BRIAN MAY BASS BOOST?????

[Ricardo Antunes]

Hy, friends
-I just built the "Brian May treble boost", from Generalguitargadgets... and.....SURPRISE!!!!! There´s no treble boosting, only sustain and bass was boostered. I used the NPN 2N3904 ( the other parts in stock values), and it caused some distortion in the clean sound...not bad, but it has too much gain. I tried another NPN (BC548C). This time there´s not distortion but the bass boost was there ( a bit of hiss and hum too). I play trough it with a Les Paul. What´s happening here?

-Another little doubt.... How can I add a tone control to a NPN Fuzz Face basic circuit?

Thanks all

[Mike Burgundy]

this should almost 100% sure be a wiring error: a cap to mass instead of in-line, so the whole thing is low-pass instead of high-pass. Something like that, anyway. Perhaps a feedback loop that's wired wrong? Check and double check.
Tone control: stick a bigmuff or other control (tone-plus-volume-knob as one building block)of choice in the place of the existing volume knob. Done. Tinker with the values to get a response you like - also take the existing output cap along in that.
hih

[Boofhead]

Another possibility is the 1nF cap across the base and emitter of the transistor is the wrong value.

[Chris S]

I built one by the same schematic and it does have a huge volume boost, I beleive thats because we are using the new plastic transistors rather than the germanium one that would have been put in the original. I took a few goes to get the wiring right too!

[Doug H]

I built one by the same schematic and it does have a huge volume boost, I beleive thats because we are using the new plastic transistors rather than the germanium one that would have been put in the original. I took a few goes to get the wiring right too!

I found that low hfe (200 or less) transistors sound best with this. 2n3904 should work fine.

Doug

[Gearbuilder]

Hi,
i've tried several transistors before mine was ok,the trans was from an Old Simms-Watt Amp .The sound is really like Brian May.Make sure to use a tube amp with it.
Bruno