Mangler Powering Question

[pryde]

Hello,

I am going to build the Mangler soon and would like to power it with a standard 9V (boss style).

If I used NPN transistors instead of the standard PNP would I still need to use a Road Rage in there as well? If so I will just order the standard PNPs.

Not very familiar with positive ground effects and fuzz faces (obviously) 

[dwstanford]

If you use npn's, you don't have to reverse the polarity, so no need for the road rage.  You will need to flip the polarity of the electrolytic caps and diode. (brian explains what to do in the build doc.)

[keysandguitars]

I built the PNP version with a road rage
and had no issues, it was my first fuzz or positive ground effect for that matter. I posted a wiring diagram that I found somewhere on the forum. I'll find a link tomorrow of you can't find it searching "mangler" & "road rage".

[dwstanford]

Yeah, the pnp version gives you way more options for transistors.  If you do npn, i suggest the oc140's from small bear.  It's very tough to find good sounding npn's.  Even though they're pretty expensive, they are the best deal i've found.

[pryde]

thanks for the info fellas. I will probably just build the PNP version and add the road rage in there as well to use negative-ground power.

What are the best small-bear PNP trannies to use for the mangler? There is a set for $11 he sells. Are these ok to use or should I drop more coin on others?

[dwstanford]

Ive used all of the pairs he sells and they all sound good.  My favorites are the "u.s. pair". I think they are only a couple bucks more than the sino's, but they are a bit darker and smoother.  The U.S.-Sino pair is great also.  Kinda the best of both worlds.  Has the bite of the sino with the smoothness of the u.s. 

[pryde]

I built the PNP version with a road rage
and had no issues, it was my first fuzz or positive ground effect for that matter. I posted a wiring diagram that I found somewhere on the forum. I'll find a link tomorrow of you can't find it searching "mangler" & "road rage".

Thank you. A wiring diagram for the whole mangler/road rage setup would be great!

[keysandguitars]

I believe the road rage has been updated since I did this, but it's a start.
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=2860.0

Read the road rage project PDF to see the components needed for -9v operation, it's only a few that need to be populated. Good luck, you should be fine.