Krinkle wrote:I'll be certain to rework it based on your suggestions. I've heard your pedals, you have great ears.
I'm still a bit shocked, so ALL ceramics? I never would have thought. I believe you if you say it though, deferring back to the comment above about your ears.
Thanks,
Darrin
Nothing but ceramics in the original triangle knobs I've ever seen. They didn't start using electrolytics or plastic film caps until later. Notice there's not even a power-supply filter/decoupler in this version?
JimiB wrote:Mark, what kind of diodes?
Diodes are regular silicon signal diodes like 1N914. I don't know the actual model numbers for the original equipment though; none of the ones I've seen had numbers I could see. I'm sure I've seen them listed elsewhere as 1N4148. This is another fertile area for experimentation, actually.
Krinkle wrote:I'll be certain to rework it based on your suggestions. I've heard your pedals, you have great ears.
I'm still a bit shocked, so ALL ceramics? I never would have thought. I believe you if you say it though, deferring back to the comment above about your ears.
Thanks,
Darrin
Nothing but ceramics in the original triangle knobs I've ever seen. They didn't start using electrolytics or plastic film caps until later. Notice there's not even a power-supply filter/decoupler in this version?
JimiB wrote:Mark, what kind of diodes?
Diodes are regular silicon signal diodes like 1N914. I don't know the actual model numbers for the original equipment though; none of the ones I've seen had numbers I could see. I'm sure I've seen them listed elsewhere as 1N4148. This is another fertile area for experimentation, actually.
I have done some diode experimentation with muffs and ultimately I think that EH had the right idea. LEDs can be cool but germaniums kill a ton of volume and other diode types just dont sound muffy.
Have you tried using twice as many Germaniums? That way instead of around .3V vs .7V, you get around .6V vs .7V. That should get you most of your volume back, shouldn't it? When I heard that the G2 used Germanium components I was certain that it would be the diodes, not the transistors. I used 2 Germaniums and got the same volume drop. I then put the asymmetrical diode configuration from the Fulltone Fulldrive and thought that it made a nice little difference in tone. I was going to double up on the Germaniums but never got around to it, I liked the Fulltone confoguration so much. Then I heard a guy play "On an Isalnd" with the Mayo on Youtube and the fact that it sounded soooooooooooo good made me think again about the effect, or lack thereof, of Germanium didoes vs Silicon. Like Skreddy said, lots of stuff to try when it comes to diodes, Silicon, Germanium, and also the use of LED's, Zener's and MOSFET's, bounding circuits, etc.
Skreddy wrote:
But no; this won't just make a Mayo clone--you should consider it much more special than that! You can make a proper triangle-knob clone from 1971. For best results, use transistors with gains that don't go below 500 hfe and use all ceramic caps and 1/2 Watt carbon comp resistors according to the classic EH schematic; e.g...
The 500pf caps are really 470pf. The 820R resistor at R5 is really 1k in the original. The .1uf coupling caps should all be rated at 200 volts (or higher) and the tone-stack caps (.004 and .01) should be 1kv for best results.
Skreddy wrote:
But no; this won't just make a Mayo clone--you should consider it much more special than that! You can make a proper triangle-knob clone from 1971. For best results, use transistors with gains that don't go below 500 hfe and use all ceramic caps and 1/2 Watt carbon comp resistors according to the classic EH schematic; e.g...
The 500pf caps are really 470pf. The 820R resistor at R5 is really 1k in the original. The .1uf coupling caps should all be rated at 200 volts (or higher) and the tone-stack caps (.004 and .01) should be 1kv for best results.
sweet. what pots should be used in this one?
All the pots are 100k linear. As for the other parts values, take them w/ a grain of salt. It's not a "set in stone" schematic as I've seen triangle-knob Muffs vary quite a bit from this schematic.
I didn't post that? I just found the link for it and thought linking to a layout was an acceptable thing to do, plus I had no idea whos layout it was, didn't mean to offend any one, just help someone out that was looking for a layout that I had come across in my searches.
Scruffie wrote:I didn't post that? I just found the link for it and thought linking to a layout was an acceptable thing to do, plus I had no idea whos layout it was, didn't mean to offend any one, just help someone out that was looking for a layout that I had come across in my searches.
my comment was aimed at whoever posted the layout in the gallery...
it's a personal mix on triangle/ram's head/green russian (the coloured values are mounted on switches).
i first tryed it with some BC183B and i was surprised how good it sounds! really better than my old ones, really thick and musical, and with a bit more of volume reserve.
i also tried it shortly with some BC239C but i didn't noticed any particular differences.
today i managed to measure the tranny's hfe and to my surprise the readings are:
BC183B
335-339-345-309
BC239C (here's something strange, why those values are so low?)
345-354-355-357-348-365
Well I finally got around to putting this together, and it is a fantastic Muff. My only other Muff build experience was an old Tonepad layout, and I can't remember what version it was (but i remember using 2N5089's). But i did try BC239C and BC183C (and will likely try 2n5089 and BC550C's later this weekend). I seemed to get slightly higher output with the BC183C. Right now I have a mixture of BC183C and BC239C and it is sounding real good.
Comparing it to the Foxey Fuzz, I still don't know which one I like better. But they do share some very positive things in common. First, both do very well with the darker tones without sounding muddy. Also, they both reach insane levels of sustain when gain is maxed out. I definitely like the Mayo better for lead, especially with the neck pickup of my Strat. I'm going to have to spend a few weeks comparing the Mayo and the Foxey.
Here's my board. I'm doing a triple pedal with Zvex Machine, ProCo Rat, and Skreddy Mayo. This will encompass my 3 favorite distortion/fuzz circuits into single DD size box!
That is badass. I have all three of those pedals as well and have to say that a three-in-a-box setup of those is a really great combo...so much noise from just one box.