creepy fingers fuzz problem

[r_marczak_83]

I just completed the creepy fingers fuzz.  When I play the knobs all function and I get noise, but it breaks up real bad if I play more than one string.  Also it sounds horrible with other effects in with it (wah pedal).

Heres the layout.  I had to use a radio shack board since no vero's were available at the time, but I have the same schematic on this board.

I put BC108 trannys in the sockets

[r_marczak_83]

Any hits on why it sounds so bad?

[rocket88]

can you take closer pics of the the board, top and bottom. just from what you're saying i would guess maybe it's grounding out. but without seeing more of it, it's hard to tell.

[r_marczak_83]

I cant get a bottom pic. Its held on my non conductive VHB tape.

[rocket88]

real hard to see from that image, it's kinda blurry. to be honest without being able to see the bottom it's really hard to help debug.

[r_marczak_83]

[r_marczak_83]

I wish there were a way to give a sound sample so you could hear the major distortion and non clarity it has.
It's comparable to a small speaker with a large amp (I'm going back to car audio days) in that it seems like the pedal cant handle the signal very well.

[IvIark]

It's nearly impossible to diagnose a fault based on sound clips of it, unless it was something obvious like an intermittent connection.  The thing that will give us the best clue as always with things like this is the voltages you're getting between all the transistor pins and ground.

[r_marczak_83]

Ok IvIark, Ill get some later this evening when I get home and Ill post my findings.

Thanks

[r_marczak_83]

Voltages are as follows

E=0v (this one is to ground) B=.59v C=1.28v
B=1.28v C=3.7v E=.07

[IvIark]

Your voltages don't look too bad, certainly nothing that stands out as a problem.  But your board is a bit of a Frankenstein's monster so I'd start checking continuity between all those links you made to make sure all the connections are good

[r_marczak_83]

I checked all of the jumpers, grounds, and wires from power & pots to there isolation point.  Anywhere from .9 to 3 ohms on all points.

[r_marczak_83]

I checked all the joints with no problems.  Is this pedal just dirty sounding?  I cant use it the way it is blowing out of the galaxy.  Ill try one more in this frame and take this board out then call it quits.  I build The Great Destroyer and it turned out fine, but this has kicked my *&$.

[rocket88]

not sure what you mean by "sound dirty" it's a modified Si fuzzface. here's a clip of the real one.

[r_marczak_83]

Dirty as in, if I play more than a single string, you cant even make out what was just played.  its like I said earlier when you have a 100w amp going to a 2"-5w speaker (what you never experimented with this? ).

[r_marczak_83]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L999zBpQFPM

It sounds like this at :36 and at 1:10.

[r_marczak_83]

I may have figured it out!  

When I back off the volume on the guitar it clears up nicely, I just have to up the volume on the pedal.

I assume its fine though, just touchy to input volume.

[rocket88]

i built one and it doesn't do that at all. if it is the guitar volume, your pickups could be either very hot or are not in the best position and too close to the strings. with mine, when i use my jazz i built, which has an OBP-3 preamp set at 18V, if i turn the preamp on and literally slam the pedal it gets sorta gated, not at all like what you posted in the video.

[r_marczak_83]

I played it with a bill lawrence L500XL bridge pickup.  At half volume on the guitar it is great, at full it gets muddy.