Dig it. Black Dust. The
Black Acid pre-set to fold air. Fuzz and drive, wide open. Maximum
attack, minimized footprint. Fuelled with the same PCB as the Black
Acid, British made Magnatec BC109's, Arcol carbon comps, BC/Vishay
capacitors, prime cuts all the way.
For those not familiar with
this circuit type it has a very similar tonal qualities to the old
Meathead Dark though I'd say a more refined approach with a more
traditional overall tone than that of any Meathead. The mids are quite
flat the lows considerably boosted and the highs pretty natural and open
sounding. Heaviness, it is some.
There were 2 versions, a big box version (older) and smaller (newer).
Big Box Version:
There were 2 versions, a big box version (older) and smaller (newer).
Big Box Version:
Small Box Version:
Hell yes!!!! I'm in doom heaven today. Appreciate these EFE Layouts
ReplyDeletelol. no prob man. nothing like a good heavy fuzz.
Deletecaught some errors. fixed the layouts and reuploaded them.
ReplyDeleteBuilt the small box version with a pair of BC108C. Verified. Have to give it a good run through still.
ReplyDeleteawesome man. i also made a correction to the big box version. after more investigating the big box version did not have the 220pF cap between B-C of Q1 so i removed it from the layout.
DeleteSounds nice and heavy but a bit gated. Then again the demo does as well. It plays very well with my OR15. Thanks Zach.
ReplyDeleteHopefully I will get a parts order in soon, I'd love to build the Black Acid but I was out of bigger vero. I think turning the fuzz down would work better with a dirty amp. My Germanium Fuzz Face and Tonebender Mk. II need to be turned down a little bit to sound better through the OR as well, so it's just an assumption.
ReplyDeleteI'd also like to change what I said about it being gated. It IS gated but mostly through my AC10. The Orange had more sustain and a crazy sounding note decay. Very heavy.
Since I have this already built, would it be difficult to add a fuzz control to it? It's not as straight forward as swapping the 1k resistor for a pot and grounding lug 1, right?
ReplyDeleteShouldn't be too hard. Replace the 1k resistor with a 1k pot just like a FuzzFace, lug 1 to ground, lug 2 to the +leg of the 22uF cap, and lug 3 on the bottom row. you need to move the leg of the 22uF cap that's on the bottom row up 1, and put a cut to the right of the input cap.
DeleteSo the jumper that conects the +leg of the 22uF cap and Q2 E has to be connected on the bottom to the 2nd row as the 22uF right?
DeleteAwesome. I can pretty much make the Black Acid then. It sounds great as is but I think turning the fuzz down a bit would play better with the OR. I haven't been building too much lately and am running low on some stuff, so this is helps. I'm trying to get back into building and this thing just sounds awesome. I'll let you know how it goes, thanks again Zach.
ReplyDeleteI think the 100n output cap in the layout with the trimmer may need to start one row lower - should connect to the 560R and 2k2 resistors, rather than ground?
ReplyDeleteYea I caught that before when I removed the 220pF cap, and thought I uploaded it the 2nd time, might have forgotten. I'll reupload it. Nice catch.
DeleteI built mine with a BC107 for Q1 and a 2n2222A for Q2, and replaced the 560r resistor with a 470r, the 22uF cap replaced with a 33uF and the 47uF cap replaced with a 100uF cap. I also put a 1K linear pot between the emitter of Q1 and ground. The amount of gain on this thing is crazy. The wide open gain actually cleans up fairly well when I take the guitar volume down about 1/3 of the way. Sounds killer!
DeleteHey, just a quick question before I balls it all up...
ReplyDeleteElectro cap orientation, is the faint 'hyphen' on each side indicating the short leg stripe on the cap?
I expect that it is but gone a bit blank and want to check.
Thanks for all the awesome seemingly never ending radness!
The white part of the electrolytic cap indicates th negtive side of the cap, just like the actual cap.
DeleteShould there be 47pf cap in Q2 b-c and 1M input resistor?
ReplyDelete