“The Fuzz”

[Big Monk]

So, it’s finally happened. “The Fuzz” is here.

And yes, the enclosure is fucked up. My drill plan had the frequency switch on the wrong side. It’s a blessing in disguise really. I drilled a temp hole and modified my graphics and drill plan a bit today ahead of ordering the final enclosures.

Here it be. Clips tomorrow:

 

[spi]

Nice! I was expecting more knobs?

 

[Grubb]

Looking forward to clips. And you've reminded me I have some drilling jobs to do tomorrow. Love to see digital files become a physical product!

 

[fig]

Well done sir!

 

[jeffwhitfield]

Am I missing something? Where are the transistors?

 

[BuddytheReow]

You filed down the serial # I see. Does that make this board a felony? lol

 

[Harry Klippton]

Am I missing something? Where are the transistors?

They're right above the trimmers

 

[Big Monk]

I’m going to make one small change before posting clips.

On the breadboard, the spread of values for the frequency switch seemed distinct enough. In real time, however, that’s not the case.

Right now I’m using 220 nF for the Bright setting, 220 nF||470 nF for the Medium setting and 220 nF||1 uF for the Fat setting.

I’ll be swapping the 470 nF for 820 nF and the 1 uF for a 2.2 uF and then posting some clips.

 

[Big Monk]

You filed down the serial # I see. Does that make this board a felony? lol

Against myself! I just didn’t write it in. Once I’m satisfied, I’ll grab the Sharpie and give it 0001

 

[music6000]

A touch of Makeup like A.H uses!

 

[Big Monk]

A touch of Makeup like A.H uses!

View attachment 26529

Nice!

Yup, that's how it's SUPPOSSED to look.

 

[almondcity]

I think these are my favorite knobs in the whole world. Nice work

 

[JamieJ]

This looks great @Big Monk - You could always use a blend pot instead of a switch to blend between 47N and 2u2??

 

[Big Monk]

This looks great @Big Monk - You could always use a blend pot instead of a switch to blend between 47N and 2u2??

Well, I've never really liked the blend pot and how it sounds but also, this switch is very subtle, so IDK.

 

[JamieJ]

Tweaking your cap values for a greater spread should do the trick then. I really love my fuzz faces with a bass cut option with 47n as the input cap.

 

[Big Monk]

I had a chance to take a video today:

A few thoughts:

1.) Background Hiss - There's quite a bit. Frankly, I can't remember whether this was there on the breadboard or not. On the plus side, no oscillation or RF to be heard.

2.) Frequency Switch - The subtlety here is a little disappointing. Frankly, and I won't kid myself, I'm not hearing much of an audible difference, despite confirming the switch is working and switching capacitance.

I'll think on this over the weekend. I'd like to solve these issues before giving any of these away.

Overall i'm very happy with the tone, cleanup and layers of drive available, and goof up on the enclosure notwithstanding, the aesthetics as well. I'm gonna get this on the breadboard again this weekend and compare them.

Tweaking your cap values for a greater spread should do the trick then. I really love my fuzz faces with a bass cut option with 47n as the input cap.

I'll test some different values out this weekend. What's interesting is that on the breadboard I was getting very ice-picky rolloff and now I think I may have been using small caps in the tens of nF range rather than the hundreds of nF I'm using now. I think what I'll do is try 47 nF, 680 nF and 3.3 uF and see how that sounds.

This is what happens when you stop taking notes halfway through the testing...'

 

[Big Monk]

Update: Went in and switched out the smallest and largest input caps and it’s still very subtle.

I went with 47 nF for the Bright cap and 3.3 uF for the Fat cap. Medium cap stayed at 820 nF.

I’m contemplating just eliminating the switch before ordering new enclosures and using 680 nF-1uF as the input cap.

I’ll do some high volume testing this weekend just to confirm I’m not crazy. Also double checked the PCB and switch connections. Everything is in order so it’s not an installation or design error.

 

[dawson]

I had a chance to take a video today:

A few thoughts:

1.) Background Hiss - There's quite a bit. Frankly, I can't remember whether this was there on the breadboard or not. On the plus side, no oscillation or RF to be heard.

2.) Frequency Switch - The subtlety here is a little disappointing. Frankly, and I won't kid myself, I'm not hearing much of an audible difference, despite confirming the switch is working and switching capacitance.

I'll think on this over the weekend. I'd like to solve these issues before giving any of these away.

Overall i'm very happy with the tone, cleanup and layers of drive available, and goof up on the enclosure notwithstanding, the aesthetics as well. I'm gonna get this on the breadboard again this weekend and compare them.



I'll test some different values out this weekend. What's interesting is that on the breadboard I was getting very ice-picky rolloff and now I think I may have been using small caps in the tens of nF range rather than the hundreds of nF I'm using now. I think what I'll do is try 47 nF, 680 nF and 3.3 uF and see how that sounds.

This is what happens when you stop taking notes halfway through the testing...'

Nice legs, dude!

Personally, I dug the settings toward the end of the demo- like around 5:55 through the duration.
*listening through mid-range PC speakers, after youtube's had its' way with the sound quality.

 

[Big Monk]

Nice legs, dude!

Personally, I dug the settings toward the end of the demo- like around 5:55 through the duration.
*listening through mid-range PC speakers, after youtube's had its' way with the sound quality.

Thanks dude!

I’m leaning toward eliminating the frequency switch altogether. I don’t want to be gifting people a pedal with a useless control.

Fortunately, the base tone is what I was looking for. I had hoped that the frequency switch would offer some versatility for people playing different pickups but it seems something like 820 nF-1uF should be sufficient.

 

[jeffwhitfield]

They're right above the trimmers

Durp! I’m blind.