Green Ringer problem: Distortion city.

[jdjonsson]

Hi folks. I just put together a Green Ringer, with the PCB by Tonepad.

What could cause horrible distortion?

I bought a pack of mystery transistors from Radio Shack, that were labelled 2n3906, but not one of them had that number on them, and there were about five or six different labels on them.

I tried a 2n4125 because it's supposed to have a low gain h_fe but it had horrible distortion, and then I tried a couple of the radio shack mystery transistors with the same problem.

Admittedly I didn't have the right value resistors, for 4 of them, so I had to chain some together to get the right value. (like 2x220K & 1x120K to make 560K)

Anyway, has anybody run into this kind of thing?[/code][/list]

[B Tremblay]

Even a perfectly functioning Green Ringer could hardly be called a clean octave-up.

Compare these clips with your build.  Any similarities?

[octafish]

I take it from you saying you subbed "a" tranny in that your other transistors are NPN , and you have checked the pinouts? Is the horrible distortion, blatty?, or clanging? From memory the PNP transistor in a green ringer is a phase inverter so I don't know how important Hfe would be?

[jdjonsson]

The NPNs are 2n5088 as specified in the plans. It calls for a 2n3906 for the PNP.

From other threads, I gather that the PNP is supposed to be low gain.[/quote]

[jdjonsson]

I listened to the sound clips, and while I admit, I thought I was gonna get a cleaner tone, mine seems to be quite a bit dirtier than the clips. Hmm...