I've been on a bit of a fuzz kick lately. Basically, i made an ill advised eBay purchase of 100 gt308 Russian ge's. So I decided to put a few to use.
i learned a lot on this build. First of all, as many of you probably already knew, Tonebenders like Q1 to have some leakage. Couldn't get it to make a sound at first with the gt308. I found a thread where mac from DIYstompboxes recommended using a resistor from collector to base to simulate leakage. Bam! It was alive. A lot of different tones can be had by playing with the value of this resistor. In the end, I settled on a 1M5.
I spent the last three weeks with this thing on the breadboard trying different collector resistances. I would make an adjustment then come back a a day later to listen again. I have to say that the effort payed off. This is the best sounding fuzz I've ever built. I
also ended up using bias pot for Q2. I found a thread where Jon had mentioned that this method is better than the more common bias pot on Q3.
Anyway, enough rambling, here it is. I've included a schematic for anyone who is interested. By the way, the HFEs that I used are 71, 74 and 79
i learned a lot on this build. First of all, as many of you probably already knew, Tonebenders like Q1 to have some leakage. Couldn't get it to make a sound at first with the gt308. I found a thread where mac from DIYstompboxes recommended using a resistor from collector to base to simulate leakage. Bam! It was alive. A lot of different tones can be had by playing with the value of this resistor. In the end, I settled on a 1M5.
I spent the last three weeks with this thing on the breadboard trying different collector resistances. I would make an adjustment then come back a a day later to listen again. I have to say that the effort payed off. This is the best sounding fuzz I've ever built. I
also ended up using bias pot for Q2. I found a thread where Jon had mentioned that this method is better than the more common bias pot on Q3.
Anyway, enough rambling, here it is. I've included a schematic for anyone who is interested. By the way, the HFEs that I used are 71, 74 and 79