Messages

Hi Brian,
Your suggestion worked great. I used some 1n34's and the fuzz is almost completely gone. I think I went a little over board on R13 and used a 47K which was way to much gain. I might go back to 10K and see how that works. Your boards are really well made. I think it would be a good idea to change to the germaniums on the parts list. It made a huge difference.

Thanks for your help,
Bernie

I just finished my Low Rider and am experiencing some problems. I think these are probably some common problems that others may have had.

1) Project is Low Rider
2) The UOCT is a fuzztone. I have no upper octave at all. I have tried the trim pot but it does not help in any position. It just changes the tone of the fuzz. The DOCT1 seems to work ok but bounces in and out so it seems to not be tracking great. The DOCT2 tracks worse than DOCT1 and does not work for high notes. The biggest problem is no UOCT1
3) When I built it I was very careful and measured every resistor and double checked the location of all components. I have looked at the soldering with an eye loupe and can see no shorts or cold joints. I tried the trim pot as directed with the other pots off with no cchange except in tone. No upper octave at all.
4) I used the 2N5457 tranny's for Q2 and Q3 and J201 for Q1. I did the C10,  C12 mod, just removing   C12. I am using 4013BCN parts. I have not measured any voltages but there are no power issues or signal loss. Clean sounds good and just like bypass when set to unity. 


I have seen that others have had similar issues so I'm hoping someone has an idea of what may be going on.

I just finished my build last night and I have exactly the same problem. I'm hoping you have an answer to this to this problem because that is a big build and so far I am disappointed with the results. Oct up is nothing but a fuzztone. there is no upper octave through he entire range. Down 1 works the best but loses tracking ,Down 2 loses tracking worse and disappears completely when you play higher notes. I am using the same parts as Hangingmonkey  2N5457 Tranny's, J201 for Q1, and 4013BCN chips(Hangingmonkey, that answers your question, they don't sound any better) I have also done the C10 C12 mod. Fortunately I have all the chips and tranniy's socketed. If you have a suggestion I would appreciate some advice. I'm sure some people have gotten the pedal to work like it should.

Well, I guess I looked in th wrong place. Thanks.

Thanks everyone for your help. Brian thanks for your generous offer to send me one. . I bdis buy a couple from Tayda off of ebay for only $1.89. I also found out that NTE makes an equivalent NTE458 but it's 7$ at Fry's . Just ridiculous. FYI. Small bear does not have the J201.

Hi,
I'm building a Low Rider and I am having trouble finding Q1 a J 201 transistor. Can anyone tell me what replacement I can Use?

Thanks,
Sidebernie

Hi Josh,
Yes I am testing unboxed and that's what I would expect. I just wanted to get that verified from someone who has done it. Thanks. I will box her up and see how it goes. I appreciate your reply.

Well, I've tried several different vlues of capacitors from 150pf to 340pf and the only difference is that the squealing starts at a slightly different position of the delay pot.  I read in another post that the whining , or squealing, is expected and acceptable. I can't believe this to be the case. Does the DMM squeal when you turn up the delay? Has anyone built a v3205 version that does not sqeal when the delay is all the way up? Do you think that this might be minimized when put into an enclosure? Its kind of a drag when youi can't get all the delay available when maxed out without any squeal. It's definitley enough squeal that I don't think it would be drowned out when running at stage volumes. Please any suggestions from anyone are appreciated. I'd like to hear from someone who has built a v3205 without this squeal or from someone who has gotten rid of it. Other than this the pedal works fine.

Hi Madbean,
Well I finally got around to fooling with the circuit again and found the problem with the repeats and the self oscillation. It was as you said, I was losing the delays between C5 and R7. I discovered that the lead on one side of C5 was barely touching the component next to it. I carefully rectified that and now I have plenty of repeats and no problem with the self oscillation. This is something people should take note of because this is such a tight board it does not take much to create a short somewhere. I had to look very closely with an eye loupe. Now when I turn the feedback to about 3/4 of the way up it starts going into runaway mode. I'm sure you know what I mean. I do still have some distortion but I got rid of most of it by re-biasing and fooling with the gain trimmers. It could still be a little cleaner.

However I still have the probelm with the delay pot squeling at about 3/4 to full throw on the pot. I have tried to trim the balance, which is what I think you meant by the clock trimmer, but it still remains. I would really like to get rid of this since most of the delay occurs in this range. I'm making progress but if you have any other suggestions for the delay squealing I'd appreciate it. At least I'm very confident that I have built it correctly and got the mods installed right. I appreciate your support.
Bernie 

Hey Madbean thanks for the quick response. That makes sense to me. I'll let you know what I find.

Hi Guys,

Following the rules:
1. I 'm building a dirtbagdeluxe v3205 version.
2. The main problem I am having is that I only get one repeat. The circuit does not seem to self oscillate. Everything else seems to work except when I turn the delay all the way up I get a really high pitched squeal. When I biased the BBD's they seemed fine. I was able to hear the delay on both chips and got a pretty clean signal, however when I got to the gain stage setting I could not get it to self oscillate and I think this is the reason I'm only getting one repeat.
3. I used stock parts at first according to the instructions I received which are not the latest. I used the 47kfor R11/12 and the 100k for resistors for R21 and C14. That version did not work at all beyond the BBD biasing. Then I saw the new revision and finished up putting in all the new parts and reverting to the correct R21 and C14. This was not easy. However it sounds much better now and if I can get the repeats working and get rid of the high squeal on the delay I think it will sound great. It is not boxed up and I'm hoping you have heard of this problem. I guess this is what you may call not getting a wet signal??
4. The only parts substitutions are the ones for the new revision.

I am building this for my son as a present who absolutely loves the DMM. My background is in electronics and I have built other pedals so I'm not a beginner. I hope you can help me out.

Hey djaaz,
Thanks for the post. That is really helpfull. From your comment about this putting to rest the MN3005 mojo does this mean you are satisfied with the v3205 rather than the MN3005? This is the decision I'm struggiling with.
Thanks,

Hi,
I'm getting ready to build a dirtbag deluxe, as a matter of fact I've already purchased the board but not the components. I am trying to decide between an MN3005 and a v3205. I'm concerned about getting fake MN3005's. I have searched on youtube and have not been able to find a good comparison of the dirtbag to a real DMM. I would also like to hear a comparison between the MN3005 and the v3205 Dirtbag. Can anyone point me to some demos?