Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Hi! First of all, I am new here (kind of, I am surfing on the website about some months but now I finally registered). My name is Tamir and my English is not very well, it is not my local language, so I am sorry if I melt your eyes with my English .

I'll get to the thing.
As a many years Gilmour fan I understand that I need a good Muff as well.
Currently I have a local (Israel) boutique Germanium Fuzz Face (Arielfx, if you've heard about them) which doesn't fit my needs (late era of Gilmour tones) and also doesn't sound good on my Solid-State amp, so I am going to sell it.

I am into building pedals and have build some (well, little things on Veroboards), and very interested in the Large Beaver.
You sure know all the variants of the Big muff and know it can realy confuse.
I have read (and heard) that the Triangle Large Beaver is not exactly what I need, and it is brighter than the Ram's head and a slightly different altough it is good as well.
I am trying to achieve the ultimate Gilmourish Muff tone and if I decided on building it, I think it should be close as I can.

I have a Talking-Too-Much-Problem as you can see. So I'll try to make it short.
I want to build a Ram's Head clone (closest clone as I can, not something that sound like...) on the Large Beaver PCB. I saw a few schematics, and parts lists on GGG, searched this forum and saw these links:

http://pisotones.com/BigMuffPi/psst/BMP_versions.htm
http://www.bmfeffects.com/byoc_large_beaver_mods.htm

and got pretty confused, each source tells other things.
What part should I buy to build a kind of exact clone for the Ram's head muff? I don't want to buy a Beaver kit and mod it, I want to build a Ram directly.

I see so many different transistors for the Ram, and resistors and caps as well.
Please Guide me about what it is recommended to buy for this clone because I have a big headache.

Thanks mates, just for reading it.

All you need to do is take a look at the schematics for the Big Muff versions you mention to realize that they're all essentially the same circuit with some minor component value differences. So, the Large Beaver PCB is an excellent platform on which to build any of these.

Please see this thread...

http://board.buildyourownclone.com/viewtopic.php?t=5449

where Triangles and Ram's Head versions were discussed. As mentioned in that thread, all of the Ram's Heads I've seen used 2N5133s, and the ones I've built with these transistors sound great and very authentic.

Already read this topic but I didn't understand a few things. I think now I under stand, so please, correct me if you can.

Whan I need to do for th Ram's Head version is:

- Socket 2N5133 Transistors
- Keep the 4 1N914 Diodes as the are
- Populate Resistors and Capacitors as mentioned here
- Do the Following 2 Changes:

1. Solder on the top of the PCB a 100k Resistor like here:



(I saw it on your pcb but didn't understand something, what is that long black cover on the top resistor's lead?)

2. Replace the 390k resistor with a 560 pico farade like here:



And that's it? no need to change from NPN to PNP and stuff?

That's heat-shrink tubing, to prevent the lead of the resistor from shorting on anything.



No. The resistor is not replaced - it must remain. The 560pf cap bridges the existing resistor on top. This is pictured on my board in the other thread. After you install the resistor normally, tie and solder one leg of the cap to one leg of the resistor (it doesn't matter which, as these are non-polarized components), and then do the other.



Correct. Only the very first Triangle Big Muffs were PNP. All the rest, including the 2nd version Triangle that the Large Beaver is patterned after, were NPN.

Oh, there is a resistor under the cap Kinda hard to see.
I asked about the PNP and NPN stuff because I saw on the Pisetones link that it says:

"Ram's Head
Traced by AMZ

PNP transistors, 2N5087"

anyway, I checked the sheet of the 2N5133 and it is not our case
Thanks a lot Rog. You put some order in my mind

BTW, I think it will be easier to solder those external components on the bottom side of the board directly on their solders

I suppose that would work, but I'd prefer to top-mount any day.