DEMO Wegemite - A gated germanium Fuzzrite in a wedge enclosure

This post contains an audio or video demo

andare

Well-known member
Build Rating
3.00 star(s)
Here's my most satisfying and simultaneously my mostly frustrating build to date: another germanium Fuzzrite.

The silicon Fuzzrite was the first circuit I breadboarded. I instantly fell in love with its buzzy, thin sound.
I since built a germanium version that is IMO the superior circuit. This pedal sounds amazing but the signal to noise ratio is too low and single coil hum is unbearably loud.

I started experimenting with some GT404B transistors that are NPN and lo and behold, they are gated. No more hum. I knew this circuit needed a special enclosure so I commissioned a wedge from our resident metal bender @temol
Here it is:

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Cheap greenies, a mix of carbon film and carbon comp resistors (what I had on hand), Alpha pots and Lumberg jacks.

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I built it on a 2x8 eyelet board using this layout:

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Completely stock with the addition of a 10nF cap at the input to filter out some noise, a pulldown resistor and a Bass pot.
The transistors have a gain between 90 and 100 and leakage around 280uA.
Dual power supply. No difference in tone between the battery and the power supply, though I did hear a difference on the breadboard. The toggle switch turns the battery on and off so I can leave it plugged in.

The enclosure is amazing. Not only is it extremely well made, the finish has a beautiful texture. I highly recommend Temol's work. He helped me find the best position for the holes and then I added holes for the board mounting bolts, the Bass knob and the LED.
I mean look at this thing:

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Numbered knobs courtesy of my Epiphone Coronet.

I had a bunch of issues with this build. The first board didn't work properly. Engaging the second transistor dropped gain and volume. In the end I trashed it, recovered the transistors and built a new board more carefully. However I must've burned the footswitch because the board output was always connected.
Once I fixed that I realized that the volume pot wasn't going down to zero. So I replaced it but the new one has a longer shaft than the Tone pot, so the Volume knob sticks out. I'll have to file it down one of these days.

Anyway this is an extremely usable Fuzzrite: it sounds great, it gets to unity (and above with Bass turned up) and it's gated so I can use it with single coils and a P90.

Here's a quick demo of both Ge Fuzzrites featuring some noodling on familiar riffs and a modern riff I came up with. The blue Fuzzrite sounds amazing, the Wegemite sounds better. At the very end you can hear how the blue one cleans up, the Wegemite farts out :)

 
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Sounds & looks really good!
 
Just found this - it looks killer! Love the enclosure too. Have you tried the Aclam Mocker? I suspect you might like it. It sounds a lot better than any demos I have heard. The Spooky Tooth is a good one too.
 
Just found this - it looks killer! Love the enclosure too. Have you tried the Aclam Mocker? I suspect you might like it. It sounds a lot better than any demos I have heard. The Spooky Tooth is a good one too.
I haven't but RJ Ronquillo's demo sounded good. I'm a fan of broken fuzzes :)
 
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