Sweet Rage

[rocket88]

essentially its the fuzz section of the colorsound wow-fuzz, but with a few tweaks. i can tell you that the BC167b's are hard to find and really pricey, so look for a suitable replacement. i made the layout with the more common CBE pinout so that you hopefully wont have to twist the pins. if you use BC167b's you will have to twist B & C. there's 3 layouts i made for this:

1 - added fuzz control.


2 - added fuzz control and SWTC


3 - added fuzz control and SWTC slightly smaller


i figure if i do sell this one, everyone here will figure it out eventually anyway, lol  . but seriously, i have no problem sharing my ideas with all those in the community. hope you guys enjoy it.

[Freppo]

Great work!

When I have the time I will build it :)

[KT]

I've built the first one and tried BC107/8/9 and 2N2222. I like the sound but it is not that loud. Is it loud with the BC167bs?

thanks

[rocket88]

I've only build it using bc167b's I got for by wow-fuzz build. It wasn't super loud, kind of a little close to the bypass volume. I've been thinking about what I can do to help increase the output,and think I have a way to solve it. Since the topography is similar to the fuzzface, if you increase the 470r resistor that connects to the 8.2k resistor to collector of Q2 to something like 1k or 1.5k you can get an increase in output, you should be able to do get an increase in output by increasing the 100r resistor that connects to the 8.2k resistor to the collector of Q2 on this effect. Now my only concern is you may need to adjust the bias when doing this, but I haven't had time to experiment.

Or you could put a tiny clean booster after the output that is always on to act as a gain recovery and adjust the output on an internal trimmer. Which may be easier. I'm glad to hear it sounds good with other transistors. The bc167b sounds thick and fat to my ears, so I was thinking a good alternative may be the bc183, since they are known for being a little darker and thicker then bc108's in Si fuzzfaces, and this seems fairly similar.

If the volume is that low on output using the SWTC like I put in is a no-go and will need to have as gain recovery without a doubt, so I got to go back and correct that.

How do you think the fuzz control is? Does it work well enough and clean up enough? Anthing you thing should be changed? How does it sound with the bc108's and 2n2222's? I'd love to get opinions on it so I can make it as good as it can be.

[KT]

The way it is now i need to max the fuzz and level control for a useable sound (although not loud enough). 2N2222s, ME4003s made it noisier then the bc10x. With bc108 there was less sustain but it was more aggressive which i liked. I might take this to my breadboard (which I have never used before :)) to increase output.  

[rocket88]

go for it. i haven't had a lot of time to breadboard it, since i had last breadboarded it a while ago. if you want, before you breadboard it try the up that 100r resistor to something like 1k and see what happens. it might be that easy to correct it.

[KT]

I raised the 100r to 1k and this indeed solves the output. I tried some different transistor combination but did not find a good combo yet.

[Heath]

I'm on ridiculous amounts of cough syrup, so I might be missing something very obvious, but where are all these jumpers?  On the 13x9 layout I'm only seeing 2 :/

[rocket88]

haha, there is only 2, i guess i forgot to change it.......

also, i have some tweaking to do to this, cause the output is low with the SWTC, so i have to add a gain recovery stage. i just haven't gotten around to it.

[Heath]

Your compact layout needs a Tone 3 to ground note and the Tone control is working backwards, at least to my senses (clockwise cuts treble, widdershins cuts bass)... of course I've seen circuits designed to work that way intentionally.

Anyway, that was just a couple critical comments.  I couldn't design my way out of a treble-bleed circuit.

Here's the good stuff...

I used two BC547bs and swapped the 100r resistor with 1k and I seem to have plenty of volume.  I want to try a pair of BC546bs as well tomorrow so I can confirm the volume issue without getting evicted.

That said, it sounds pretty BADASS with the BC547bs!  Wooly and aggressive.  Paranoid sounds mighty tasty played through this pedal.  I dig it a LOT.  I like how it doesn't gate out.  Some people like that, and yeah, it's fun for playing around and getting apocalyptic, but when I want to jam the fuck out, I like being able to smack that power chord right in the ass and have it jiggle for a bit before fading out.

I do notice it's picking up all sorts of interference if I push the Fuzz from about 8 1/2 to 10.  I plan on shielding it tomorrow as best I can to make sure that's all that's going on.  KT's post above mentioned some transistors making it noisier, but I'm pretty sure what I'm hearing is normal for an unshielded circuit with the fuzz/distortion all the way up.

So yeah, I gotta give this one of these  (these smilies SUCK... instead of a thumbs-up it looks more like a pervert thinking of putting that thumb in someone's ass...)

