Here's a collection of vero (stripboard) and tagboard guitar and bass effect layouts that we have put together covering many classic and popular effects in growing numbers. Many of these have been posted on freestompboxes.org, so check that site out for great discussions on building your own effect pedals. Enjoy the builds and please also visit us on Facebook and Twitter
This was definitely another one that i wanted. I've built already like 4 slightly modded triangles in the past, but original has something that those clever copies can't seem to capture. Don't get me wrong. Some of those modded designs are very good and offer different types of fuzzes, so building those is not in vain at all.
This time i subbed 4nF for 2n2 and 1n8 in parallel and used 3 postion switch right away. Sounds very close to my original black russian, but maybe just a bit more violent. Had high hopes for my recently acquired BC108Cs, but no luck. Those are rated at 420-800 hfe, so they should have been perfect. But they just didn't sound right, so i used BC550s. Like a charm.
I gladly have the original :) That is really good, but there's no dc input.. I though about modding it, but... No. I don't want to. It needs to stay as it is.
If you want to draw and publish it, go ahead. I won't verify it today, but will definitely build it at some point... +m
There are a few Muffs that used log pots, but going off the schematics found on the kitrae Big Muff web site this one didn't. The '72 Triangle did though.
Very new to building and definitely won't let this one beat me. Can both top and bottom grounds on the board go to the same place ie output jack ground or DC socket ground? I've it built but can only get the bypassed signal working so far (grr!) and I think I've maybe some off-board wiring in the wrong place...going to test it first and failing that will re-build it with your off-board layout. What a steep learning curve but it's great fun! Any help is greatly appreciated.
All grounds need to be connected together including all offboard grounds (input/output sleeves, negative lug of the DC adapter, switch for LED etc) and so yes there's no problem connecting them both to a single point of ground, or even daisy chain them so you've only got a single wire coming from the board.
I built this today with the mids switch omitted. It sounds incredible! It's easily the best Muff I've built. It's super loud and articulate. I'm addicted to it!
Hi guys, I built one of these yesterday using one of the kits from BitsBox (I actually found this site via BitsBox rather than the other way round) and although everything works and it sounds good, there isn't a lot of gain. I've gone over the circuit to make sure everything's where it should be and checked the off board wiring and everything seems to be in order but the amount of gain and volume seems a lot less than my modern 'off the shelf' Big Muff. Also when I roll back the sustain knob it seems to clean the signal up totally and then eventually cut the volume, on my retail unit the sustain knob just cuts back the gain a little, but even a it's lowest setting it's still pretty gritty, with the triangle's sustain set to zero it literally kills the signal. Has anybody had similar experiences? Or is this maybe normal with the triangle version? I have to admit I've not heard any of the vintage units in the flesh and this is only my fourth pedal build so I may have missed something simple without realising. Any help would be greatly appreciated, I really enjoyed following this circuit so I'd love to get it working how I imagined it would.
I just built this and I have a couple of questions. As far as the effect goes, it's brilliant. I was immediately very very impressed with it.
Question #1: I tried adding the switch to it, but it doesn't seem to make any audible difference. I'm thinking I might have it connected up wrong.
In the layout, you've got both the "Tone 3" wire from the board going to Tone Lug 3 and the middle left lug of the switch going to Tone Lug 3. Am I interpreting this incorrectly?
Currently I have the White wire (labeled Switch 1, right side of board, third wire from the top) going to the Right Middle Switch Lug. I have both the Orange wire (labeled Tone 3, left side of board, 4th wire from top) AND the Orange wire (Labeled Tone 3 from the Left Middle Switch Lug) going to Lug 3 of the Tone pot.
Also, the Tone pot doesn't seem to have any audible effect. That kind of leads to--
Question 2: I used Linear pots before the discussion led to an update for Log pots. I went ahead with it because it seemed from the discussion that LIN would work as well as LOG.
The VOLUME pot seems to work fairly normally.
The SUSTAIN pot does a little bit to clean the fuzz when turning down from about 10 to 8, maybe 7, but after that basically functions like a volume control.
