Building a fuzz factory / DIY pedals

It's a pretty easy build. Take your time. Make sure your solder joints are good. You'll enjoy the process and the results, no doubt.
 
Get a little exhaust fan with filter for the fumes. Amazon has good ones for like $20 or so. You can see it suck in all the leaded solder fumes

And don’t use the fancy EU solder, harder to melt and get good joints, the leaded American stuff is better, just don’t breathe it too much
 
I’m learning components and how they work one by one , the thing that make me scratch my head are the germanium transistors , there is a way to plug them, not like the resistors but I don’t see a + and - . They are 3 « leg » and 2 solutions to plug them so . Hm. Why am I doing this ?
 
The Q1 , Q2, Q3 . Here you put the transistors but… 🤔
My goddd . How do I know?
 

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My name is mud said:
I’m learning components and how they work one by one , the thing that make me scratch my head are the germanium transistors , there is a way to plug them, not like the resistors but I don’t see a + and - . They are 3 « leg » and 2 solutions to plug them so . Hm. Why am I doing this ?
Click to expand...
What's the part code on them? Figuring out which leg is the emitter and which is the collector depends on the part. Middle leg is the base.
 
iaresee said:
What's the part code on them? Figuring out which leg is the emitter and which is the collector depends on the part. Middle leg is the base.
Click to expand...
They are both ac125 , one got 4M on the top and the other HM , it is difficult to read . There is nothing more than I8V1 (?) on there but …
 
My name is mud said:
They are both ac125 , one got 4M on the top and the other HM , it is difficult to read . There is nothing more than I8V1 (?) on there but …
Click to expand...
Does it have a metal tab sticking out of the edge of the package? If so, the leg closest to the tab is the emitter.
 
iaresee said:
Does it have a metal tab sticking out of the edge of the package? If so, the leg closest to the tab is the emitter.
Click to expand...
Also we are ok that these are « + » ?

Sorry I’m really a beginner at this , I try to eliminate all my questions before starting anything F76E9E4A-BCF3-491F-9299-3FD4EB1D8A89.jpeg
 
Electrolytic capacitors should have one side marked with a negative.

There are some YouTube’s on how to check your pin out with a multimeter in your transistors. Pin out will be different if it is PNP vs NPN.

If you are going to build a lot of different things, a component tester is real handy for pin outs and measuring resistors and caps if you don’t want to read the codes. You can’t accurately test HFE of germanium with these things though.

A78C39DC-386F-43F6-8BC9-B440C5F60A0B.jpeg
There is a YouTube channel DIY Guitar Pedals that has a lot of good content including a lot of beginner advice
 
My name is mud said:
Also we are ok that these are « + » ?

Sorry I’m really a beginner at this , I try to eliminate all my questions before starting anything View attachment 113495
Click to expand...
Those spots are for capictors. They have two legs. And the must be oriented correcly for them to charge and discharge correctly. One of the legs will have a mark near it, or be longer, etc. Something to help you figure out which leg is the positive terminal and which is the negative terminal side of the capacitor. How you figure that out depends on the type of capacitor: https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/capacitor/cap_2.html
 
iaresee said:
Those spots are for capictors. They have two legs. And the must be oriented correcly for them to charge and discharge correctly. One of the legs will have a mark near it, or be longer, etc. Something to help you figure out which leg is the positive terminal and which is the negative terminal side of the capacitor. How you figure that out depends on the type of capacitor: https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/capacitor/cap_2.html
Click to expand...
Yes but you see in the pcb there is a half « + » in the location of the capacitors, I just wanted to be sure that is was a « + » . The included capa got the - on them with luck
 
My name is mud said:
Yes but you see in the pcb there is a half « + » in the location of the capacitors, I just wanted to be sure that is was a « + » . The included capa got the - on them with luck
Click to expand...
I “think” those are pluses, it looks like the solder points went over the markings when they made the PCB? If you are able trace the routing of the PCB on the other side, you may be able to locate where those components are on the schematic and confirm polarity
 
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