Silicon Tone Bender

Original effects with schematics, layouts and instructions, freely contributed by members or found in publications. Cannot be used for commercial purposes without the consent of the owners of the copyright.
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keto
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Post by keto »

Should be boxed up by tomorrow, still baking the clearcoat. Great sounding pedal. Insane amounts of both output (unity is about '3') and gain (Abuse), where that knob is basically unusable howling screeching feedback above about 3/4 - I did however use a 10K pot for lack of a 1K on hand, and expect that may be the very minor problem. Also, I find the VR has very little effect, tho some. Still have to add knobs.

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mictester
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Post by mictester »

keto wrote:Should be boxed up by tomorrow, still baking the clearcoat. Great sounding pedal. Insane amounts of both output (unity is about '3') and gain (Abuse), where that knob is basically unusable howling screeching feedback above about 3/4 - I did however use a 10K pot for lack of a 1K on hand, and expect that may be the very minor problem. Also, I find the VR has very little effect, tho some. Still have to add knobs.
Love the case!!! :lol: The "abuse" pot was originally a 5k, but found to be usable only over about 15% of its track, so it became a preset with a 1k pot in series to cover the usable bit!

I warned you that it was LOUD[/color]
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Post by sinner »

[smilie=bump.gif]

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Post by sinner »

And ULTRA Version

Thank you Mictester :hug:

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Post by faj_ind »

i built, 4 trans silicon tone bender and 3 trans silicon tone bender




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Post by Nocentelli »

I've just drawn up a more compact veroboard layout for this awesome-sounding fuzz (many thanks, mictester!). Please note it is unverified until my parts order arrives and I can actually build and check it: You should compare it to the schematic to double-check my work if you plan to build it (I've gone over it many times and it looks fine, but you never know).

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modman wrote: Let's hope it's not a hit, because soldering up the same pedal everyday, is a sad life. It's that same ole devilish double bind again...

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Post by Nocentelli »

The layout in the last post is now VERIFIED.

Got it up and running late last night just to check it, and it sounds great. Haven't messed with the trimmer (set to about half way and it sounded pretty cool), and I've only tried a 220n and 10uF input cap, but I'll spend some quality time with it tomorrow.

Many thanks to mictester for the fantastic schematic.
modman wrote: Let's hope it's not a hit, because soldering up the same pedal everyday, is a sad life. It's that same ole devilish double bind again...

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Post by kaycee »

Nice work! Thanks, thats another one for the to-do file :)

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mictester
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Post by mictester »

Nocentelli wrote:The layout in the last post is now VERIFIED.

Many thanks to mictester for the fantastic schematic.
You're welcome!
"Why is it humming?" "Because it doesn't know the words!"

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Post by soggybag »

Thanks for the Schem mictester, thanks for the layout Nocentelli. I think I'll give this try.

I have a bag of transistors labeled BC109 in my parts bin. I'll assume that these should work. They are small metal cans with gold legs. I have five. I'm not sure if these are the "c" type, would this make big difference?

What would be a good substitute from the US transistor line, like 2n5089?

Does the gain matter? What type of gain does this circuit prefer for best performance, or does it matter?

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Post by ckyvick »

^do you have a dmm that can test transistor gains? bc109s can be subbed for the 2n5089 but id use sockets in case

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Post by Nocentelli »

soggybag wrote:I have a bag of transistors labeled BC109 in my parts bin. I'll assume that these should work. They are small metal cans with gold legs. I have five. I'm not sure if these are the "c" type, would this make big difference?
I believe the "c" suffix just indicates higher gain - plain old BC109 will work fine. I also believe that BC108s will also work, as the datasheet (http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datashe ... _109_4.pdf) seems to indicate the only difference between 108/109 is a higher minimum gain and lower noise: I'm sure I read a post from analogguru a while back saying that they just make a batch of transistors and the lower gain ones are designated BC108, and the higher ones BC109 (and presumably within that group, the highest are designated a sub-set BC109c). I may be entirely mistaken, however.

http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datashe ... _109_4.pdf
soggybag wrote:What would be a good substitute from the US transistor line, like 2n5089?
I think 2N2222 are the US equivalent.
modman wrote: Let's hope it's not a hit, because soldering up the same pedal everyday, is a sad life. It's that same ole devilish double bind again...