The TONE pot doesn't seem to do anything.
Does this sound like an LIN vs. LOG issue to you folks?
I would have happily switched them out and tested this, but as I've just recently gotten into pedal building, I didn't have the spare pots around to play with.
Thanks for any advice you can offer. So far I've built the HeartThrob Tremolo, and it's fantastic. Planning on building a Vox Percussion, Seamoon Funk Machine, Phase 45, and a Little Angel Chorus in the near future :)
Oh, and one other thing I noticed is that when I go from clean to Pedal On full volume, it's actually a bit quieter than with the pedal Off.
I used 2N5133 transistors and also bought a set of SE4010 transistors as I was told they worked well in this for higher gain. They were cheap enough. I socketed the transistors, so I'm going to switch to the others and see if I get much difference in the upper end of my volume spectrum.
I *LOVE* the sound I'm getting with the 2N5133s, though, so if the others don't sound equally great, I might try and wire a very basic boost into the pedal....
...unless someone here has a quicker and easier way for a Neophyte, such as myself.
Pot taper won't do that.. Most BMPs use the same basic circuit and still they have log/lin pots in some versions.
Since your tone pot and scoop switch don't work at all, i'm fairly convinced that you have something wrong with your build. Double check the links, cuts and drag a knife through the strip gaps to make sure there are no shorts in there.
I've built the layout myself, and it works. BMPs are loud as f, so you must have something wrong. One more thing to check would be the pinout of the transistors. That could also fit your description... +m
Thanks! I'm off work in about 3 hours and all I can think about is getting home and opening that sucker up to monkey with it.
Do the two wires (one from the board and one from the switch) going to Tone Lug 3 sound correct to you? I was a little bit mystified by that, but I couldn't come to another interpretation that made more sense to me (though it WAS 4am at the time!)
Hmm. Yup. That's how it should be. I've done that by taking two wires from the board, tone 3 point and wire other to the switch and other to the pot. I think you might have something wrong near that 4n tone cap.. +m
Tone working? Check. Mid Switch working? Check. Loud as hell? Check! Groovy? Aww, yeah..! I mean, Check.
I de-soldered the caps on the switch (I have a sneaky suspicion that I might have damaged the 4n cap when initially soldering it). I used a nice little 4n box cap, and since I didn't have another 10n cap, so I used a 15n in the other position.
Then I went back and scraped between all of the strips, even carefully used my Dremel in a couple of spots where I got sloppy with the solder.
Yep, I've never made a muff that wouldn't make my ears bleed if I dimed the volume, so if any muff circuit is struggling to reach unity or only marginally getting there then you know there is an issue somewhere with the build.
How do ya'll get a 21 column wide board to fit in a 1590b? I have a hard time getting smaller boards to fit. By the time i get the jacks and pots in it doesn't leave to much space...and putting the board on top the pots makes it stick up too high. Are there any tutorials on cramming boards into enclosures? I would love to be able to use something smaller than a 1590bb, but it's the only size I can get everything to fit in.
Just built this. My first Muff Build and it is Awesome. It has opened up a whole new Pedal Build Area & Tones to work on and Music Styles and Guitar playing. Its got me wondering now how good and different are the other Muffs. Might be time to start doing some more Muff Diving. Many Thanks Mark.
Am I correct that the switch is just bringing the capacitors on the switch in series with the 4n cap to increase the 4n value to either 8.7 for flat mids or 14n for boosted mids?
Yes, I usually like the flat mids on all of my big muff build but would not feal right without including the stock option. I have been thinking about ordering some pcb using this schematic http://gaussmarkov.net/wordpress/gallery/nordics-big-muff-pi-triangle-revision/ and wanted to include a switch.
