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Hey guys - I'm building a zombii using perf and I put it together last night. The problem is the GE transistors.

i was able to procure some AC128's for Q2 and Q3. HOWEVER...

1) I don't know how to tell which lead goes to which socket (I can sort of see a triangle shape to the leads, so I can assume the middle one of the triangle is the center, but I don't want to just assume - these were like $5 a piece, and I don't want to mess them up)

2) How can I test them with a multimeter to ensure they work before installing them?

3) Do I need to do some sort of voltage regulation for these? I assume that the circuit has this built in, and that both of them can handle the ranges that the circuit feeds them. But again, I don't want to just assume things here...

let me know if you get a chance! Thanks in advance!

I'm having an issue with one I got at STUPID radioshack - seems to only work in certain positions. I'm just going to have to order more - don't think there's any fix for them that would be lasting. Are all of them doing that, or is this the only trimpot you have and you don't want to order more? ;-)

If it's the latter - I would just order more. If it's the former, then I have no idea...

I got the starter kit from BYOC - http://www.buildyourownclone.com/tools.html

I think it was like $40 shipped and came with a bunch of tools, solder, desolder braid, etc. You can get the iron for like $25 separate, but whatev... The other stuff bundled in is a good deal, and the iron works pretty well.

Adding to this, I've ordered 99.9% of the parts for all of my builds from Blake - I had an issue where my yellow LEDs didn't work (turns out they just worked backwards, a rare but existent flaw in some LEDs), and he credited my account so I could order more before we even figured out that they worked backwards.

I also had an issue where I forgot to order a part in my larger order earlier in the day and I wound up with a less than $50 order to qualify for free shipping. He credited the account again since the other order had already processed.

I'm yet to have an issue with a part, and I've bought 8 enclosures so far, and they're pretty solid without any flaws in the finish colors.

There's no one place that has everything cheaper than every other place, but Mammoth's prices are pretty good, and overall I find that I spend less ordering from Blake than other places when I'm doing a large order of parts (footswitches and knobs aside).

HIGHLY recommended...

I know this isn't helpful at all, but those are some pretty cool noises - LOL.

One thing I'm noticing is that you don't have a ground at your 9v - not sure if that has something to do with it or not, but you may also have a bad/wrong type IC. I'd also triple check your parts list.

I had a problem with mine at the transistor and the cap that feeds it, but that doesn't seem to be your issue here.

have you flipped the switch into other positions to see if sound comes through okay there?

(keep in mind, I'm a noob - but a noob with circuit bending friends that show me things that make these noises all the time. Usually they get these noises by getting bad parts or feeding bad parts into good schematics, hehe).

I'll post pics when I build this out without sockets, but...

I made some modifications - the Mayo was too clean, and I wanted something more like the IC muff (without having gotten an IC muff board) - it had the tone, but not the grit or power - so I swapped parts around like crazy until I got where I wanted. I had it next to a little big muff (the new one, not the one from the 70s) to compare sounds. Here are the components I changed:

D1 - diffused red 5mm LED
D2 - waterclear red 5mm LED
Q1 through Q3 - 2N5088 transistors
C2, C5 and C8 - 560pf caps

So I started out by swapping one transistor at a time - the 2N5088's are definitely less bass-y, maybe a little dirtier. But having ALL 5088's was a little too gritty - adding back in 1 550 smoothed it out for sure.

I had swapped out D1 and D2 with diffused LEDs at first, but it got a little too dirty, but when I put the 1n914  back in, it lost too much - so I heard that waterclears are smoother so I stuck one in and it did the trick.

It was still VERY bass-y, though, so I swapped all of the ceramic 470p caps for 560s - worked out GREAT!

If you're building the Mayo spec and want that classic Pumpkins / silversun pickups / IC muff sound, you might want to try those mods - they worked really well for me. It's not exact - it's still a TOUCH more bottom heavy, but nothing that some tone and mids mod EQ-ing wouldn't fix (if you want it exact - get an IC muff board - I got this version of the board so I could mod it for something different).

Thought I'd share - I'll share again in my completed build thread in a couple weeks (I'm building a bunch, and it'll be a bit before I house them).

Alas, I'm on a Mac. Says it only works with windows.

That did the trick! Worked perfectly!

Compared with my little big muff (which probably compares best with an IC muff), it's a little smoother, not as much bottom or sustain (though it has plenty of both). It also may have a spot of clarity to it... It's not the all out attack that I can get with the LBM, but it's probably perfect for live muff-ness.

With the mids pot, I almost feel like it takes more mids out. Maybe that's what it's supposed to do, but at 100% it had the same sound as just a resistor, and turned down it seemed to scoop them more. Hmmm....

I wonder if I can change out a cap or something to get a little more bottom to it, but I'd have no clue how to work the math out. Anyone have any ideas?

I plan to do a violet rams head next. We'll see how they compare.

