Friday, November 6, 2015

Russian "Civil War" Red Army Overdrive Big Muff Sovtek EH.

I used the GuitarPCB.com PCB for this build.  I also used their parts list.  Came out sounding exactly like what I'm hearing on YouTube from the vintage originals.  I used a BC549C transistor.

I tried some film caps at first, but it didn't sound right, too clear.  Then I replaced anything I could with ceramic and/or multilayer ceramic capacitors for all the coupling caps and small value caps.  The sound got a lot more nasty, mean, crude, and good with a heavy application of ceramic fidelity.

I built two of these, one of them speaks slightly more in the treble, the other is very slightly more bass oriented.  Perhaps from differences in part tolerance.  This one's going to a friend, on commission, woohoo!

What a nasty, awful fuzz tone, I love it.  Very different from, say, a Ram's Head.  I was surprised how different, actually.  Think Pulse Tour from David Gilmour as opposed to The Wall.  Also think bowel liquefying low end.  I love cramming a big circuit like this into a tiny enclosure, bonus points.

Another lazy/fast breakthrough I had is using super glue as a clear coat over the font.  It doesn't work with Sharpie markers (see fuzzy dissolved control knob names) but works just fine over any sort of paint or paint marker (the blue and purple stuff).  I spread it as thin as I could with a toothpick and it looks fine.  Way better than clear tape (shudder...don't ask).  Don't put the glue on too thick or it can peel up around the edges.  Also watch out for those fumes, ouch!





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