germanium fuzz face

[oip]

hey folks

got a little bunch of russian germanium PNP transistors from small bear and been playing around with some of them making a fuzz face for the first time.  they aren't super high gain (almost all <100) so it's not a wild fuzz but it sounds nice and i have had a tonne of fun playing with the circuit and making this build.  as per usual learned a whole bunch of things for next time.

been meaning to try stazon ink for a while and was looking at options for getting rubber stamps printed, but went through a craft shop yesterday and ended up hand carving letters and a bear which came out so much more 'bear like' than i was expecting that i started laughing when i saw it.  the stamp on the actual build failed a few times, it's much harder to stamp big things on a smooth surface i discovered. 

i hope google translate hasn't let me down on the name.

might build a bunch more as gifts etc, i've got a whole lot more transistors coming from actual russia now.

no LED or power jack for laziness / authenticity? reasons.  also decided against putting the bias knob outside as per sunface, just because i like the simple 2 knob look.

cheers!





bonus stamp carving

[Andlord]

Google Translate did a good job, so did you. Very clean build, it's been a while since I've seen a build with a battary clip

[midwayfair]

Aww, Siberian Bear!

[alanp]

Good stuff!

What does the Russian writing say?

[Andlord]

Good stuff!

What does the Russian writing say?

Siberian Bear 

[somnif]

Good stuff!

What does the Russian writing say?

"сибирский медведь"



its "sibirskiy medved' " or "Siberian Bear"

[gordo]

That looks very cool.  Given my complete lack of artistic skills I couldn't have pulled that off but you did.

I love the look of those flying saucer germs.

[oip]

many thanks all!  i also know where to come for russian translation advice now 

yup siberian bear it's from a voice line 'i want to hug you like big fuzzy siberian bear'.  i wanted to put 'big' and 'fuzzy' on the pot labels but the russian words are too long! and trying to carve very small letters backward in cyrillic did.. not work

in two minds about the battery/no LED.  i might order some ICs to flip voltage and try a version with those to see how much more complex it is with LED and a jack, and whether it sounds different powered from a supply.  really like the simplicity but the +ve ground is also a head scratcher.

already been playing with more breadboard versions and got a better sound with a couple value changes.. oh well probably going to go in and replace the board on this one.

oh finally, also got one of these little guys:



gain values are way off but vaguely in the ballpark.  otherwise (for pinouts, random passives lying around etc) super useful unit.  burned out the regulator putting the kit together like a chump, my 2c don't get the kit version it's not a particularly fun build.

[stringsthings]

Very nice build!   Very compact and tidy.