So it seems to me I could leave out c10 on that schematic and take it to the switch. and either use two caps on the switch 4n and somewhere around 9 for just a stock on flat mids or attach the 4n cap across pin 2 and 5 as well as the wires for the three positions switch 4.7/4/ and 10.
thanks for the layout mark, lovely pedal, this is the first in my quest for the perfect muff...hrmmm that hits the ear wrong...anyways net step rams head, then i'm onto the skreddy range, many thanks
i've built this one tonight...but its go wrong...i've change this vero board to pcb...using a software pcb "diptrace" is that okay? but not any sound out when 3pdt turn on but oke for bypass can you help me? thanks
hi guys! I've built the triangle and it woks great....the only problem is when i have rthe mids switch in middle position, the tone pot doesn't have any effects...in other positions it works fine...i soldered the tone 3 wire of the switch on tone ptot lug 3....is it correct? thanks in advance your site is awesome congratulations
So are you saying that the tone pot works fine in the outer positions, but stops working in the middle position? I'm just trying to get my head around what could be happening.
The way you describe the connection is right, but I can't see how that could affect the tone pot which will always pan between a low pass and a high pass filter no matter what position the switch is in. All the switch does is put additional caps in parallel with the 4n cap in the middle of the board, and so change the frequency response of the tone control.
aaaaaaaaaaargh i found the problem i was focused on checkin rthe circuit on the board and didn't notice that the tone 3 cable from the board was soldered on lug 1 instead of 3. now it's perrfect!! thank you guys your layouts are fantastic!
I just built this and it is glorious! Except for a Fanny thing with the tone control. When the mids switch is in the flat and boosted positions the tone knob works exactly as I would expect, but when it is in the middle (scooped) position it works more or less like the gain control. Any thoughts on what might cause that?
I keep coming back to this and I am close to success but not quite, I've done my own PCB and the signal is getting through the board but there is a lot of hiss, and the tone pot is acting peculiar, when I touch it it hums as if an grounding problem, but the level comes and goes as I rotate it. I tried losing the switch and tried another pot, but still the same.
Looking at a potentiometer from the bottom, you have from left to right, lugs 3, 2 and 1. All you do is to properly solder the wires from the board to the correspondent of the potentiometer lug (e.g. wire named "Tone 2" gets soldered to the middle lug of the pot that will be used for the tone control).
When you have "Volume 2 to Output" means you have to solder a wire to the middle lug of the volume pot and then you solder the other end to the output lug on the footswitch you are using (a 3PDT, usually). If you are unsure about how to to the "offboard wiring" or soldering to a footswitch, you'll have to check the Offboard wiring guide and the general build guide here on the blog. It's highly recommended you do.
Hello everyone, years ago I made the "green muff" from this schematic: http://www.tonepad.com/getFile.asp?id=94 but I would like to add the mid switch, should I modify something on the board I have or should I wire the switch normally (mid left of the switch to the tone pot lug 3 and mid right to the bypass switch 1) without doing anything else?, thanks!.
I bought a Triangle muff used in 1975, stolen in 1981.
Using this build with the first (3) transistors being Fairchild SE4010 and the last being a 2N1533. This sounded as close to the original as I can recall! The extra tone shaping via the switch is a great add, basically retiring my 2016 Big Muff Deluxe.
Also saved a bunch of money building vs. buying the recent reissue.
Hi guys! Just finished building this pedal and it's a BEAST! I have one issue though and it happens when I'm switching from bypass clean to fuzz...once I switch over, whilst I still hear the great fuzz sound it takes around 2 secs for it to reach full preset volume. Have any of you come across this problem before and, if so, is there a remedy? Thanks in advance!
Hey all, sorry for maybe a dumb question, but am I reading it right that if you'd like to omit the mids switch and have it no effect on a circuit one should put a 4n7 cap between Sw1 and Tone 3 ?
Nope. Just leave the switch out and do not add any caps. The stock setting is present with the on-off-on switch in middle position. That's the 4n cap in the layout that is setting the mids. If you don't have 4n cap available, then use 3n9 or 4n7 in there and leave the switch out compeletely. +m
Dear Fellows, My build is acting strange, and I don't have the experience yet to understand what possibly went wrong. The thing works only with the Sustain pot fully clockwise. Turning it counterclockwise at almost 90% the distortion goes down to almost clean tone, at 60-70% signal goes down into complete silence at 50% and then down it increases to very quiet clean tone at fully counterclockwise sustain pot. Where do I start to look for the cause of this?
