The "32 TB2" pedal...

[fuzzbuzzfuzz]

One for me please!

[sclitheroe]

Thinking on it some more... I could move the knobs down and put it up the top activated left-to-right, like this... this would be the best way to do it.

Knobs would move down maybe 6mm.
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32TB2_mockup5g.jpg

Don't change the design just on my request With it being such a small run though, if I could request the power toggle for mine I would appreciate it - you could even drop it in in place of the LED light if you wanted to recycle a pre-drilled hole by opening it up a bit more (or do you drill press these yourself on small runs?).

[laurie]

Don't change the design just on my request With it being such a small run though, if I could request the power toggle for mine I would appreciate it - you could even drop it in in place of the LED light if you wanted to recycle a pre-drilled hole by opening it up a bit more (or do you drill press these yourself on small runs?).

Happy to do this. I'll put a switch up the top for you.

Yep, these little runs are all hand drilled in my garage (I have a pedestal drill-press).
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Drill press.jpg (85.86 KiB) Viewed 4767 times

[laurie]

PCBs have arrived.
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32TB2_PCB.jpg (30.2 KiB) Viewed 4741 times

[laurie]

Loaded the first PCB. Looks good to me
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32TB2_loaded_PCB.jpg (55.01 KiB) Viewed 4736 times

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32TB2_loaded_PCB2.jpg (61.28 KiB) Viewed 4736 times

[Pepe]

Sorry, BOSS company, but: where exactly are your arguments for such a high price for this simple circuit?

I'm still not interested in a ³²TB2, because someone at ilovefuzz promised me to send his BOSS TB-2 over to me for demo recordings. I'm really satisfied with all the fuzz pedals that I already have.

[laurie]

Sorry, BOSS company, but: where exactly are your arguments for such a high price for this simple circuit?

It's about the hand written gains on the transistors...

There were literally 8 devices out of the 1,000 I tested that will work as Q3. It took nearly 2 days to test the 1,000 devices and rough sort them when I first received them....... plus 992 out of 1,000 can be discarded (or used for something else, like a 32 OD...).

Still. Boss must be able to do it automatically. So, yeah. What they are doing does feel unreasonable.

[sclitheroe]

Sorry, BOSS company, but: where exactly are your arguments for such a high price for this simple circuit?

It's about the hand written gains on the transistors...

There were literally 8 devices out of the 1,000 I tested that will work as Q3. It took nearly 2 days to test the 1,000 devices and rough sort them when I first received them....... plus 992 out of 1,000 can be discarded (or used for something else, like a 32 OD...).

Still. Boss must be able to do it automatically. So, yeah. What they are doing does feel unreasonable.

Question probably belongs in the 32OD thread, but I'm curious about the gains and quality control on these germanium transistors - surely they were not produced with the intention of most of them being unusable or out of spec. Were they designed to be used in circuits where the specific hFE wasn't that important? Or is that the way everyone rolled back in the day, testing and binning thousands of transistors into various hFE ranges? Not questioning the quality of the components you chose, quite the opposite, trying to understand the history of them.

Edit: was it that they were designed to meet a certain minimum hFE, and anything higher was just gravy?

[laurie]

Question probably belongs in the 32OD thread, but I'm curious about the gains and quality control on these germanium transistors - surely they were not produced with the intention of most of them being unusable or out of spec. Were they designed to be used in circuits where the specific hFE wasn't that important? Or is that the way everyone rolled back in the day, testing and binning thousands of transistors into various hFE ranges? Not questioning the quality of the components you chose, quite the opposite, trying to understand the history of them.

Edit: was it that they were designed to meet a certain minimum hFE, and anything higher was just gravy?

The answer is...

• surely they were not produced with the intention of most of them being unusable or out of spec. Indeed not. PNP Germaniums were difficult to make and varied a great deal, even in the same production run. NPN Germaniums were almost impossible to make - which is why all those old pedals are PNP and positive ground.

• So why are there so many actual broken/throw away transistors in your bag of 1,000 (you didn't ask...) I think it is either poor manufacturing QA (low gain, high leakage), or there were many issues with the sealing of the housings, leading to corrosion.

• was it that they were designed to meet a certain minimum hFE, and anything higher was just gravy? Yes. The actual spec of the MP16B on the original Russian spec sheet (below) was gain of between 45 and 100. Anything higher is "out of spec". The reality is that most of the transistors came off the production line at the lower end of the range - high gain was hard to make intentionally, or even accidentally.

• Were they designed to be used in circuits where the specific hFE wasn't that important? Yes. Well designed circuits (like the 32OD, unlike like the old fuzz pedals) can accommodate transistors with different gains.

• Or is that the way everyone rolled back in the day, testing and binning thousands of transistors into various hFE ranges? No... this is a modern thing. Back in the day they just used whatever came out of the parts bin. Over the years it became apparent that certain specific gains sounded better. Back in the day it happened by accident, these days it happens by testing.

Over the years as the need for high gain transistors became apparent most of the devices manufactured and tested to be high gain by reputable manufacturers have been consumed, leaving thin pickings and scammers. I was scammed in the beginning... EVERYthing depends on how you measure the gain. Using a normal multimeter with a transistor testing function will give erroneously high readings because of the leakage in these transistors. The typical scam is to measure the gain on a normal meter, get a high reading of (say) "120" and sell it as a 120 gain device. The reality is that when measured properly with leakage calculated in the gain might be more like 60 or 70.

So what to do if there are no high gain devices to be obtained...? Buy a bag of 1,000 low/medium gain devices and test them all to fish out the out-of-spec high gains devices
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MP16B original sml.jpg (92.09 KiB) Viewed 4699 times

[The_Doc]

Looking good Laurie. This is very interesting and I can really appreciate the work that you put into making your pedals.