Montarbo - Sinfhoton ( Fuzz )

ik6gpy · Post by **ik6gpy** » 29 Feb 2008, 22:23

Hi!
I'm a new member from Italy. This is my first post and i would like to thank all the members of this wonderful forum for such a great work on this site.

By the way...
Anyone have ever heard of the Montarbo Sinphoton Fuzz? It seems to be a very nice sustainy cremy distortion from the 60's as an old friend described me. Anyone has got this schematic? I would very much appreciate it.

Ciao!

analogguru · Post by **analogguru** » 29 Feb 2008, 23:12

Below you can see a picture of the Montarbo (correctly written:) "Sinfhoton", which was also sold as the Sisme Sismetone.

Sadly I have never seen any guts or a schematic....
If you would have access to guts....

analogguru

MauroR · Post by **MauroR** » 01 Mar 2008, 00:00

I have this schematic!

Because it isn't traced by me.... I'm not sure that is correct!!

Ciao (I'm italian like you).

Mauro

ik6gpy · Post by **ik6gpy** » 01 Mar 2008, 09:21

Beautiful, so it's a fixed distortion device, nice little circuit. Stages are very similiar to a big muff. Interesting. I would change that fixed 22k resistor between the two stages and would try a 50k pot to choose distortion amount.

Many Thanks! Grazie Mauro! Saluti dallo stivale.

RnFR · Post by **RnFR** » 24 Jun 2011, 03:19

here is the early version of the Sinfhoton-

: Montarbo - Sinfhoton - Early Version; SINPHOTON_schem.jpg (64.43 KiB) Viewed 4888 times

i caught this vid on the tube last night. it sounds killer!

I gotta build me one of these.

RnFR · Post by **RnFR** » 24 Jun 2011, 04:55

dudes! i made this guy up today at work while the bad rappers bored the shit out of me. it looks ok. i might've been able to save a row or two, but whatever. as long as it fits. if it's too wide for your box(hehe), you can put the jumper from the ground filtering. on the back of the board and get it down to 23 rows wide.

mysticwhiskey · Post by **mysticwhiskey** » 24 Jun 2011, 07:23

Looks good to me, traced it out and it matches the schematic. Only thing is the label on the bottom vero ver ot othe right marked 'vol 3' should probably be 'vol 1'.

mysticwhiskey · Post by **mysticwhiskey** » 24 Jun 2011, 07:27

mysticwhiskey wrote:Looks good to me, traced it out and it matches the schematic. Only thing is the label on the the bottom vero ver ot othe right marked 'vol 3' should probably be 'vol 1'.

It's Friday afternoon here, so please forgive me good spelling not

That should instead read: the bottom vero row to the right

DiscoFreq · Post by **DiscoFreq** » 24 Jun 2011, 10:09

I think I have an early version, it has an input cable instead of a jack socket.

LucifersTrip · Post by **LucifersTrip** » 24 Jun 2011, 19:50

sounds very cool...

does anyone know what the diodes (D1-D4) are?

thanx

mictester · Post by **mictester** » 25 Jun 2011, 01:50

LucifersTrip wrote:sounds very cool...

does anyone know what the diodes (D1-D4) are?

thanx

The one I've got has 1N914 diodes, but any small silicon type will do.

RnFR · Post by **RnFR** » 25 Jun 2011, 05:47

mysticwhiskey wrote:
mysticwhiskey wrote:Looks good to me, traced it out and it matches the schematic. Only thing is the label on the the bottom vero ver ot othe right marked 'vol 3' should probably be 'vol 1'.
It's Friday afternoon here, so please forgive me good spelling not

That should instead read: the bottom vero row to the right

thanks for the catch! I kind of threw it up on the net right before I left work. I'll try and get it fixed when I get back over there. I drew up an early version as well. I'll post that one later, too.

LucifersTrip · Post by **LucifersTrip** » 25 Jun 2011, 06:26

mictester wrote:
LucifersTrip wrote:sounds very cool...

does anyone know what the diodes (D1-D4) are?

thanx
The one I've got has 1N914 diodes, but any small silicon type will do.

thanx much for the info...I'll start with those and go from there.

LucifersTrip · Post by **LucifersTrip** » 02 Jul 2011, 04:06

I breadboarded this and everything worked right off....though, so far it is very average.

It definitely has that fat muffy sound, but nothing great yet.

I used 2n3904's with hfe's around 200-225.

The voltage readings are:
Q1 > ebc > 0, .18, 3.65
Q2 > ebc > 0, .60, 6.12

Does anyone have any idea what these should be?....and for the pot that's sandwiched between the two 10k's,
so you get more treble or bass as you turn it clockwise? I'd just like to confirm I have it oriented correctly.

I tried altering the two 10k collector R's and the 47k in the center, but so far no great change.

I'll continue tweaking, but it'd be cool to get ballpark voltages first.

thanx

RnFR · Post by **RnFR** » 02 Jul 2011, 04:26

here's the corrected version.

LucifersTrip · Post by **LucifersTrip** » 02 Jul 2011, 21:16

RnFR wrote:here's the corrected version.

corrected from what? isn't it just a later version of the one I breadboarded? ...or is there a mistake in the one I breadboarded?

Do you possibly have a schematic or voltages?

thanx again

RnFR · Post by **RnFR** » 03 Jul 2011, 01:02

RnFR wrote:
mysticwhiskey wrote:
mysticwhiskey wrote:Looks good to me, traced it out and it matches the schematic. Only thing is the label on the the bottom vero ver ot othe right marked 'vol 3' should probably be 'vol 1'.
It's Friday afternoon here, so please forgive me good spelling not

That should instead read: the bottom vero row to the right
thanks for the catch! I kind of threw it up on the net right before I left work. I'll try and get it fixed when I get back over there. I drew up an early version as well. I'll post that one later, too.

i would just try adjusting your collector resistors to get the voltage at the collector to around 4.5v. you could try higher gain transistors as well- some say that helps.

LucifersTrip · Post by **LucifersTrip** » 04 Jul 2011, 04:39

RnFR wrote:
i would just try adjusting your collector resistors to get the voltage at the collector to around 4.5v. you could try higher gain transistors as well- some say that helps.

noone answered my request for voltages above....is the voltage supposed to be approx 4.5v on the various versions of the Sinfhoton discussed in this thread?

Nico3p · Post by **Nico3p** » 23 Sep 2011, 18:36

Ciao,
per avere un buon sustain i transiStor migliori sono i BC149.
I BC109 hanno un guadagno altissimo (hfe=600-700), per cui anche con questi si ha un grande suono.
Il Sinfhoton ha un circuito fatto in modo che ogni transistor al silicio funziona bene. Anche i BC108 (hfe=200 circa) hanno una buona resa.
Come diodi si possono usare gli 1N4148 (a commutazione veloce).
Se si aggiunge un diodo si può ottenere il clipping asimmetrico, con un selettore a levetta, col risultato di un volume più alto e una distorsione più verso l'overdrive che il fuzz.
Confrontato col Big Muff, il Sinfhoton ha più presenza e personalità.
Io ho aggiunto la regolazione della distorsione e funziona alla grande.
Ho anche messo un commutatore per silicio/germanio e va benissimo (anche se i transistor al germanio sono "ballerini" e in certe situazioni di umidità e caldo vanno in crisi...).
Buona Musica,
Nico

sinner · Post by **sinner** » 07 Dec 2011, 07:39

RnFR wrote:here is the early version of the Sinfhoton-

SINPHOTON_schem.jpg
i caught this vid on the tube last night. it sounds killer!

I gotta build me one of these.

RnFR could you reupload the schematic? It's not available any more