There must be a problem with the connections. The 1K resistor that Sustain 1 connects to means that the signal can never be fully dumped to ground, and so it should never go silent at full counter clockwise rotation. So check the pot, the Sustain 1, 2 and 3 wires, and the 1K resistor.
I can't remember which schematic this was done from. The 100u in that position is a power filtering cap used to minimise noise, but you don't have to use it if you don't want to. Likewise you could omit the reverse polarity protection diode in series with the supply and just take the supply to the middle row hole between Tone 3 and Sustain 3.
I have built this and it kind of works, but the output is lower than I expected. With a 200mV 1kHz input, max sustain and volume, tone at mid, I get about 600mV P2P output. With sustain and volume both at midpoint, I get 60mV P2P (i.e. significantly less than input).
I've spent ages going over the build and the only thing I've picked up is the reversal of the capacitor and resistor that connect to the sustain pot. All schematics show capacitor followed by resistor, but the layout has them the other way around.
My quiescent base voltages are (input to output) 0.56, 0.56, 0.55, 0.96 The collector voltages are 7.18, 7.5, 6.7, 7.6 Signal (P2P) at the collector of each (given 200mV 1kHz input) are: 250mV, 650mV, 800mV, 561mV.
Note that the signal on the collector of the first transistor decreases significantly as the sustain is increased to max (due to the swapped cap and resistor?)
Without having another one to compare against, I don't know whether it's behaving as it should, but I feel like it probably isn't.
Great one. Thanks for the layout. Sounded good with 5089’s but better with 550’s. I had 550b’s on hand. Gave it more of a grit and character than the higher gains. You could probably stick 550c’s in Q1 & Q4 and the slightly lower gain in Q2& Q3 as I’ve read that’s how they were originally done. Remember that the pin out for 550’s are reverse. I didn’t
Damn you! I was planning to do something else today too.. I can't now... :)
ReplyDelete+m
Hee hee
ReplyDeletelooks like the 120n and 8k2 hanging off sustain 2 are around the wrong way. thx.
Delete.....aaand verified.
ReplyDeleteThis was definitely another one that i wanted. I've built already like 4 slightly modded triangles in the past, but original has something that those clever copies can't seem to capture. Don't get me wrong. Some of those modded designs are very good and offer different types of fuzzes, so building those is not in vain at all.
This time i subbed 4nF for 2n2 and 1n8 in parallel and used 3 postion switch right away. Sounds very close to my original black russian, but maybe just a bit more violent. Had high hopes for my recently acquired BC108Cs, but no luck. Those are rated at 420-800 hfe, so they should have been perfect. But they just didn't sound right, so i used BC550s. Like a charm.
Thank You!
P.S. Please don't publish anything interesting tonight... :)
Ha ha, ok you've done your job for today I won't tempt you with any more layouts today.
ReplyDeleteUnless you want a Black Russian as well? :o)
I gladly have the original :) That is really good, but there's no dc input.. I though about modding it, but... No. I don't want to. It needs to stay as it is.
DeleteIf you want to draw and publish it, go ahead. I won't verify it today, but will definitely build it at some point...
+m
i see in many big muff schematics that all pots are LOG why did you choose linear pot? ...so what pots are used in original muff?
ReplyDeleteThere are a few Muffs that used log pots, but going off the schematics found on the kitrae Big Muff web site this one didn't. The '72 Triangle did though.
Delete...And there is very little difference in log/lin in these. Linear pots work well in every muff.
Delete+m
on kitrae website the '66 and '72 version use log pots ,i've checked just now, but as myrosol said linear works well ,just different regulations
Deletetake this opportunity to thank you for quick reply and for your good layouts
Aah, if you look at the schematics, some of them like this
Deletehttp://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j6/IvIark_2006/DIY/Version1BigMuffTriangle72.jpg
Show log specified on the schematic. Because the 66 version didn't I thought they were all linear.
