10 years ago this old 70's(?) Solton GV60 guitar amp came in and I did a 90% part swap , new Carbon Comp resistors and all Caps, etc.
Came in today again for some random tube socket stress fracture issues to some solder spots. I also changed a few jacks, cleaned the pots again + swapped the power cable with a thicker one.
Good to go!
HGE Contraptions 180th build, an LED equipped footswitch for my Carvin V3 head to control the FX Loop bypass as well.
I wired it with silver plated copper bus wires heh.
This head has two fsw in-s, one for the FS44 (which I have, controls the channels and a Boost for the power section), and one for a FS22 switch that controls the Smart Loop&FX Loop on off (which I didn't have). The original FS22 does not have LEDs, but for this specific V3 head also power leds through the TRS jack so I added them to "see" the mirror image of the amp LED switching also on the pedal.
Swapped the tact switches in this Toro DDC-6 station irrigation controller
After:
Tried for fun all sorts of transistors like older C536, Toshiba C828 with lower hfe, you name it (BC209, BC239, BC107,108,109, etc).
In the end still the high hfe 2N5088 in all positions (with Q4 and Q5 matched) like it has stock sounds "the best" -> saying this because the customer wanted it to be a higher gain variant and more "od-ish" than "splatter fuzz" since he already has a Shin Ei FY-6 reissue, so then I also adjusted the internal trimmer for a beefier sound/more od-ish of sorts than that classic indefinite fuzz splatter at any setting (even if the "gating" effect of Q4 and 5 is not present now, so at the expense of some hiss as a tradeoff). A fun pedal to have, since you can just socket and go to town with the trimmer and lower hfe variants like in older superfuzz pedals. I wanted the trimmer out but the customer insisted to leave it inside and adjust to my taste.
Yet another awesome 2in1 pedal: Horizon Devices Precision Drive + Spaceman Effects Atlas III Booster
The Precision Drive is without the noise gate circuit and my version has actually 8 attack controls on the rotary.
For fun, I had some leftover parts which are old/used & measuring somewhat in tolerance, and decided to see what happens. I socketed the transistors and used in the end (after MANY MANY tests), a MPSA12 in Q1 and - Germanium 2N1891 in Q2.
In parallel to the 22uF cap I put on a switch a 1000uF, to have a kind of a "fat gating option". Very cool and powerful sound from such a small enclosure! Can get similar tones to Edwyn Collins - A Girl Like You, or Jack White in Another Way to Die, QOTSA stuff.
The actual tone you get seems to be really dependent and varies greatly based on the pickups, touch, what amp you use, etc. It really transports you back to the 60's/70's, so much fun!
