question directed to pedal builders

SpaceFace · Post by **SpaceFace** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 2:01 am

Hey everyone a friend of mine is building a few pedals one of which being a scrambler. I asked him if he was going to try to use as close to the original parts as possible and he told me that he is going to try to use as many parts as the original except the transistors. Apparently the original transistors are hard to come by so he is going to be using their equivalents. Apparently they have the same specs as the original transistors. The original transistors were 'general purpose' so there are many equivalents/substitutes (I have no idea but this is what he was explaining to me). Now my question would be if he uses these general purpose ones, will the pedal come out sounding like the original scrambler or would you indeed need to use the hard to find transistors in order to retain the original sound? Just curious.

Justin J · Post by **Justin J** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 2:48 am

without original transistors you will never have mojo.

mickie08 · Post by **mickie08** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 2:52 am

this is true. Even handjobs are better if you use 40 year old vaseline.

aen · Post by **aen** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 2:58 am

Probably very very very close. However, old components are going to drift in value, so an old unit will sound different, but a new build with the same values and equivilant trannys will sound pretty much just like the original did when it was new.

Reece · Post by **Reece** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:06 am

here i drawed you a picture.

sorry i'm really tired. i'll go away now.

dub · Post by **dub** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 5:41 am

just to add to your confusion, there's also disagreement between the official schematic that ampeg released of the scrambler and what's actually inside the old boxes... ahah

I think one uses three transistors and one uses five? Something like that.

Post by **Mike** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 8:41 am

It depends on the design. Some designs are dependent on transistor type and hfe for their sound, others are invariant.

aen · Post by **aen** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 12:44 pm

ew, dude, its a scrambler. They just make the bad sound. I reckon its real simple to get the same sound, even with diferent parts.

Post by **Mike** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 1:14 pm

It's not a simple circuit, however.

Look at the Darlington pair at the end, those will have to be closely matched for a start to get the Octave effect the pedal is famous for, and while the biasing arrangement of Q1 seems pretty sturdy, the rest of the transistors are biased in a very bespoke fashion.

The correct 2n5306s can be had from small bear http://www.smallbearelec.com/Detail.bok?no=296 for $0.95 a pop, hardly breaking the bank. When I build vintage fuzz reproductions for people, I always use the correct transistors.