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j6/IvIark_2006/DIY/Version1BigMuffTriangle66.jpg
But used whatever you like, all of these are just one persons representations.
Last one for today:
ReplyDeletehttp://mirosol.kapsi.fi/varasto/boxes/Triangle.jpeg
+m
is there any substitute for the 1n5817?
ReplyDelete1N4001 or just leave it out completely and make the 9V connection 2 rows lower. It's just for reverse polarity protection.
Deletethanks a lot!
DeleteVery new to building and definitely won't let this one beat me. Can both top and bottom grounds on the board go to the same place ie output jack ground or DC socket ground? I've it built but can only get the bypassed signal working so far (grr!) and I think I've maybe some off-board wiring in the wrong place...going to test it first and failing that will re-build it with your off-board layout. What a steep learning curve but it's great fun! Any help is greatly appreciated.
ReplyDeleteAll grounds need to be connected together including all offboard grounds (input/output sleeves, negative lug of the DC adapter, switch for LED etc) and so yes there's no problem connecting them both to a single point of ground, or even daisy chain them so you've only got a single wire coming from the board.
DeleteCheers! Thanks for the info.
DeleteI built this today with the mids switch omitted. It sounds incredible! It's easily the best Muff I've built. It's super loud and articulate. I'm addicted to it!
ReplyDeleteHi guys, I built one of these yesterday using one of the kits from BitsBox (I actually found this site via BitsBox rather than the other way round) and although everything works and it sounds good, there isn't a lot of gain. I've gone over the circuit to make sure everything's where it should be and checked the off board wiring and everything seems to be in order but the amount of gain and volume seems a lot less than my modern 'off the shelf' Big Muff. Also when I roll back the sustain knob it seems to clean the signal up totally and then eventually cut the volume, on my retail unit the sustain knob just cuts back the gain a little, but even a it's lowest setting it's still pretty gritty, with the triangle's sustain set to zero it literally kills the signal. Has anybody had similar experiences? Or is this maybe normal with the triangle version? I have to admit I've not heard any of the vintage units in the flesh and this is only my fourth pedal build so I may have missed something simple without realising. Any help would be greatly appreciated, I really enjoyed following this circuit so I'd love to get it working how I imagined it would.
ReplyDeleteHi,
Delete4 years After but i Have The same issue. Have you resolve your problem?
Thanks.
IvIark,
ReplyDeleteI just built this and I have a couple of questions. As far as the effect goes, it's brilliant. I was immediately very very impressed with it.
Question #1: I tried adding the switch to it, but it doesn't seem to make any audible difference. I'm thinking I might have it connected up wrong.
In the layout, you've got both the "Tone 3" wire from the board going to Tone Lug 3 and the middle left lug of the switch going to Tone Lug 3. Am I interpreting this incorrectly?
Currently I have the White wire (labeled Switch 1, right side of board, third wire from the top) going to the Right Middle Switch Lug. I have both the Orange wire (labeled Tone 3, left side of board, 4th wire from top) AND the Orange wire (Labeled Tone 3 from the Left Middle Switch Lug) going to Lug 3 of the Tone pot.
Also, the Tone pot doesn't seem to have any audible effect. That kind of leads to--
Question 2: I used Linear pots before the discussion led to an update for Log pots. I went ahead with it because it seemed from the discussion that LIN would work as well as LOG.
The VOLUME pot seems to work fairly normally.
The SUSTAIN pot does a little bit to clean the fuzz when turning down from about 10 to 8, maybe 7, but after that basically functions like a volume control.
The TONE pot doesn't seem to do anything.
Does this sound like an LIN vs. LOG issue to you folks?
I would have happily switched them out and tested this, but as I've just recently gotten into pedal building, I didn't have the spare pots around to play with.
Thanks for any advice you can offer. So far I've built the HeartThrob Tremolo, and it's fantastic. Planning on building a Vox Percussion, Seamoon Funk Machine, Phase 45, and a Little Angel Chorus in the near future :)
Oh, and one other thing I noticed is that when I go from clean to Pedal On full volume, it's actually a bit quieter than with the pedal Off.
