Tips for Smallbear fuzz face project?

[WoundUp]

What's up everybody! I just bought a breadboard kit with the intention of getting into building pedals & pedal circuits. I intend to start off with this fuzz face at smallbear

http://diy.smallbearelec.com/HowTos/BreadboardSiFF/BreadboardSiFF.htm

Any tips or tricks or things to look out for when I attempt this? I'm still waiting on parts to get here so it'll be a few days before I'm able to start on it. It seems pretty straightforward, but I figured I would ask anyway. Being that I'm new to this, I could easily miss something important since I'm not familiar with everything yet.

Thanks!

[Phend]

WoundUp, welcome to the forum. Great choice, because of the great people here. I myself am a beginner in making effects. Looks like you selected a good starting project from a well known company. My suggestion would be to get a multimeter and follow the directions for building the fuzz face.
And biggest suggestion would be, if you get stuck or have a question, this forum well definitely help you.

[iainpunk]

digital multi meter is your best friend when it comes to electronics! make sure to get one if you haven't already, having the cheap-o ones from ebay/poundland/dollarstore is better than having no multi meter. (i have been at it with a 9 euro digital multi meter for 6 or 7 years now, if you stick to pedal building or similar complexity, the simple ones are fine)

the instruction on the website are quite compressive, and you should be able to get a working Fuzz out of that. the circuit is simple enough that there's little that would go wrong, the most common mistake people seem to have with fuzz faces seems to be forgetting to actually attach the gain pot to either ground or the circuit.

always glad to hear someone picking up electronics! welcome to the addiction hobby!

cheers

[WoundUp]

Thanks! At this point I'm not really sure which transistors I should use or if I should try mixing & matching if that's possible.

I've got like 100 2n2222's and 10 2222a's I need to go through and check the gain on. Of the few I did check, they were all in the 220-230 range on the dmm transistor HFE setting. I only checked about 6 or 7 though. So I'm hoping there's some variation among the remaining transistors. I read that the best combo of gain for both transistors in the circuit is like 90 and 120/30/40 or something.

I've also got 2 BC109c's that read over 600, IRC.

So I'm not sure what to do if, for example, all of the 2222's spec at over 200 when I plug them into the dmm. Use a 200 & 600? Two 200s(2222s)? Two 600+(bc109c's)?

I guess I could just wait and try them out? Lol.

At this point, I think I'll save the rest of my questions until after I get the rest of the parts and get the circuit built. Just waiting on resistors & caps. I initially only ordered what I needed and a couple of days ago, I picked up a 775 pc resistor kit for like $6. Gonna pick up a capacitor kit at some point, also. Not really in any sort of hurry.

[WoundUp]

I'm replying to this again to add new info.

Ordered a deluxe capacitor kit yesterday. I'm just hoping it's what I think it is. Whoever listed it didn't list it correctly whatsoever. It's a 220 piece kit that they lost as 145 pieces. When you look at the details down the page, it says kit has 20 different capacitors but they list 44 different caps in the kit. Even the box says '220 PIECES' on it in big letters. I checked their website and it's no different. Weirdly, everywhere the kit is available, it's listed as 145 pieces even though it says 220 on the box. <shrug>

So I went ahead and ordered knowing I can just return it if it's not 220 pcs. Thanks to Amazon Prime, I don't need a reason to return it. And it's free on my part no matter why l send it back. So there's no losing in this for me.

Kit shown below

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ISGHPQU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_7SSJRT9E8CHA0KEK59N8

[Phend]

Awhile ago I bought the deluxe resistor kit, lots of values, but you know what, I have all most run out of the 100K so I bought 100 of the 100K, all from Amazon. Also bought greene, ceramic and electrolytic capacitor kits.  These are inexpensive and I find a whole kit costs just a little more and getting 2,5 or 10 of one value....except for those 100K.  It maybe almost worth the time to look at a few, or a bunch of circuits and just order what is used most by the 100 package.
(And keep the kits for those one offs)