Not finished yet, but another WOW Signal Fuzz, but with a big can CA1558, and a nice Sanyo 2SB405 that I salvaged out of an old tape deck.
The one I made for Jimi got a good review, so I figured I'd add one to my herd as well. This one is voiced a bit different, it's got a "Big Muff with a zipper" feel.
Here's the vero for those that want to give it a shot;
Just a couple of notes;
- R13 can be anywhere between 1K and 4.7K. It's the current limiter for the LED, so adjust to taste.
- R10 I replaced with a 50K trimmer. 5.25v is OK but depending on the Germ, this will shift. With some transistors, this voltage is too high, and it reduces (or negates) the effectiveness of the gain pot, i.e. gain sounds maxed no matter where you set it. The ideal is to reduce base voltage until the signal cuts, and then slowly come back. Sweep the gain to see if there's a decent min./max. gain differential, and you should be good to go. Set the voltage as high as possible, without overriding the gain pot.
- C7 is 82pF in the original, but there's a lot of fizz. Depending on your final choices for transistors, I found that anything between 470pF, and 1nF tends to be more comfortable on the ears. I've even gone as high as 2.2nF, but it's much darker then, and starts to cut into the effectiveness of the filter. The one that I'm building now has an 820pF, and it's just crunchy enough. I socketed all the transistors, and that cap for testing. Once the final actors were chosen, I soldered the silicons to the sockets, and the Ge and cap went direct to the board.
ADDED NOTE: If the Filter control is too dark for your taste, then replace C11 with a 10n, and the pot with a A10K. This will give it more of a "Mids presence" control.