ReplyDeleteI used 2N5133 transistors and also bought a set of SE4010 transistors as I was told they worked well in this for higher gain. They were cheap enough. I socketed the transistors, so I'm going to switch to the others and see if I get much difference in the upper end of my volume spectrum.
I *LOVE* the sound I'm getting with the 2N5133s, though, so if the others don't sound equally great, I might try and wire a very basic boost into the pedal....
...unless someone here has a quicker and easier way for a Neophyte, such as myself.
Pot taper won't do that.. Most BMPs use the same basic circuit and still they have log/lin pots in some versions.
DeleteSince your tone pot and scoop switch don't work at all, i'm fairly convinced that you have something wrong with your build. Double check the links, cuts and drag a knife through the strip gaps to make sure there are no shorts in there.
I've built the layout myself, and it works. BMPs are loud as f, so you must have something wrong. One more thing to check would be the pinout of the transistors. That could also fit your description...
+m
Thanks! I'm off work in about 3 hours and all I can think about is getting home and opening that sucker up to monkey with it.
DeleteDo the two wires (one from the board and one from the switch) going to Tone Lug 3 sound correct to you? I was a little bit mystified by that, but I couldn't come to another interpretation that made more sense to me (though it WAS 4am at the time!)
Hmm. Yup. That's how it should be. I've done that by taking two wires from the board, tone 3 point and wire other to the switch and other to the pot. I think you might have something wrong near that 4n tone cap..
Delete+m
Tone working? Check.
DeleteMid Switch working? Check.
Loud as hell? Check!
Groovy? Aww, yeah..! I mean, Check.
I de-soldered the caps on the switch (I have a sneaky suspicion that I might have damaged the 4n cap when initially soldering it). I used a nice little 4n box cap, and since I didn't have another 10n cap, so I used a 15n in the other position.
Then I went back and scraped between all of the strips, even carefully used my Dremel in a couple of spots where I got sloppy with the solder.
Works like a dream now!
Yep, I've never made a muff that wouldn't make my ears bleed if I dimed the volume, so if any muff circuit is struggling to reach unity or only marginally getting there then you know there is an issue somewhere with the build.
DeleteGood to hear you got it working!
Delete+m
Does this fit in a 1590b
DeleteDoes this fit in a 1590b
DeleteEasily :)
DeleteUp to 21 columns wide is doable in 1590B.
+m
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteHow do ya'll get a 21 column wide board to fit in a 1590b? I have a hard time getting smaller boards to fit. By the time i get the jacks and pots in it doesn't leave to much space...and putting the board on top the pots makes it stick up too high. Are there any tutorials on cramming boards into enclosures? I would love to be able to use something smaller than a 1590bb, but it's the only size I can get everything to fit in.
DeleteJust built this. My first Muff Build and it is Awesome. It has opened up a whole new Pedal Build Area & Tones to work on and Music Styles and Guitar playing. Its got me wondering now how good and different are the other Muffs. Might be time to start doing some more Muff Diving. Many Thanks Mark.
ReplyDeleteQuestion regarding the mids switch.
ReplyDeleteAm I correct that the switch is just bringing the capacitors on the switch in series with the 4n cap to increase the 4n value to either 8.7 for flat mids or 14n for boosted mids?
Correct! This is just a mod to get more options on the tonestack, as many people think that the BMP mids are too extremely scooped.
DeleteAnyway, it's an optional mod you can avoid if you don't want / meed it.
BR
Yes, I usually like the flat mids on all of my big muff build but would not feal right without including the stock option. I have been thinking about ordering some pcb using this schematic http://gaussmarkov.net/wordpress/gallery/nordics-big-muff-pi-triangle-revision/ and wanted to include a switch.
ReplyDeleteSo it seems to me I could leave out c10 on that schematic and take it to the switch. and either use two caps on the switch 4n and somewhere around 9 for just a stock on flat mids or attach the 4n cap across pin 2 and 5 as well as the wires for the three positions switch 4.7/4/ and 10.
