jeffwhitfield
Well-known member
So, as an experiment, I picked up a few PCB's from AionFX to play with.
The first one is the Argent, which is based on the BOSS FZ-3 Fuzz. I recently picked up a FZ-1w to test out but ended up taking it back. Strangely enough, that one sounded super close to the AionFX Epsilon fuzz, which is based on a Dallas-Arbiter silicon Fuzz Face. So it would seem that the FZ-1w is closer to a silicon Fuzz Face than anything else. The Argent turns out to be something closer to a Tone Bender. It's super sensitive to input impedance so I had to turn the volume down on my Gretsch to keep it from spitting. Interesting pedal but not quite what I expected.
The second one is my attempt at an Elk BM Sustainer, the same one that EQD replicated with their recent fuzz pedal. I call it the Cervus Fuzz Sustainer (which is a species of elk). I picked up some NEC A733's from a vendor on eBay. Unfortunately, they didn't work for shit in the pedal so I ended up returning them. Threw in some BC108C's and the pedal came alive. Really gnarly sounding Muff for sure! Gonna try a few other transistors soon: 2SC1815 (which is said to be a close NPN equivalent to the A733) and 2N3904.
The last one is an authentic take of the EHX Big Muff Ram's Head '73, the same one that David Gilmour used. Had fun with the design of this one. Figure the name fits: "Fuzz-ably Numb". Used PN5133 transistors from Pedal Hacker for this one. Need to play around a bit with the transistors and try out different hFE combinations. Some claim that lower hFE ones are better.
So...Argent is interesting but probably not much better than my Tone Bender clone from Drunk Beaver. The Cervus sounds pretty cool so far but need to experiment more with the transistors. The Fuzz-ably Numb is definitely a keeper but need to play with the hFE a bit.
The first one is the Argent, which is based on the BOSS FZ-3 Fuzz. I recently picked up a FZ-1w to test out but ended up taking it back. Strangely enough, that one sounded super close to the AionFX Epsilon fuzz, which is based on a Dallas-Arbiter silicon Fuzz Face. So it would seem that the FZ-1w is closer to a silicon Fuzz Face than anything else. The Argent turns out to be something closer to a Tone Bender. It's super sensitive to input impedance so I had to turn the volume down on my Gretsch to keep it from spitting. Interesting pedal but not quite what I expected.
The second one is my attempt at an Elk BM Sustainer, the same one that EQD replicated with their recent fuzz pedal. I call it the Cervus Fuzz Sustainer (which is a species of elk). I picked up some NEC A733's from a vendor on eBay. Unfortunately, they didn't work for shit in the pedal so I ended up returning them. Threw in some BC108C's and the pedal came alive. Really gnarly sounding Muff for sure! Gonna try a few other transistors soon: 2SC1815 (which is said to be a close NPN equivalent to the A733) and 2N3904.
The last one is an authentic take of the EHX Big Muff Ram's Head '73, the same one that David Gilmour used. Had fun with the design of this one. Figure the name fits: "Fuzz-ably Numb". Used PN5133 transistors from Pedal Hacker for this one. Need to play around a bit with the transistors and try out different hFE combinations. Some claim that lower hFE ones are better.
So...Argent is interesting but probably not much better than my Tone Bender clone from Drunk Beaver. The Cervus sounds pretty cool so far but need to experiment more with the transistors. The Fuzz-ably Numb is definitely a keeper but need to play with the hFE a bit.
