Mudbunny help - transistors?

[mysticaxe]

OK, I've got my first pedal project built, but there is no sound.  I'm doing a Civil War Mudbunny.  I think I've figured out my problem though and just want to verify - the build sheet only specifies Q1, so I only bought 2 transistors (1+spare).  That leaves q2-q4 empty.  Is this right?  If not, what type of transistors should I put in those spots?

Thanks in advance!

[icecycle66]

yeah, I did the same thing the first time I built a mudbunny.

Put transistors in those empty holes. I just put the same transistors in all the slots because that's what I had on hand.

[Haberdasher]

hi
assuming you used 2n5088 I would just stick with those since if you did it that way you wouldn't have to worry about other ones possibly having a different pin order.  plus you really can't go wrong with 2n5088's, they are nice & quiet and sound great in a muff.

[mysticaxe]

Cool.  That's the direction I was leaning.  Now I just have to procure a couple more 2n5088's.

[mysticaxe]

Another random question - do I need to ground the backs of the pots and solder a ground wire to the enclosure?

[mgwhit]

Usually your enclosure is grounded through one of the jacks.  See the MadBean Standard Wiring Diagram.  Pot cases are then grounded through the enclosure by contact.

If you use insulated jacks, you could wire a single pot casing to a ground point and that would take care of grounding your enclosure as well as all other pot casings.

[mysticaxe]

Since I'm using metal jacks and pots, looks like I'm all set!

[icecycle66]

w00t111

Expecting a build report and pics. 

[mysticaxe]

Works great, now that I added those transistors.  Report posted!

http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=6202.0

Now, I just have to find that thread about how to skew the taper of a linear pot to make it more reverse log (more play at the lower end of the travel)...

[mysticaxe]

I've been playing with it for a little while and am a little disappointed. 
I added a couple tweaks from Skreddy to the base Civil War build - a 2.2 nF cap between lugs 2 and 3 of the sustain pot and a 560 pf between 1 and 3 of the volume pot.  I've triple checked all other components against the stock build sheet and things look good there.  All knobs do what they should.  A couple problems I have:

The bottom end is essentially non-existent, especially with the tone knob off of 0.  Past about 1/4 its a thin trebbly mess.  It almost sounds like as I turn the tone knob, I'm adding an ever increasing high pass filter that is WAY too high in the frequency spectrum.
- I added the mid pot, but used the specified values for c10 and r18.  It looks like c10 should go up and r18 down (I don't have the values in front of me).

The gain is basically maxed at ~1/2 way up the sustain pot.
- My diodes are all reading about 0.56V on the multimeter.  Isn't this a little on the low end?
- The transistors are all reading 3.6V (Q4 reads 3.88) from base to collector and ~0.58V from base to emitter.

I've been reading up on Muffs and it seems like there are a fair amount of places to tweak, including swapping a couple diodes for LEDs and a few of the caps (I saw a thread on DIY stompboxes that dissected the Muff).  I appreciate any help!
Basically, I'd like to add a fuller bottom end (hopefully not a mushy mess)

[Om_Audio]

Sorry to hear you are not happy with it (yet!)

Re your earlier query into grounding-
I always verify all ground points everywhere to chassis, it takes only a minute to do and no guessing- just clip your DMM to the case somewhere and go around and touch all spots that should be grounded- pots, jacks, etc. I use the audible continuity setting so if it beeps you are good to go.

Another random question - do I need to ground the backs of the pots and solder a ground wire to the enclosure?