Fuzz - my first stopmbox

[überfuzz]

I'm planing to build a fuzz pedal but I'm not 100% on what to build. The idea is to build a fuzz stomp-box that sounds like this: great single guitar string fuzz line.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[52 Bill]

I didn't look at the video yet, but the fuzz circuit that you build will be influenced by the type of guitar and pickups that you are using. What guitar and pickups do you plan to use to get this sound?

[Justin Thomas]

My personal favorite fuzztones were from Strats-thru-loud-amps. Dave Gilmour (Big Muff) & Jimi (not sure). Don't anyone hit me for not knowing what Hendrix used! I found it hard to pick out the fuzztine in the video, cuz there was a lot going on amd I only have tablet speakers. My Champ with the everloving crap driven out ofnit sounds pretty darn fuzzy, too. There's a spot on Live @ Leeds where Pete either steps on something or hits a switch, and it's fuzz city. I like thay sound, too.

There's a few Perennial Favorites, and oodles of less successful "oddities..." I myself gravitate towards oddities. Also, make sure you can get a lot of BAD sounds out of it - that ensures the boundaries are wide enouh to get YOU out of it.

Justin

[überfuzz]

I found some russian germanium transistors on ebay, GT308V (don't know the Cyrillic letters). I'll start out with a Fuzz Face:ish circuit and see whether I can tinker it to my liking.

The thing is I used to play fuzz guitar in a band (the band in the video). I used an überclean bright Hagstöm transistor amplifier with a Rickenbacker 330. I'm not going to play this kind of music, just add some flavour to stuff I do these days. Well I don't have any good sounding transistor amplifier for starters, so I have the settle for a tube amp. So the set up is off right from the start, but I think I should be able to get close... With a little luck maybe.

[g1]

It can be tough when you have to "settle for a tube amp" .

[Audiotexan]

My personal favorite fuzztones were from Strats-thru-loud-amps. Dave Gilmour (Big Muff) & Jimi (not sure). Don't anyone hit me for not knowing what Hendrix used! I found it hard to pick out the fuzztine in the video, cuz there was a lot going on amd I only have tablet speakers.

Jimi used (primarily) a Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face which was later modified by Roger Mayer (sp?) IIRC...

And 2nd the 'hard to pick out'...only a couple brief sections give any decent indication of the guitar fuzz.

Personally, I'd recommend the fuzz portion of the Nu-Wa/Nu-Fuzz circuit (which was built slightly after the Mosrite Fuzz-Rite -both by Ed Sanner). I've owned one for at least 25-30 years now, and love it for "classic dirt". Mine is BONE STOCK and was made in '69 (according to the CTS pots, and I've got an old catalog verifying the transistors -at least in the wah portion- in it that were sold in 68-70)!
I've thought a couple of times about putting it up on eBay after seeing some go for $400-500...but even still, so far, I can't part with the idea of not having it.

Here's a nice little page I found some time ago about various fuzz units that might help.. A Fuzz and Muff pedal Timeline

Also, I haven't verified it, because the fuzz section in my '69 uses the encapsulated version pcb that was done by Sprague.

Although, the wah portion was still on a traditional etched board.

There's AT LEAST 4 versions/variations of the original Mosrite that I've found in documenting the one's I've seen for sale/passed in front of me...

Here's a schem (using a 2n2613, and a 2N408) for the Mosrite (v1c - germanium) of which there were approx. only 250 made with the black footswitch according to what I've read. After that, they changed a few things (most notably the footswitch).

Schem:


board top:


board bottom:


Regards,
AT

PS: Germanium is the only way to go if you like the Fuzz Face/Tone Bender type fuzz...silicon sounds too 'surfy' to my ears.

[TomCarlos]

Long long ago... I had a Univox Super Fuzz Pedal - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qces1CdLmD0

You can buy a kit to make it. Here is a schematic... might be close to the original. http://generalguitargadgets.com/pdf/...perfuzz_sc.pdf

[Mick Bailey]

The Maestro FZ-1 is the definitive fuzz for me. I built one from Russian transistors (needs biasing tweaks as Russian germanium transistors are incredibly low leakage and don't self-bias) and it sounds exactly like this;

Maestro Gibson FZ-1 Tone Bender tonebender Fuzz Tone - YouTube

Be careful with buying Russian transistors - there are a lot of very low gain examples nowadays, as the best stuff gets picked over. Do your research first and understand exactly what you're buying. Make sure you do understand the makings; B and V are often confused (the same with C and S).

[52 Bill]

I found some russian germanium transistors on ebay, GT308V (don't know the Cyrillic letters). I'll start out with a Fuzz Face:ish circuit and see whether I can tinker it to my liking.

The basic fuzz face circuit is very modifiable and can sound smooth, harsh, sweet, raunchy, bright, bassy or almost anything you want to make it. When I build them, I will start by building the circuit on a point to point breadboard. That way I can substitute resistors, caps and transistors until I'm happy with the tone and then I'll pull all of the parts and install them into the final pc board.

Changing the values of the input and output caps can give you fairly wide tonal changes. Changing resistors will change the distortion levels and feel, and will depend upon the actual transistors in the circuit.

Have fun!

[überfuzz]

Thanks for all the input!

I really like the sound of that Gibson thingy. I'll have to look up the schematics.

About the Russian transistors. I think I know what I ordered. Anyhow, I can always measure them before I start to mess around with them. Or, maybe just raise the idle current through them by altering the anode resistor (or whatever it's called in transistor circuitry).

[Mick Bailey]

When I get a batch of transistors in I check through them for gain and bag them into low, medium, high with the lower and upper values for each range marked on the bag. Pinouts on some Russian transistors are unusual, plus there are a few with a 4th leg connected to the isolated case for screening.

A DMM with hfe function works fine for grading, as there's no significant leakage to skew the reading like standard germanium transistors.

[überfuzz]

It can be tough when you have to "settle for a tube amp" .

Well, yeah, when youre looking for the perfect fuzz sound tube amps don't quite cut it. In addition to this I don't think my GF will support me getting yet another amp. At least i don't dare testing this hypotesis...

[überfuzz]

So I got the gt308:s and measured them. They diverge quite a bit. It is however within the specifications under which I bought them.

     Leakage [µA]      hef
1    16.7              58.9
2    25.1              82.2
3    25.1              66.2
4    20.9              71.3
5    40.8              85.4

They all seem fairly good to me. Any advice on how I should pick the tranys for my build?

[52 Bill]

They all seem fairly good to me. Any advice on how I should pick the tranys for my build?

Go to R.G.Keen's Geofx site and read his piece on the Fuzz Face and how to match transistors, etc. He's already done all of the hard work on this question.

[überfuzz]

Go to R.G.Keen's Geofx site and read his piece on the Fuzz Face and how to match transistors, etc. He's already done all of the hard work on this question.

Yes, seems like good stuff. He even has a trany test outlined.