# Carbon Black Fuzz with video



## Danbieranowski (Feb 28, 2021)

I’ve had this board for a while and I finally got around to making it. Decided to go with the blacked out theme with a nice Gorva enclosure and black knobs/stamps. I didn’t have 2n3903s so I did some searching and found that the 2222As sounded good, so that’s what you’re hearing here. Also didn’t have a 46k resistor so I went with a 47k. I found the “Top” knob didn’t really do too much although it IS audible. Biased the trimpot to 4.5v and that was that. Altogether an easy and very good sounding pedal!


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## cooder (Feb 28, 2021)

Great build and an all knobs on 11 demo. Righteous Fuzz.


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## finebyfine (Mar 1, 2021)

this is heavy as hell, awesome job. Glad to see the 2222 is a good substitute, my board is just waiting on the trimpot then


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## Bobbyd67 (Mar 2, 2021)

I tried 3906 and 2222 and it sounded ok, but when I finally got my 3903's it really came alive. A lot smoother but still a wall of fuzz, hard to describe but IMO it's was really worth the 1 month wait from aliexpress plus it was really cheap ^^. now I got a bunch of new low gain npn's to try out  I am thinking of trying them out in some zvex circuits like the fuzzolo or mastodon/mastrotion ^^


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## mdc (Mar 2, 2021)

I'd suggest either swapping out the 'top' pot for a higher value to make that control more useful or just bypassing the tone section altogether and leaving it wide open as a 2-knob.

The stock pot cuts the LPF off at around 2900Hz, a 50K pot = 1450Hz, a 100K = 725Hz. By comparison, I think the filter on a rat will sweep down into the mid 400 range.

The 2N3903 does work really nicely in this circuit—I also got good results from 2N3440 which are even lower gain than 3903; swapping in NPN Ge also worked nicely but wasn't really a noticeable improvement to my ears over the Si.


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## Danbieranowski (Mar 2, 2021)

Bobbyd67 said:


> I tried 3906 and 2222 and it sounded ok, but when I finally got my 3903's it really came alive. A lot smoother but still a wall of fuzz, hard to describe but IMO it's was really worth the 1 month wait from aliexpress plus it was really cheap ^^. now I got a bunch of new low gain npn's to try out  I am thinking of trying them out in some zvex circuits like the fuzzolo or mastodon/mastrotion ^^


That Zvex Mastodon is wild!


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## Bobbyd67 (Mar 2, 2021)

Danbieranowski said:


> That Zvex Mastodon is wild!


I just realized that the mastodon doesn't exist what I meant is the woolly mammoth xD


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## Danbieranowski (Mar 2, 2021)

Bobbyd67 said:


> I just realized that the mastodon doesn't exist what I meant is the woolly mammoth xD


I knew what you meant Bc it’s called the Mastodon through GuitarPCB. Built one and it was very heavy.


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## SShaley (Dec 30, 2021)

So glad I found this thread and I love the look of your build @Danbieranowski! I have a Carbon Black PCB and parts on the way. I scavenged almost all of the components, including the trimmer from broken electronics. I plan on doing something similar in appearance except with black fluted knobs with glow in the dark pointers, 125b enclosure, and yellow led. Can't wait!


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