Does that sound right?
Yes
DeleteGreat layout, thanks as always! What's the switch..On/On/On?
ReplyDelete3 position on-off-on.
Delete+m
thanks for the layout mark, lovely pedal, this is the first in my quest for the perfect muff...hrmmm that hits the ear wrong...anyways net step rams head, then i'm onto the skreddy range, many thanks
ReplyDeletei've built this one tonight...but its go wrong...i've change this vero board to pcb...using a software pcb "diptrace"
ReplyDeleteis that okay?
but not any sound out when 3pdt turn on
but oke for bypass
can you help me?
thanks
hi guys! I've built the triangle and it woks great....the only problem is when i have rthe mids switch in middle position, the tone pot doesn't have any effects...in other positions it works fine...i soldered the tone 3 wire of the switch on tone ptot lug 3....is it correct? thanks in advance your site is awesome congratulations
ReplyDeleteSo are you saying that the tone pot works fine in the outer positions, but stops working in the middle position? I'm just trying to get my head around what could be happening.
DeleteThe way you describe the connection is right, but I can't see how that could affect the tone pot which will always pan between a low pass and a high pass filter no matter what position the switch is in. All the switch does is put additional caps in parallel with the 4n cap in the middle of the board, and so change the frequency response of the tone control.
aaaaaaaaaaargh i found the problem i was focused on checkin rthe circuit on the board and didn't notice that the tone 3 cable from the board was soldered on lug 1 instead of 3. now it's perrfect!! thank you guys your layouts are fantastic!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.flickr.com/x/t/0091009/photos/vespatron/14703476403/
ReplyDeleteAnother ace build-thanks Mark! Worked great first off; had fun!
Great looking build, thanks for the pic
DeleteWhere do i put the output?
ReplyDeleteon the notes:
Delete"volume 2 to output"
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI just built this and it is glorious! Except for a Fanny thing with the tone control. When the mids switch is in the flat and boosted positions the tone knob works exactly as I would expect, but when it is in the middle (scooped) position it works more or less like the gain control. Any thoughts on what might cause that?
ReplyDeleteHehe - funny not fanny... Unintensional muff humour😀
ReplyDeleteCould I ad an pulldown resistor to this layout without messing anything up? There is room for it under the input transistor.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI keep coming back to this and I am close to success but not quite, I've done my own PCB and the signal is getting through the board but there is a lot of hiss, and the tone pot is acting peculiar, when I touch it it hums as if an grounding problem, but the level comes and goes as I rotate it. I tried losing the switch and tried another pot, but still the same.
ReplyDeletehi guys, so i scored a batch of 2n5133 transistors if you are interested email me inaki.font@correo.unimet.edu.ve
ReplyDeleteHi guys, I just bought all the bits for this but I'm unsure how to wire the pots into the circuit board. Can anyone help?
ReplyDeleteLooking at a potentiometer from the bottom, you have from left to right, lugs 3, 2 and 1. All you do is to properly solder the wires from the board to the correspondent of the potentiometer lug (e.g. wire named "Tone 2" gets soldered to the middle lug of the pot that will be used for the tone control).
DeleteWhen you have "Volume 2 to Output" means you have to solder a wire to the middle lug of the volume pot and then you solder the other end to the output lug on the footswitch you are using (a 3PDT, usually). If you are unsure about how to to the "offboard wiring" or soldering to a footswitch, you'll have to check the Offboard wiring guide and the general build guide here on the blog. It's highly recommended you do.
Hello everyone, years ago I made the "green muff" from this schematic: http://www.tonepad.com/getFile.asp?id=94 but I would like to add the mid switch, should I modify something on the board I have or should I wire the switch normally (mid left of the switch to the tone pot lug 3 and mid right to the bypass switch 1) without doing anything else?, thanks!.
ReplyDeleteI bought a Triangle muff used in 1975, stolen in 1981.
