I'm looking to build one of these--I came across Moosapotamus' layout and sound samples about a year ago. I've seen some posts in this forum that were useful but it's been a while since anyone talked about this effect. How did the builders of this make out? There seemed to be a little confusion about two or three of the parts values and the mysterious T-Filter.
I'm also interested in info / sound samples for the Prescription Electronics Depth Charge and Black Cat Bass Octave Fuzz. Neither site has detailed pictures or sound samples. Are these two units pretty much derivative of the Brass Master? They allude to it, but information is sketchy.
Thanks,
Joe
The thing with the Bass Brass Master / Brass-O-Blaster was that most folks who build clones never got the filter switch to have any affect on the sound. But someone, can't remember who, did figure out a little mod to get the filter switch to give a different sound. Whatever... it's still a fantastic sounding bass fuzz. BTW - R.G. did the layout and there's a PDF projec at GEO.
The Black Cat Bass Octave Fuzz is the same (Maestro) circuit, except that instead of just switching the resistors in the filter section, a DPDT toggle switch is used to switch between two entirely separate filter sections with different resistor values.
I'm not positive about the PE Depth Charge, but I don't believe it is an exact clone. And, what's an Alabaster Disaster?!?!? 8)
~ Charlie
Thanks for the info, I knew about RG's layout, that's very nicely done.
I got his book on PC design, I've learned a lot from it. It's very
informative. I'll probably end up ordering a PC board through GGG
just for the sake of convenience / laziness.
The postings that I saw indicated that the Mouser 42TM018 transformer
fits nicely on the board. All of the parts seem readily available. Should
I try to match Hfe on the 2N3392's?
As far as "Alabaster Disaster," I was just trying to get words that
rhymed with "master," "blaster," etc.
Yup, there's nothing like a good joke, and that was, um...
nothing like a good joke. :?
Lamely,
Joe
Too funny, I just 3 minutes ago got my brassmaster functioning on the breadboard. I too am finding next to no audible difference in the Twin-T filter, I think I'll just hard connect the switched section and save myself a 3pst. I built it off of RG's schematic, and subbed 2n3904s (looked to be a pretty close match for the 3392s) and a 5306 for the 5308 (the only difference looked to be maximum current (or voltage I can't remember) and I figured it wouldn't hurt in puny stompbox land).
Here's a breadboarding tip: When using multiple breadboards for a project, you've gotta actually connect the two different ground strips you're using!
Also: the resistor right after the input cap is 150K, on the RG schematic it kind of looks like 150 with an 'X' below it.
Other builders: The Sensitivity pot feels like it should 5K linear, is this consistent with other's builds?
The Brassmaster is a great build for those who like it fuzzy. It is a pretty harsh sounding fuzz, however. Think Larry Graham or The OX (John Entwhistle) I gave one to my bass player and he loved it. Unfortunately, our recording engineer snobbed out and thought that it was too farty sounding to go on our album. The 42TM018 works as the tranformer. Have any of you tried grafting the output preamp section with a different fuzz in the place of the main fuzz section? I always wondered if that would be a good alternate (and perhaps more complicated) way of blending clean/dirty on a bass fuzz.