pingpongcomputer
Well-known member
It took me too long since finding these forums to explore @Chuck D. Bones Boneyard, so much great info in there. I haven't built any of the classic fuzz circuits yet and the Buzzaround seemed like a great place to start. @finebyfine made some nice boards for the Chuckaround circuit and graciously sent me a couple and it was an easy/enjoyable build. I haven't taken out any of the sockets because I'm still waiting on some different soviet transistors from Bulgaria, but it's working well and holding stable with the leakiest(220uA) MP35 I had on hand in Q2 coupled with an ITT 1n34 for the diode, and a J112 in Q3. The only part that bothers me is that Chuck specified 3-6V for the source voltage on Q3 and out of 10 each J111 and J112 I only got a couple of J112's that come in a little over 3V, everything else was at least 500mV over or under. The pedal works fine and sounds great, but having that voltage(whose function I don't even understand) at the bottom of the specified range hurts my damaged brain. It's picking up some RF, but I'm guessing that's from all the sockets and long leads which will be remedied when I decide on the final components, trim leads, and solder it all in place.
I'm been having fun playing with UV prints that let some of the painted enclosure underneath show through, so I did it from the lettering and a little representations of each of the 3 transistors used in the build. The main artwork is a SD generated/photoshop collage of a sexy android/space lady smoking on an alien moon, the only obvious choice. It's hidden behind a spoiler blur because of stylized android boobs. I need to work on doing better envelope distortions for the text so the curves match the knobs. Metallic candy red paint job, UV print, and big red aluminum knobs from Tayda.
Next up is the DEFX Subarishi, which is a clone of the smallsound/bigsound Team Awesome Fuzz Machine. It has unseated the modded hyped fuzz as my new favorite fuzz, it's also my most recently completed fuzz and the two usually go hand in hand. It's a nicely versatile circuit, independent control of gain, fuzz, and volume, along with a clean blend makes is capable of many fuzz sounds. I really like running the Chuckaround with fuzz at about 9 o'clock in front and a little bit of clean blend on the TAFM to add some sparkle and harmonics with the tone control rolled back on the TAFM for a mostly sludgy sound that still pops out a bit and can shine on single notes with a harder attack. It also have a switchable input buffer turned on or off by internal dip switch, I like it on. There's a mid toggle that interacts with the shape knob for different mid emphasis, and a phase toggle that reverses the phase of the clean signal coming through with the clean blend. I used GT320B's for both of the Ge transistors, they had low enough leakage and fit the specified gain ranges. Everything biased correctly, there's a little back and forth between the two trim pots, sort of like biasing a push pull tube amp, but not difficult.
I may have mixed this up with the SSBS Buzzz when making the art because I went with a smoky/hazy interpretation of the Dopethrone cover. Cream Tayda paint job and UV print. I would have preferred a vertical 1590 layout with the knobs less crammed together along the top, but the sound is worth it and I didn't have to learn how do vero board.
Edit: that 1uf input cap above the left footswitch is gone. When I first built this I used a bag of 330pf film caps mislabeled as 330nf and things didn't work or sound great, and it was super thin, so I threw in a big input cap to add bass. With the correct values in it sounds much better and the stock value input cap works fine.
I'm been having fun playing with UV prints that let some of the painted enclosure underneath show through, so I did it from the lettering and a little representations of each of the 3 transistors used in the build. The main artwork is a SD generated/photoshop collage of a sexy android/space lady smoking on an alien moon, the only obvious choice. It's hidden behind a spoiler blur because of stylized android boobs. I need to work on doing better envelope distortions for the text so the curves match the knobs. Metallic candy red paint job, UV print, and big red aluminum knobs from Tayda.
Next up is the DEFX Subarishi, which is a clone of the smallsound/bigsound Team Awesome Fuzz Machine. It has unseated the modded hyped fuzz as my new favorite fuzz, it's also my most recently completed fuzz and the two usually go hand in hand. It's a nicely versatile circuit, independent control of gain, fuzz, and volume, along with a clean blend makes is capable of many fuzz sounds. I really like running the Chuckaround with fuzz at about 9 o'clock in front and a little bit of clean blend on the TAFM to add some sparkle and harmonics with the tone control rolled back on the TAFM for a mostly sludgy sound that still pops out a bit and can shine on single notes with a harder attack. It also have a switchable input buffer turned on or off by internal dip switch, I like it on. There's a mid toggle that interacts with the shape knob for different mid emphasis, and a phase toggle that reverses the phase of the clean signal coming through with the clean blend. I used GT320B's for both of the Ge transistors, they had low enough leakage and fit the specified gain ranges. Everything biased correctly, there's a little back and forth between the two trim pots, sort of like biasing a push pull tube amp, but not difficult.
I may have mixed this up with the SSBS Buzzz when making the art because I went with a smoky/hazy interpretation of the Dopethrone cover. Cream Tayda paint job and UV print. I would have preferred a vertical 1590 layout with the knobs less crammed together along the top, but the sound is worth it and I didn't have to learn how do vero board.
Edit: that 1uf input cap above the left footswitch is gone. When I first built this I used a bag of 330pf film caps mislabeled as 330nf and things didn't work or sound great, and it was super thin, so I threw in a big input cap to add bass. With the correct values in it sounds much better and the stock value input cap works fine.
