweet) AND unity volume was at about 10 o'clock on the volume knob.

Testing the hFE's on a digital multimeter with a hFE meauring feature put the 239's around 520 hFE across the 4 trannys.  I realize this doesn't probably doesn't account for leakage.  Perhaps this is the key element?  For reference the 5088's were in the 450 hFE range.

Can anyone shed some light?  Perhaps it's way more complex. 

As suggested in the Mudbunny build instructions, changing the diodes to germanium NOS in different combos and parings definitely effects the sound and tone.  With 2 in the second pairing slots it's kinda cool. It's a bit less gain / less volume and darker. Maybe smoother and more compressed.  Kinda cool.  With all 4 diodes switched it's a huge drop in gain / volume.  Interesting but not good for me.

I'm going to try the resistor and cap switch out to Civil War specs (acknowledging that it might not make a major change) and then experiment with different trannys.

Somehow the original green russian is able to get this massive wall of low end but also maintain this top end clarity.  At least mine does.  I know they vary widely...

Thanks.  There is SO much info on the legendary muff.  Problem is, there is also so much variance even between 2 muffs made on the same day on the same bench, let alone the different versions.

This article also confirms that that tall lettered green russians were identical in circuit to the civil war so I guess I'll go with that circuit to hopefully approach the original.  Perhaps it's futile given all the variables and tolerances but it's fun...

Which Mudbunny clone is closer to the original tall skinny letter (early) Green BMP?  I've read that original tall skinny-letter BMPs are closer to the Civil War BMPs that preceded them than the later fat-lettered Green Russians....

Between the GR and the CW, which circuit is bassier?  I built the Violet Ram's Head and while it is cool, I want it to have more balls / thickness like my green russian.  Is the Civil War circuit the way to go to get me closer?

I know, it seems ironic to remove the octave effect from an octane, right?   

In a thread at another DIY page, Zach Vex himself answered a poster's question regarding removing the octave effect.  He had the following to say:

"We used to see Octane 1 pedals that sounded great but had no octave-up when the wrong value resistor was installed feeding the base of one of the transistor pairs used to generate the octave.  That's the simplest part you can remove to get rid of the octave.  On the schematic I've got here at home, R11 or R10 (right after the phase splitter) would be your two choices."

Brian from Madbeans suggested I try removing R9 from the circuit to achieve this on the Poindexter.  it didn't quite work.  It make it SUPER gated sounding.  Almost like a Fuzz Factory set at extreme comped and gated settings.

Based on Zach's description on what resistor to remove (the resistor right after the phase splitter) any suggestions on which resistor that would correspond to on the Poindexter circuit?

Thanks!

Thanks Josh!  I was pretty far off and not sure if I deserve bonus points.   

Greetings,

I'd like to add DC and LED to my Pastyface.  I'm using a Pedal Power 2 and have the special inverted cable to allow for the unique positive ground circuit of the Pastyface.  

Is this diagram correct?  I'm not sure about the whole thing but especially the battery connections.

If it's all wrong,  I'm enclosing a blank so that if someone is so inclined, they can correct it for me.

Thanks!

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Got my projects ordered.  Thanks Man!

Does the Double Flush fall under the hand-made board category?  I have parts coming tomorrow for that project and just wondering what your estimated availability is for that board.  Thanks.

And thanks for providing these amazing products.

Yep, the DF is hand-made. It will be back with all the others in a few days. I'm not giving an exact day because it depends on how well I get the new CNC working and how fast I can start cranking stuff out on it. But, before the week is out, one way or another.

Excellent!  Thanks for the reply.

Does the Double Flush fall under the hand-made board category?  I have parts coming tomorrow for that project and just wondering what your estimated availability is for that board.  Thanks.

And thanks for providing these amazing products.

For the Zombii, can I use the "Continental" Fuzz Face PNP transistor pair from Small Bear parts?  The pair has a OC75 and OC76 each at a gain of 89 and 105 respectively. 

If they will work, these transistors don't have tabs but they both have a red dot on the side that I assume indicates the collector lead.  Is this correct?  The multi-tester check seems to confirm this.

Finally, on the Zombii PCB regarding Q2 and Q3, which are the collector, base and emitter connections?  Perhaps for clarification, looking at the PCB, the Q2 and Q3 connections are both in a "V" shape with round connections at the left and mid point  of the "V" and a square connection at the right.

Thanks very much.