tonepad -- build reports for Ampeg Scrambler

Name:	Oli Brown
Date:	3/18/2010
Build Report:	I built the Scrambler this morning and I have to say thanks to Francisco for such a great board - it soldered beautifully. I did the C3 polarity swap (thanks for that tip) - no popping. I tried the MPSA14s first but to me the 2N5306 transistors gave me a clearer octave up. I used 2N3904 for Q2 and 4148s for diodes.It sounded great - the upper octave is so sweet above the 12th fret but there was a bit of a volume drop from bypass to effect. The only enclosure I had was a 3 knob one so I figured I might as well stick a clean boost with volume in series after it. I used Renegadrians (tiny) SHO vero layout from Aron Nelsons site. Because the blend allows you to dial the fuzz effect right out you effectively get an SHO and Scrambler in the same box without needing a switch. But when you run the Scrambler and SHO at the same time the tone is amazing - really biting attack and a pure wall of sound when the harmonic distortion is dialled up. I also stuck a voltage starve in the box (100k pot in line with power) - it affects both circuits. Rolling back to about 75-80% voltage gives you an almost metal sounding distortion, although past about 65% volume the Scrambler effect seems to die out and you only get a starved SHO (which still sounds pretty cool to me for gated fuzz chaos). Anyway thanks again for the superb site and board. By the way if anyone from Europe needs 2n5306s I got mine from http://www.musikding.de very cheaply.

Name:	John Biggs
Date:	12/15/2009
Build Report:	First off, I have to say thank you for posting this schematic! This was my first build from scratch after many years of modding pedals. I opted to freehand the circuit using a fine point paint marker. I picked it up at an art supply store, and it worked great. My first board didn't work out because I left the etchant on too long. The second attempt went much smoother. I was able to source a lot of material locally, but of course Small Bear was a great help also!

Name:	SunburnedGoat
Date:	12/6/2009
Build Report:	Built this today. I'm glad that I checked the build reports to learn about the inverted C3 before soldering it in. Board soldered like a dream. Very nice quality. Now, for sound: holy bathshit! On the neck pup, yes, you get a beautiful octave up. But on the bridge, you can get a more gnarly straight fuzz tone, and possibly even use it as your main tone. I did tonight at practice and my bandmates were floored. They were flipping out about how good it sounded. Setup was Armstrong Plexi > Scrambler > Electric Amp 120 MV. Thick, nasty bliss.

Name:	dan roy
Date:	11/1/2009
Build Report:	just wanted to update, I've had a chance to experiment with transistors. I left the 2n2222A in, but changed the other three in and out and got different results. Central 2N5306 are very bright, almost piercing, and have tons of gain, which is nice with a strat. Fairchild 2N5306 were nice a bit darker, pretty low gain, though. BC517 didn't work. 2N5089 were medium/low gain with good tone. I must have hit some kind of magic spot with the 2N3904... the gain is a bit low with a strat, and you lose a little of the pronounced octave effect you get with some of the other transistors, but the tone is so smooth and overdrive-ish, a lot more natural sounding than the Central 2n5306. kind of similar to the ToneFrenzy sample. I have to boost it with a Micro Amp (also tonepad!) or a Double Muff to get a strong sound with a strat, but the sound is just wonderful, reminds me of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, big fuzzy thick sound with good definition, almost metal. I'm thinking about building a booster to put inside this pedal and adding a switch and a third knob for "boost", as I feel being limited to one gain setting is a bit...limiting. and it would be nice not to have to set up two pedals to get one sound. anyhow! some of the other comments below started to make a lot more sense when I got different transistors in there. I wonder if hFE matching is at work here? my multimeter doesn't want to work with that function, so I'll have to report back later if I can figure anything out. I've just heard that poor transistor matching can lead to the "gating" type sound, and the 2N3904 seemed to reduce this just a bit compared to the other choices. matching who knows??