[rocket88]

Nice. Glad to hear it's that simple of a change. I'll make those changes to the layout and notes. I thought I had that tone 3 to ground. If it's working backwards out lug 1 to ground and lug 3 to the board where it's marked lug 1.

I haven't played with the circuit with the swtc, just the normal one. I was thinking that having a tone control would make it more versatile, so you think it's worth having it? Nice to hear the transistors you used sound that good. I'm going to build a new one and play with the transistors and find something I really like and worth selling, rather then keep hunting down the bc167b's which are just stupid expensive for Si transistors, like the bc130c's I got for $15 for a pair.

[Heath]

Yep, as soon as I can get out of work today I'm going to compare pedal volume to bypass volume (my test rig doesn't have a bypass built in and it was getting late last night... I think I'm going to add one for convenience) and confirm with the BC547bs and BC546bs.  Not sure how good yours sounds with the BC167bs, but I can tell you the BC547bs sound pretty damn good in this.

I'll be honest with you, I went to alltransistors.com and plugged in BC167b and clicked to search similar transistors and just looked for ones I have that have similar characteristics.  I believe the BC550 (I don't recall the a,b, or c) is supposed to be close as well.  I know that only tells part of the story, but it gave me somewhere to at least start :D

I really like this circuit, dude.  It's definitely getting boxed.  I tested it out with a P-90 bridge pickup.  I'm a P-90 addict.  I'll also test it out with strat-style single-coils, PAFfy humbuckers, and some raging nut-stomper humbuckers and let you know.

[Heath]

Well, shoot... I tried this out at proper volume and I gotta say I'm not as happy as I thought I was with the BC547bs.  BC546bs sound exactly the same as well :/

That said, it sounds equally strong with single-coils and humbuckers.  Humbuckers are actually my favorite so far with this.  I tested it out with a Dimarzio FastTrack 2 in the bridge, a Dimarzio Cruiser in the middle, and a Guitar Fetish Hotrail in the neck... Those GFS hotrails are surprisingly good.

I would love to try this out with some BC167bs.  I might have to spring for a pair.

The BC546b/7bs aren't terrible, but they are kind of noisy in this.  What really did them in for me, though, is the lack of string definition when playing a chord.  For example, I'd play a power chord, alternating by lifting my ring finger on the second string and just really couldn't hear it much due to the distortion kind of mudding it out.  I've had this happen before in circuits where I substituted a transistor, so I'm pretty sure that's where the issue is at.

The volume is usable with those transistors and the 1k resistor instead of the 100r.  I'll put it this way: on a scale of 1 - 10 (1 being pedal volume all the way down, 10 all the way up), bypass is about an 8.  Might not be optimal for some with really low output "vintage" strat or tele pickups, but I had no trouble hitting unity or above.

The Tone control works, but it's not great.  On this circuit all the way up is good and up to about 1/3 of the rotation down gives a nice sound, but after that it gets kind of messy.  It also messes with the volume pretty significantly (which potentially takes it below unity gain even at max volume).  Both of those points are fairly typical for passive tone control though, so that's no reflection on the base circuit.  Paul Stevenson did something with his Green Wizard Overdrive that shocked me.. I don't how he did it, technically, but it's one of the best tone controls I've ever used in a pedal.

I'd suggest either no Tone control or a better Tone control for the Sweet Rage.. or maybe the Tone as a trimmer to set and forget since the sweep in this one isn't entirely useful (in my humble opinion).

I'll keep messing with transistors and maybe grab some BC167bs.  I think this circuit has something worth pursuing (and this is coming from someone who has built so many fuzz pedals that I swore I'd never build another )

I'm sure I'll follow up when I find something worth letting you know about :)

[rocket88]

You never can have enough fuzzes laying around, that like saying you can have enough muffs.

All in all, good points and think that maybe changing the tone control the a BMP tone stack, and add a gain recovery stage like a lbp boost, like the layout posted here, would be the way to go to have an added tone pot. Really I loved it the natural sound, but you know how some people are that they way a tone control or they think the effect is crap, fuzzface excluded.

With the bc167b's and the 100r reistor its very tonebendery just nasty and dirty. Now that could be 2 things, the 100r alters that sound, but causes the lower output, or it's the transistors themself. I'm going to try and breadboard it and mess with it some more, maybe see how the BMP tonestack with gain recovery goes. But, like I said the one in my wow-fuzz sounds awesome, which is why I was looking at making the fizz a standalone unit.