Tripple Fuzz Troubleshooting

[LinuxMan]

Heya.

I'm back into effects building after a bit of inactivity. I decided I'dd start with something easy so I've built myself a tripple fuzz. I used the original schematic also found here: click

Although it's a simple project I'm having a bit of trouble with the effect. First thing is that the Gain pot works opposite as expected... If I turn it down (counter clockwise) I get more fuzz... Is that typical or have I done something really wrong? I tripple checked the pot connection.. it looks like this:

Code Select Expand


I- ***
I-* O *
G- ***


That's the connection when the shaft is looking at the ground. "I"s are soldered together and they go into Q1, "G" goes to ground. I also measured the voltages... When in full CCW position (largest ammounts of fuzz) it shows 0V and 3.33V if I max the pot to 17 o'clock (where there's no fuzz).

The second thing I would like to ask is that I feel may be lacking a bit of sustain (notes die too soon)... Is this the design thing or have I done something wrong.

I measured the transistor voltages:
Q1 (BC550c): C=3.3V B=1.32V E=6.42V
Q2 (2n3906): C=4.79 B=4.69 E=5.31
Q3 (2n3904): C=4.79 B=4.69 E=4.06

I must also mention I soldered the transistors without sockets and I used BC550c instead of the MPSA18. I could've burnt one of them (could my problems be the symptoms of that?)

That's it for now, please feel free to ask for more info, hope I'll be able to fine tune an already nice effect as I can't wait to box it up.

Thanks

[Ge_Whiz]

The gain control works on the basis of how much signal gets shunted to earth, so it does work somewhat counter-intuitively. Just swap the wires around.

I'm surprised you're lacking sustain - no shortage of it on mine, from low-gain OD to full wigged-out fuzz. The BC550C is a good transistor to use, and transistors are hard to fry, so I'd start by checking everything carefully again.

[bwanasonic]

I left the action of the gain pot *reversed* on mine, and decided to call it the *Sanity* control, with low settings resulting in *wigged out* tones. No idea what the cause of the short sustain might be. I keep meaning to try a large cap across the lugs of the gain pot to *de-crackle* it. Be sure to try the Tripple into another distortion/ OD. It works well as a distortion *enhancer* on low/ med gain settings.

Kerry M

[Ge_Whiz]

Having looked at the TF circuit again, my technical explanation above is b*ll*cks - sorry. Still, the principle remains the same.

[LinuxMan]

Heya.

Thx for the info. Guess I'll just reverse the pot and box the thing up...

Thanks again.