You, my friend, may be right - They're in there according to the outline on the board. I'll reverse them first thing when I get home. Thanks for the quick reply!

Will the ones that are in there now have been blown by having them in backwards, or no?

Hey guys! I finally got around to building out my first of 4 mud bunnies this weekend (well, with sockets, anyway). I also, for good measure, built a testing rig per jkokura's thread at the top of the tech help page. I tested THAT on a slow loris build I had and it worked great.

I got everything on the mudbunny, gave it a once-over to be sure I had the right components (I could probably stand to do this again more thoroughly), then hooked it into the testing rig... AND... WAH WAH...

I got sound - it wasn't like a faint fizzle, but it definitely was NOT the muff sound I have come to love over the years - It was more like what you'd hear if you were under water and a muff was playing poolside. So it had volume, and a LITTLE distortion, but no muff mojo.

When I turned the tone knob, that definitely worked fine - when I turned the volume knob, it also worked - when I turned the sustain knob, it almost acted like a volume and went almost all the way down - weird. All the connections seem okay and there's no bleed over with solder that I can see on the back. I also double checked to ensure that everything was pressed into those sockets well.

I'm posting pics below, but I'm not sure how much help they will be here - if there are better ones needed, just let me know how to take them and I will.

Being a noob, I need to start with the troubleshooting - after doing some searches, it seems as though problems usually start at the transistors - Can anyone help me to know how to test that stuff with my meter? I feel like I've done it before for my slow loris, but can't remember how (embarrassing).

Some technical stuff - 1) I put in a mids pot hooked up to a switch in R18; this I don't think is the issue, as it works. 2) For the 4n cap, I used a 4.7n cap in its place. 3) for the 500pf caps, I used 470pf caps in their place. Those were the only values available to me.









Let me know if you guys notice anything or have any advice for me to get this thing running right. As always, thanks in advance!

Yea - I read that the creamy dreamer is a little crunchier with less bottom, so I may steer clear of that one and focus on either the Mayo or the Violet Rams Head. Have the Mayo board together, just have to get a test rig going.

I'll be building one up this weekend - I asked Brian himself about the mids mod on the new boards and this was his response:

The Mids pot goes in place of R18 and usually a value of 20kB or 25kB works well. The way I would do it is
wire one leg of R18 on the PCB to lug 1 of the mids pot. Solder in a small resistor (around 4k7) between lugs 1 and 2. The use a return wire from lug 3 to the other spot for R18 on the PCB. This makes the Mids control a variable resistor and the small resistor you soldered in place is a "stopper". IOW, it prevents C10 from going all the way to ground when the mids control is fully counter-clockwise (which would mess up the tone control).

So yea - I'm going by his schema, which is a little different than Diamonds (though i'm sure they do the same thing).

I'm also adding a switch so I can turn it on or off - so essentially a DPDT ON-ON toggle switch, R18 goes to the center lugs of the switch - one side has a resistor between the lugs (whatever value from the parts list), the other side has the mids pot. This way I can turn it off altogether for recording, or have the mids on for jamming and live stuff.

Dunno if that helps you - but it's an option - put in the switch, and if you don't like the mids, just switch it off. :-)

not to rehash YET AGAIN an old topic, but I've done a little more research...

The Creamy Dreamer spec was a mod to the russian big muff in the late 90's, early 00's, had less bottom than I thought, and it wasn't the sound from Siamese Dream (I knew all along that he used an IC big muff v4, but I was trying to compare muff-for-muff sounds *giggle*). He used the IC muff for most distortion on SD, and used the MXII along with the muff for solos from what I can gather (so ToasterMe was right on that one for the solos).

They say that a skreddy mayo is probably pretty close to the IC muff sound without being an IC muff, but that most big muffs can get within range of it.

I'm debating getting an IC muff board from haberdasher just to see what happens - That would probably get me as close as I can get. Can I add a mids mod to that, though?

So I guess I throw this next question over to mad bean himself - are your sub-circuits based on the schematics of its predecessors (e.g. is your parts list the same as the skreddy mayo, or the creamy dreamer from the late 90's, or the violet rams head, etc.), or did you base the schematics by ear?

It doesn't matter, but I'm curious for sure.

Anywho - just thought I'd add some wisdom - thanks, guys!

HOLY CRAP - what a tiny pedal! hrmmmm... 

That's what I figured both about the layout and why it's horizontal - I'll give it a shot and see how it turns out - there's enough spacing that I think I could run everything far enough apart to not have any bleed over. I really want a more standard layout, and I already got all the parts to do the perf, so we'll see...

And if that doesn't work - I'll order a couple boards from Haberdasher - In fact, I might just order the op-amp muff boards from there anyway, as I love those pedals and it would probably get me REALLY close to the little big muff sound that I love. We'll see how the mud bunnies turn out first, though, hehe.

Thanks for the quick replies guys! :-)