ReplyDeleteUsing this build with the first (3) transistors being Fairchild SE4010 and the last being a 2N1533. This sounded as close to the original as I can recall! The extra tone shaping via the switch is a great add, basically retiring my 2016 Big Muff Deluxe.
Also saved a bunch of money building vs. buying the recent reissue.
Hi guys! Just finished building this pedal and it's a BEAST! I have one issue though and it happens when I'm switching from bypass clean to fuzz...once I switch over, whilst I still hear the great fuzz sound it takes around 2 secs for it to reach full preset volume. Have any of you come across this problem before and, if so, is there a remedy? Thanks in advance!
ReplyDeleteHey all, sorry for maybe a dumb question, but am I reading it right that if you'd like to omit the mids switch and have it no effect on a circuit one should put a 4n7 cap between Sw1 and Tone 3 ?
ReplyDeleteNope. Just leave the switch out and do not add any caps. The stock setting is present with the on-off-on switch in middle position. That's the 4n cap in the layout that is setting the mids. If you don't have 4n cap available, then use 3n9 or 4n7 in there and leave the switch out compeletely.
Delete+m
Hi, the bitbox kit has arrived.
ReplyDeleteCan I follow the pattern or are there any mistakes??
Hello from Italy
Many people have built this layout so it's definitely verified and good to go
DeleteDear Fellows,
ReplyDeleteMy build is acting strange, and I don't have the experience yet to understand what possibly went wrong. The thing works only with the Sustain pot fully clockwise. Turning it counterclockwise at almost 90% the distortion goes down to almost clean tone, at 60-70% signal goes down into complete silence at 50% and then down it increases to very quiet clean tone at fully counterclockwise sustain pot.
Where do I start to look for the cause of this?
There must be a problem with the connections. The 1K resistor that Sustain 1 connects to means that the signal can never be fully dumped to ground, and so it should never go silent at full counter clockwise rotation. So check the pot, the Sustain 1, 2 and 3 wires, and the 1K resistor.
ReplyDeleteNow that one is awesome. I am currently also building the Green Russian (completely different soundwise). I love and this one grittier and more dirty.
ReplyDeleteI used BC550C, but will also try 5089. :-)
Is this the schematic used?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.kitrae.net/music/Images_Secret_Music_Page/KITS%20V1%2066-11%20SCHEMATIC.jpg
If so, what is the purpose of the 'phantom' 100u on the layout?
Thanks!
I can't remember which schematic this was done from. The 100u in that position is a power filtering cap used to minimise noise, but you don't have to use it if you don't want to. Likewise you could omit the reverse polarity protection diode in series with the supply and just take the supply to the middle row hole between Tone 3 and Sustain 3.
DeleteI have built this and it kind of works, but the output is lower than I expected. With a 200mV 1kHz input, max sustain and volume, tone at mid, I get about 600mV P2P output. With sustain and volume both at midpoint, I get 60mV P2P (i.e. significantly less than input).
ReplyDeleteI've spent ages going over the build and the only thing I've picked up is the reversal of the capacitor and resistor that connect to the sustain pot. All schematics show capacitor followed by resistor, but the layout has them the other way around.
My quiescent base voltages are (input to output) 0.56, 0.56, 0.55, 0.96
The collector voltages are 7.18, 7.5, 6.7, 7.6
Signal (P2P) at the collector of each (given 200mV 1kHz input) are: 250mV, 650mV, 800mV, 561mV.
Note that the signal on the collector of the first transistor decreases significantly as the sustain is increased to max (due to the swapped cap and resistor?)
Without having another one to compare against, I don't know whether it's behaving as it should, but I feel like it probably isn't.
Any help appreciated.
Great one. Thanks for the layout. Sounded good with 5089’s but better with 550’s. I had 550b’s on hand. Gave it more of a grit and character than the higher gains. You could probably stick 550c’s in Q1 & Q4 and the slightly lower gain in Q2& Q3 as I’ve read that’s how they were originally done. Remember that the pin out for 550’s are reverse. I didn’t
ReplyDeleteMpsa18 is a good candidate for high gain transistor for all bmp's
ReplyDelete