Hi guys, this is an unbelievable thread! Sorry for ressurecting it, but my question is in the vein of it...
I recently built the Black Arts Pharaoh Fuzz which is a muff with some altered values. I accidentally put bc550c transistor with reversed pinout in Q1 [could not get hold of a mpsa18] and while it did hum a little more, the sound was PERFECT. It was everything I ever wanted of a fuzz pedal, I was thinking to myself gooood damn this is what I want my fuzz face to sound! [of course cleaning up the BM with your volume knob never is a particularly nice endeavor]
From a point of how things work, how could one achieve a similar response in the later stages, as with reversing the Q1 would affect them?
I don't know if this was just a happy coincidence but it sounded f-in fabulous! Since then I returned the Q1 like it should be, and while I like the sound, reversed Q1 is better.
I should note that the muff was running on a power supply. When I attempted the same with a battery [reversed Q1] all I could hear was a loud hiss, no alterations on the tone whatsoever, no distortion, nothing.