Hell, yeah! Go me! My first build, and it actually works! It didn't at first, however. Heh. Turns out there was a loose connection on the perfboard by the first set of diodes--explains why the effect would only "pop" in when I'd stick my finger on that area, and cut out when I stopped touching it.
I tried it next to my wife's stock Russian BM, and it sounded similar, but different. I used Tantalum instead of aluminum caps, and used Silver Mica for most of the ceramic caps. I also used 2N5088 trannies, but have a shipment of 5089's coming in soon.
Mine seems noisier (when the effect is on, but I'm not playing anything)than hers, especially at high volumes. I heard that the 88's are noisier than the 89's. Could this be it?
Have thought about mebbe tweaking the diodes--she uses the BM as a bass overdrive. LEDs maybe, I have a bunch of Germanium diodes too. She plays a late 70's SVT, so I'd like to enchance the natural sound of her amp rather than drown it in fuzz (which isn't exactly a bad thing \m/).
Suggestions? Or should I leave the diodes be?
very cool~
i've messed around with the clipping in the synthy black sovtec BMP's.. the differences were pretty subtle IMO.. red LED's seemed to make the fuzz a bit nastier, but it wasn't a breakthrough or anything..
look for a BMP thread that mark hammer posted on last week.. he describes an interesting presence mod where you splice a pot into the 2nd gain stage..
also~
check out the wisker bisquit from www.runoffgroove.com it has a bazzfuss gain stage.. i built one and gave it to a friend..
a few months later he emailed me a nd told me it was the best gift anyone has ever given him..
hth,
If it's noisier, IMO, it's probably not due to transistor noise. Generally speaking, the noise level is somewhat perportional to the gain setting. If you adjust the transistor stages for more gain, you get a lot more noise, less gain, less noise. Sounds obvious, but I'm saying a little gain increase can make a lot of noise. 88 or 89 probably won't make a whole lot of difference. Also try 2N3904 transistors, I've heard of good results in BMP with those, but I haven't tried that yet myself.
JD Sleep