Toupee Fuzz (Catalinbread Merkin)

[Hirti]

Build Rating

5.00 star(s)

I still have about 10 pedals that I built last year that still need build reports, so here we go! I already built one of these ages ago when a vero layout for it was first released in something like 2010 or 2011. I was super confused by its sound and sold it again. Here's a picture of my old build (sadly I can't find a gutshot anymore)

For some reason I thought about this pedal again last year and decided to build it again. The Toupee/Merkin is a tweaked Fuzzrite with an additional stage at the output. It's a super nasty, "spatty spaghetti western fuzz sound" kind of thing - "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is a good example. With certain texture settings (higher end of the knob) you can even get some kind of octave-up sounds.
It's a very unique-sounding fuzz, not something that will find a permanent place on my pedalboard, but it's definitely a nice to have fuzz for certain sounds. It's also a fuzz that reacts quite well to rolling down the volume knob on your guitar, and it sounds quite different when using humbuckers vs. single coils.

Build wise it's a very easy build and I once again used the smd relay bypass board by @szukalski.

For the artwork, I wanted something based on my older build of it, so something colorful. One of my favorite bands is City & Colour, and their songs often have amazing fuzz tones (like here at 3:55, though I don't know if they ever used a Fuzzrite). Then I remembered their record Little Hell, which features a picture of a very colorful Dutch tulip field. I started Googling and found a cool picture that I vectorized in Illustrator and had printed on a matte gray sand enclosure by Tayda. Came out really nice and I am very, very happy with the results!

 

[Mentaltossflycoon]

 

[Tobyk]

I still have about 10 pedals that I built last year that still need build reports, so here we go! I already built one of these ages ago when a vero layout for it was first released in something like 2010 or 2011. I was super confused by its sound and sold it again. Here's a picture of my old build (sadly I can't find a gutshot anymore)

For some reason I thought about this pedal again last year and decided to build it again. The Toupee/Merkin is a tweaked Fuzzrite with an additional stage at the output. It's a super nasty, "spatty spaghetti western fuzz sound" kind of thing - "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is a good example. With certain texture settings (higher end of the knob) you can even get some kind of octave-up sounds.
It's a very unique-sounding fuzz, not something that will find a permanent place on my pedalboard, but it's definitely a nice to have fuzz for certain sounds. It's also a fuzz that reacts quite well to rolling down the volume knob on your guitar, and it sounds quite different when using humbuckers vs. single coils.

Build wise it's a very easy build and I once again used the smd relay bypass board by @szukalski.

For the artwork, I wanted something based on my older build of it, so something colorful. One of my favorite bands is City & Colour, and their songs often have amazing fuzz tones (like here at 3:55, though I don't know if they ever used a Fuzzrite). Then I remembered their record Little Hell, which features a picture of a very colorful Dutch tulip field. I started Googling and found a cool picture that I vectorized in Illustrator and had printed on a matte gray sand enclosure by Tayda. Came out really nice and I am very, very happy with the results!

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Nice! For the old green enclosure, which is looking great, how did you make that pattern – stencil and spray paint? If so where did you get the stencil please? New to this..

 

[Hirti]

Honestly, I don't fully remember because it's been such a long time. But if I remember correctly back then I still lived with my parents and I borrowed some of my mums "sewing stencils" (not sure if this is the correct English term) she had laying around and spray painted over it.

 

[Tobyk]

Honestly, I don't fully remember because it's been such a long time. But if I remember correctly back then I still lived with my parents and I borrowed some of my mums "sewing stencils" (not sure if this is the correct English term) she had laying around and spray painted over it.

Cool, looks like water ripples

 

[jwin615]

Honestly, I don't fully remember because it's been such a long time. But if I remember correctly back then I still lived with my parents and I borrowed some of my mums "sewing stencils" (not sure if this is the correct English term) she had laying around and spray painted over it.

Is that why your not with your parents anymore? Kept destroying your mom's stuff making pedals? Kidding. Wonderful looking build! Does it play well with buffered signals?
Interesting circuit as the texture pot blends a bypass of the Q2 stage which would be out of phase.

 

[Hirti]

Might be that I am in my mid 30s now but it might also be because of what you wrote.

Just tested the buffer thing by putting a boss pedal in front. Never really tested this before because I instinctively put all fuzz pedals first in the chain usually. It works fairly well, did not really notice any change in sound expect that it's a bit more noisy.