Burned through 3 transistors on my first fuzz build and I finally figured out why
Last month I decided to build a Fuzz Face clone from a kit I got online, super basic stuff, just 2 transistors and a handful of caps and resistors. I soldered everything up, plugged in, got nothing but a weak hum, and when I checked the transistor legs they were hot enough to sting my finger. Swapped in a new pair and same deal, killed 3 total before it clicked that I had my 9v adapter set to 18v because it shared a jack with my old overdrive. Felt like such an idiot, but at least the transistors were only like 80 cents each. Now I'm paranoid about checking polarity and voltage on everything, but has anyone else fried parts over something dumb like that?