Name:	dan roy
Date:	10/24/2009
Build Report:	I initially used the MPSA14 transistors and got a useless permanently oscillating sound, very noisy and scary. I socketed the transistors and then tried 2N5306 (as used in the original ampeg schematic) and it works fine now. I used a 2N222 for Q2, works fine. Other than that there were no problems in the build, the circuit board is very small and a little cramped, but very well built and easy to work with. I like the solder mask. ordered several pcbs from tonepad, this is the first I've built I did also have the loud popping when switching on and off. As noted in the previous posts here, C3 is backwards, in the schematic and on the PCB itself. you need to flip it around so the + side goes to the emitter of Q1 (you can trace this on the schematic pretty easily). I flipped it and no more pop! the effect is very "noisy" (it's whisper quiet when you're not playing, what I mean is it's a kind of strange tone), very hard clipping. a little more natural with the blend dialed back a bit. cool octave/ringmod stuff going on with the texture control. glassy fuzz overall, no sustain...at all. at least with a strat. I'm going to try it with a micro amp in front and see if I can toy with the gain that way. can't wait to try it on bass! very fun project, recommended

Name:	Arturo Arriaga
Date:	8/24/2009
Build Report:	Saludos desde Mexico, hace mas o menos un mes que decidi hacer este pedal, y la verdad fue muy sencillo, nunca he tenido la oportunidad de probar el pedal original, pero este clon suena muy bien, los componentes fueron faciles de conseguir, gracias Francisco

Name:	K
Date:	3/11/2009
Build Report:	An update for you: I built a second Scrambler (because I like it so much), this time socketing the 3 controversial diodes. There was VERY LITTLE DIFFERENCE between having the 2 diodes and the 5 diodes.

Name:	Kyle
Date:	1/19/2009
Build Report:	I agree with John below. I built this expecting insanity, and yes the insanity is available if you crank both knobs (it actually sounds very similar to a Green Ringer when set like this). This is, however, a VERY MUSICAL distortion device throughout its entire control range. It's distortion has a very unique flavor. Check out the manual for a good description of what the Scrambler is capable of: http://www.ampeg.com/manuals/Scrambler%20dist%20pedal.pdf. Essentially, it adds harmonics to your sound. The texture knob controls the type of harmonics and the balance/blend knob controls how much of them you hear versus your normal signal. Those demo videos on Youtube are not the least bit representative of what this sounds like and the Tonefrenzy clip only touches on some of it. I think saying it "sounds like doom" is not an accurate description at all! Of note: I did not use all five diodes as specified in the schematic but rather just the two that were used in the actual original pedals as reported by those who have looked inside them. I only have three dirt boxes on my board out of the dozen or so I've built and dozen more I've bought over the years: a germanium Fuzz Face, a Minibooster, and the Scrambler.

Name:	Dan Kistner
Date:	5/29/2008
Build Report:	"WOW!!!" is nearly all I can say... I've built many FX on my own and this baby is one of my favs... Worked immediately, great layout!!! THANX TONEPAD!!!

Name:	Emiel
Date:	3/24/2008
Build Report:	DOOOOOOOOOOOOM! i play in a stoner/sludge band and this baby is just what i needed. use it on bass with an all tube bass amp and it growls and barks like a german shepard on speed. build was easy, worked instantly. thanks again!

Name:	John
Date:	10/11/2007
Build Report:	After reading build reports, reviews and listening to available sound clips of the Ampeg Scrambler, I decided to build this circuit. I wasn't expecting much more than a novelty or at best an effect useful only for very heavy music. However, this circuit is rather remarkable in it's versatility. and its musical usefulness runs far deeper than what I've read and heard in most places. Aside from the more obvious and easily accessible out-of-control sounds and the octave effect, I'm fascinated with some of the otherworldly mellower sounds achievable with the two knobs in conjunction with controls onboard the guitar. For instance, with the Texture turned all the way up, Blend about three quarters of the way up, if you back off the volume control on your guitar you can get almost a melting, chorusy sound (from Mars) as the guitar's harmonics and unit's differential distortion play against each other. This circuit is clearly intended to be used with the full range of the controls onboard your guitar, and it takes a little while to learn how to use the circuit even though it has only two knobs. It's time well-spent, however, and I would highly recommend this circuit to anyone playing a variety of styles. And also to weird people. :) I tried a bunch of different modifications to the circuit to improve the blend control, but in the end I preferred the stock circuit. (Hint: You can use your guitar's controls to tweak the blend as well.) The two knobs on the unit cover a LOT of sonic ground. Amazing!

Name:	Amnoss
Date:	6/5/2007
Build Report:	Thi is my first, pedal review and it's my 4th stompbox, i ever made. I used BC517, instead lf 2N5306 and BC596, instead of BC169B. This pedal may produce sounds varying from a cute fuzz, to a chaotic distortion. i like its sound very much. the only problem is a volume loss when i turn it on.

Name:	Paul
Date:	2/18/2007
Build Report:	At mid range settings you can get a nice fuzz sound. I put this in a box with a blue box and octvia.

