Fingolfen
Well-known member
First and foremost - big shout out to @Moltenmetalburn for the amazing boards which made this project possible...
...and now, on with the countdown... errr... build report...
I've built a few versions of the Black Ash Fuzz at this point, mostly on the South Obolon FX board. The first one was a straight modern build with all modern components, well apart from the somewhat unique transistors. It sounded great, but part of the schtick of the original pedal was the fact that it used a lot of vintage and/or unusual components in the build. I did a second version of the pedal where I took a step closer to the original - carbon film rather than metal film resistors, higher voltage film caps in place of the low voltage film caps (which were used in lieu of the paper in oil caps).
As mentioned at the top, I'm using a special version of the Coqui Circuitry "Cinders" board from the "ARTifact" collection for this build. This board lets you use components very much like the original pedal used, but with a true bypass. The primary resistors are all 1/2W carbon composition sourced from Tube Depot and Amplified Parts. The LED current limiting resistor is a 1/4W Allen Bradley. The polarity protection diode is a NOS that I think is a Motorola based on the markings. The transistors are all NOS Motorola as well. I'm actually using a couple of paper in oil 100nF capacitors (ex-Soviet) as well as a couple of eastern bloc metal film capacitors. There are two standard electrolytics (on the left), which are Nichicon.
Final construction on this one is a little bit different as well. The 3PDT board (which Coqui kindly included with the PCB) includes ground pads for the jacks as well as the overall input / output connections. I went ahead and used those for the audio jack grounds and the negative lead from the board for the power jack ground. Per my normal practice the jack connections themselves are all insulated with heat shrink tubing.
One interesting feature of this particular board is rather than using an internal trim pot for the Bias control on Q3, the design uses a top mounted potentiometer so the Bias becomes a control adjustable by the user. The photo of the enclosure above (more on that in a moment) was taken before I marked the knob position for the normal 4.5V at Q3. I ended up using a chrome pen to set the default position as it is clear enough to see, but doesn't jump out of the design.
The enclosure itself is a variation of the black and white one I've used for my other K-T Event Fuzz pedals. Because of the stomp switch location, I had to move the text higher on the enclosure, and I figured since I was making changes, why not go all out and create the "Apocalypse Edition" of the pedal with red and yellow graphics on a red enclosure. I think the yellow could be a bit brighter, but overall I'm pretty happy with the result. In initial playtests the sound is very similar to the other versions I've done, but I really need to get it hooked up to the tube amp to start hearing the subtleties.
Original blog entry: https://steggostudios.blogspot.com/2023/10/a-new-k-t-event-fuzz-with-fun-new-board.html
...and now, on with the countdown... errr... build report...
I've built a few versions of the Black Ash Fuzz at this point, mostly on the South Obolon FX board. The first one was a straight modern build with all modern components, well apart from the somewhat unique transistors. It sounded great, but part of the schtick of the original pedal was the fact that it used a lot of vintage and/or unusual components in the build. I did a second version of the pedal where I took a step closer to the original - carbon film rather than metal film resistors, higher voltage film caps in place of the low voltage film caps (which were used in lieu of the paper in oil caps).
As mentioned at the top, I'm using a special version of the Coqui Circuitry "Cinders" board from the "ARTifact" collection for this build. This board lets you use components very much like the original pedal used, but with a true bypass. The primary resistors are all 1/2W carbon composition sourced from Tube Depot and Amplified Parts. The LED current limiting resistor is a 1/4W Allen Bradley. The polarity protection diode is a NOS that I think is a Motorola based on the markings. The transistors are all NOS Motorola as well. I'm actually using a couple of paper in oil 100nF capacitors (ex-Soviet) as well as a couple of eastern bloc metal film capacitors. There are two standard electrolytics (on the left), which are Nichicon.
Final construction on this one is a little bit different as well. The 3PDT board (which Coqui kindly included with the PCB) includes ground pads for the jacks as well as the overall input / output connections. I went ahead and used those for the audio jack grounds and the negative lead from the board for the power jack ground. Per my normal practice the jack connections themselves are all insulated with heat shrink tubing.
One interesting feature of this particular board is rather than using an internal trim pot for the Bias control on Q3, the design uses a top mounted potentiometer so the Bias becomes a control adjustable by the user. The photo of the enclosure above (more on that in a moment) was taken before I marked the knob position for the normal 4.5V at Q3. I ended up using a chrome pen to set the default position as it is clear enough to see, but doesn't jump out of the design.
The enclosure itself is a variation of the black and white one I've used for my other K-T Event Fuzz pedals. Because of the stomp switch location, I had to move the text higher on the enclosure, and I figured since I was making changes, why not go all out and create the "Apocalypse Edition" of the pedal with red and yellow graphics on a red enclosure. I think the yellow could be a bit brighter, but overall I'm pretty happy with the result. In initial playtests the sound is very similar to the other versions I've done, but I really need to get it hooked up to the tube amp to start hearing the subtleties.
Original blog entry: https://steggostudios.blogspot.com/2023/10/a-new-k-t-event-fuzz-with-fun-new-board.html
