First Time Build - No Sound

roncg41677 · Post by **roncg41677** » 06 Nov 2012, 21:04

There's no rhyme or reason to the black wire, it's still positive ground

I keep holding off having to order new transistors, but I may just have to do that. Will try a fresh battery first.

roncg41677 · Post by **roncg41677** » 20 Nov 2012, 01:54

Update: I haven't ordered any new germanium transistors, but I was at the local Radio Shack tonight and bought a bag of 15 PNP silicon transistors for $3. I knew they probably wouldn't be great FF transistors, but I was hoping it would tell me whether my germaniums were bad. And my board has a 330k resistor instead of the 470 which I've read is better for silicon anyway.

When I got home I measured the hfe on each of them with my MM. The lowest was 268 and the highest was 332. I put the 268 in Q1 and a 275 in Q2, fired up the pedal and actually got a fuzz sound!

Albeit a VERY quiet one. Both of the pots do what they should, but the overall volume was incredibly low. Would this have anything to do with the ridiculously high hfe's?

I'm getting there...

roncg41677 · Post by **roncg41677** » 21 Nov 2012, 02:25

It works!!!!!

Tonight I checked everything over once again, and got a magnifying glass out to look at the soldering work. I noticed the wire on the tip of the input jack looked precarious, and also last night when I was testing it out the wire on lug 3 of the fuzz pot was causing the signal to cut in and out. So tonight I re-soldered the input jack wire and put a new wire on lug 3. Plugged in the pedal, got a good bypass, hit the switch with both pots full on and got A LOT of hairy fuzz coming through! The volume and fuzz pots seem to work fine. The volume is at unity gain a little above 3 o'clock. And from 3 o'clock to full the fuzz gets very fuzzy very quickly. The amount of gain on tap is ridiculous, but I assume that is from the 270+ hfe's on the transistors? Now that I know it is working I'll work on acquiring some quality germanium transistors.

I can't thank you all enough for your help! I couldn't have done this without you guys. I learned TONS of things from this first DIY project, and I feel much more confident about starting another project in the future. I've already decided my next project will definitely start on the breadboard, then I may try a perfboard for a Distortion+ or maybe even a simple compressor or something.

Lucifer · Post by **Lucifer** » 21 Nov 2012, 12:07

Congratulations roncg

There's incredible satisfaction in getting something working, especially when it has been fighting you all the way. Been there lots of times myself, and I'm sure most of the guys here have gone through the same anquish and frustration at some time.

The important thing is that you have learned a great deal so, hopefully, the mistakes you made will not be repeated. That doesn't mean that you won't make other mistakes on future projects, but the mistakes get fewer as your experience grows. You'll be able to pass your experience on to others in due course.

Enjoy your Fuzz - and your next projects

DrNomis · Post by **DrNomis** » 24 Nov 2012, 01:19

I've certainly been there and done it, with regards to fault-finding a newly-built stompbox, it can certainly make you feel like tearing out your hair, but if you approach it in a logical and methodical way you'll eventually find the fault that's causing the stompbox to malfunction, just keep persevering with it....