Name:	Robert
Date:	1/8/2007
Build Report:	Great project that worked right off the bat. Built with 2n3904 and astronomical gain 2n5306. Also BAV19 diodes (reference for 1N456). I did not include the orange diodes. Nice sound and controls. Texture goes from mellow to searing and the blend lets you bring some body back into the sound. I advocate this over the Octavia for octave fuzz it is much easier to get usable sounds out of and a smaller build. Definitely not as picky about input volume, tone, fingering, or transistor selection. It does not have the desireable idiosyncrasies of the octavia, but will knock out a decent Purple Haze. I Also listen to Leon C (above) pertaining to C3 + to E and no pop. Definitely a Recommended build. Thanks Tonepad First-class projects!

Name:	Pushtone
Date:	4/5/2006
Build Report:	This was my second project a few years back. Worked great , no build issues. About its sound... To get the best sound out of a Scrambler I already knew to use the neck pickup and play notes above the 7th fret. But I just learned another trick, turn the TONE pot all the way down. Wow, now I really hear the "synth-sound" of the Scrambler. Like a distorted mono analog synth. IMHO, If your not using the neck PUP with the tone turned down then your not hearing the Scrambler.

Name:	Alex
Date:	3/20/2006
Build Report:	This was my second project, after a tonepad Big Muff. Again, the project was suprisingly trouble free. I was a bit confused about the pinouts of the transistors, until I realised you could just leave one of the holes empty, depending on the type of pinout. The pedal worked first time, and without any pops when switched, so I assume the schematic has been updated. I can see why the Scrambler is a love or hate thing, you certainly couldn't use it al the time, but it is pleasing in a hooligan kind of way.

Name:	sk8federico
Date:	11/4/2005
Build Report:	ARG.-_-.SK8FEDERICO.-_-.ARG bueno hablo desde artgentina para decir que hice este increible pedal y suena de la hoztia, todos los componentes los consegui muy facilmente y en un dia estampe la placa la perfore solde y me uqedaron 2 horitas para probarlo. muy recomendable

Name:	Leon Cook
Date:	3/4/2005
Build Report:	This is my second scrambler clone but in the first report it was on a board from generalguitargadgets but what i said should would apply to this version. i used 2n5306 transistors (mouser# 610-2n5306) the pinout is ECB with the flat side facing you. it worked perfectly but it popped with switching. phillip from fuzzcentral said, "The Tonepad layout has the 1uF capacitor on the emitter of Q1 (C3 on the schematic) turned around the wrong way, which reverse biases the capacitor, causing a LOT of voltage to leak onto the switch, causing a very loud pop. The (+) lead of the 1uF capacitor should be facing into the emitter of Q1...NOT the (-) side. The original factory schematic showed that capacitor turned the wrong way, so it was drawn that way on FP's layout too." i did what phillip said now it works without the pop. Wierd & exciting pedal, extremly rare which makes it a good candidate for a clone. leon

Name:	Sebastián E. Peyrott
Date:	11/12/2004
Build Report:	Nice effect. Strange, as stated in the descripion, but really cool. It should have had more comercial success in the past, but, well, who knows... If you are looking for an effects pedal that gives you a range of sounds that goes from a soft overdrive to a crazy harmonically-distorted hard-clip, then go and build this! The board design is clean and neat, and the components are easy to find!

Name:	leon cook
Date:	5/14/2004
Build Report:	built this a while back. It seemed tame at first but thats because i was comparing it to the tycobrahe octavia. 2n5306 are not common in the uk so i used bc517(darlington) because i've heard they worked for other people. but they didn't work for me. i checked the pinout was right which it was but it was useless so i used some 5089s insted and used 2 diodes. Havent compared it to sound samples but it makes a good octave sound.

Name:	Bill Bergman
Date:	5/2/2002
Build Report:	Ammending previous report. .....maybe not the best octave but certainly better than most. FP I still would like to hear a sound sample to see if my fuzz is fuzzing as it should be.

Name:	Bill Bergman
Date:	4/23/2002
Build Report:	It's got a nice sweet octave with good control and a mild fuzz to fairly wild fuzz. At first I thought it was a little too tame but actually that just because it doesn't boost the volume level. Nice layout also. It's worth building especially for the Octave, probably one of the better octaves that I've built and I've built several Bobtavias, Roger Mayer's octavia,ToneMachine,Omnidrive and a few others.