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Post by mictester »

Nocentelli wrote:
I think 2N2222 are the US equivalent.
No - the 2N2222 is quite a low gain device. You really want to look at the 2N5088. I've built these using BC184L, BC550, BC549C, 2N3707, BC109C, BC109, and one or two others. You just need a fairly high Hfe (180 minimum) and the thing will sing and howl!

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Post by Nocentelli »

Oops, I was going off modman's advice in this thread.

It certainly does howl with a set of BC109c's: Very long sustain with gain up high, and just a tiny bit of gated decay at the very end of the note (if it doesn't go into infinite harmonic feedback).
modman wrote: Let's hope it's not a hit, because soldering up the same pedal everyday, is a sad life. It's that same ole devilish double bind again...

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Post by soggybag »

Thanks for the replies. I have plenty of other transistors. So I can audition them all. I was just trying to figure out if this circuit required transistors with any special qualities. Sounds like something medium high to high gain would work.

Which reminds me about the pin out. Looks like the BC109 is CBE and the 2n5088 is EBC. I'll have to take a close look at the stripboard layout.

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Post by Nocentelli »

soggybag wrote:Which reminds me about the pin out. Looks like the BC109 is CBE and the 2n5088 is EBC. I'll have to take a close look at the stripboard layout.
The BC109s I have are all metal cans with the tag to mark the emitter - Image.

Since DIYLC only has the standard transistor image, using my layout you need to orient all the transistors so emitters are at the bottom, base is central and collector at the top: e.g for Q1, emitter = e5, base = d5, collector = c5.
modman wrote: Let's hope it's not a hit, because soldering up the same pedal everyday, is a sad life. It's that same ole devilish double bind again...

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Post by soggybag »

Thanks that was just the information I was looking for.

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Post by soggybag »

A month later and I've finally gotten around to finishing this one.

Sounds good, the fuzz so thick you could cut it with a knife. I used Nicotelli's layout. Worked on the first try. I found a few BC109CNs in my parts bin. I tried another weirdo low gain, ~50hfe, transistor in a few spots. Sounded good in Q2, Q3. Didn't quite have the gain in Q1. I might have to try a few more transistors. Though I'm suspecting the sound will not be that different. This is very fuzzy.

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Post by mictester »

soggybag wrote:A month later and I've finally gotten around to finishing this one.

Sounds good, the fuzz so thick you could cut it with a knife. I used Nicotelli's layout. Worked on the first try. I found a few BC109CNs in my parts bin. I tried another weirdo low gain, ~50hfe, transistor in a few spots. Sounded good in Q2, Q3. Didn't quite have the gain in Q1. I might have to try a few more transistors. Though I'm suspecting the sound will not be that different. This is very fuzzy.
It's meant to be "very fuzzy", and not to have the thermal problems that I've almost always experienced with germanium-based circuits.

It's actually one of the most controllable fuzz circuits I've ever used. I now have built a version with a wider "fuzz" control sweep (from gated and fizzy through to thick and creamy with stupid amounts of sustain!). I also added my favourite tone control (the "James" type) with a buffer after it. It's a wonderful pedal for many styles of playing, and sometimes I can't keep up with the demand for them!
"Why is it humming?" "Because it doesn't know the words!"

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Post by DrNomis »

The closest transistors I have to BC109c is some black plastic case BC549c Si NPN transistors,these are described as low noise hi gain transistors,I measured the gains of some of them which turned out to be as high as 700 or so,these should work okay,shouldn't they?
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