Amplified Parts - Blackout Fuzz

[jhaneyzz]

Thought I'd try a throwback parts point to point build.

Here's the link to the plan and BOM: Amplified Parts Blackout Fuzz

Pretty basic Fuzz. Pretty nice sounding, tight and in control. Not a lot of volume on tap, pretty much have to dime the volume to get just barely above unity.

I went off script from the build plan and did some architectural wiring. I wouldn't recommend the cloth covered wire when doing this, it's a pain in the ass.

I wired a couple of U shaped "normal" sheathed wire jumpers on the bottom most row of pins as standoffs which worked really well. The rest of the stiff wires keep the board pretty firmly in place.

This is graphic really shows off the ability to hold detail with caustic soda etching. Somehow I must have messed up the mask on the "GAIN" text though.

next time I etch I'm going to try to rough up the big washer to make it match the rest of the pedal a bit.

 

[steviejr92]

This is my type of build Love everything about it dude!

 

[Bricksnbeatles]

Nice! I’m still searching for black resistors. I think I found a good candidate from mouser, but I’m not 100% sure yet

 

[dawson]

Cool artwork for an etch!
Reminds me of a wood-cut stamp.

*Still waiting for you to reveal your super-secret new toner transfer trick..

 

[Phil hodson]

Great etch and fantastic work inside too.
I’m also rapidly going off cloth wiring. I just made a fuzz and it’s been a real pain in the arse to use it. I’m actually thinking of swapping out out for normal wire.

 

[iamjackslackof]

Gorgeous!

 

[jhaneyzz]

Cool artwork for an etch!
Reminds me of a wood-cut stamp.

*Still waiting for you to reveal your super-secret new toner transfer trick..

Oh yeah...

Right after I take the iron off, I apply pressure to the transfer by rolling a dowel under a block. This does an excellent job of getting the last bits of toner to transfer from the paper.

 

[jhaneyzz]

About 50% of my tips somehow involve a block of wood from a pinewood derby car...

 

[Harry Klippton]

I like everything except the jack placement

 

[jhaneyzz]

I like everything except the jack placement

Same, I should have gone off script, but I followed the plan.

I ordered enough components to build a couple more of the same circuit so I plan on doing a Lovecraft version soon.
(Actually, maybe I don't have the right transistors....)

 

[RetiredUnit1]

My next door neighbor's dad was Leo Fender's BFF. Wesley Tuttle played guitar, but Leo didn't, so a lot of the tone that fender guitars are famous for are due to Wes' feedback. Leo was dropping off some of his Music Man stuff for Wes to try out and I got to listen to them talk.

Leo was bitching about how he was removed from the development of Fender after he sold it to CBS. As revenge he allowed all of his intellectual property to be released to public domain, which is why you can find all the original drawings of the layouts and schematics. "They bought the company, but didn't buy my designs" he quipped.

Then they started talking about how people were now building clones, since the designs were released and he said "They're even using the same cloth wire I used, I only bought that crap because I got a million feet of it for $1000".

So, from Leo's mouth to my ears to this webpage, even Leo called cloth wire CRAP.

I was very interested in the clones and asked some questions and he said that if I ever start building clones of his work when I got older to NOT USE CLOTH WIRE and to improve the designs as much as I could because he cut a lot of corners to save money.

I don't use cloth wire..... And Wes was a LEFTY after a meat grinder accident 'cut' his butcher career short, so all you lefties out there can thank Wes for lefty guitars!!!!

Here's "Smoke on the Water" by Wes Tuttle. There's other videos out there, and it's hard to see but in a couple you can see there's only 2 fingers on one of his hands.....

 

[HamishR]

Wow - cool story! FWIW I would never try using cloth covered wire in a pedal! But I do use it in amps because I find it easy to use. I only use it in Fender style amps though.

I build a lot of Fender style amps - mostly tweed but the occasional BF or brown. And I ALWAYS make changes! For example I would never use the filament wiring scheme he used in many tweed amps where one end of the filament winding was grounded. I always use a centre-tapped (or virtual centre tap) setup where both ends are used and the filament wires twisted around each other. I'll often increase the values of filter caps, use a larger PT or even add a choke to a 5E3.

But anyway, to the OP I love the look of your pedal. The illustration is great! The interior is impressive also. You must have a lot of patience. It's almost a shame you will be stepping on this pedal!

And that's not the Smoke on the Water I was expecting!

 

[RetiredUnit1]

Wow - cool story! FWIW I would never try using cloth covered wire in a pedal! But I do use it in amps because I find it easy to use. I only use it in Fender style amps though.

I build a lot of Fender style amps - mostly tweed but the occasional BF or brown. And I ALWAYS make changes! For example I would never use the filament wiring scheme he used in many tweed amps where one end of the filament winding was grounded. I always use a centre-tapped (or virtual centre tap) setup where both ends are used and the filament wires twisted around each other. I'll often increase the values of filter caps, use a larger PT or even add a choke to a 5E3.

But anyway, to the OP I love the look of your pedal. The illustration is great! The interior is impressive also. You must have a lot of patience. It's almost a shame you will be stepping on this pedal!

And that's not the Smoke on the Water I was expecting!

The standard 5e3 PT is rated for a max of 20uf on the filter caps, so that's what I use. A lot of people go with 30 to 40 on the first, but I find it gets a bit choppy at full volume with that setup.

Because it's been too cold (even in SoCal) to go out to my shop I've been spending my working time redesigning layouts for the 2203 JCM800, 1987 JTM50, 59 Champ 5f1, matchless lightning, and now I'm doing a Tweed Deluxe 5e3. All of those involve custom diy chassis sizes, and cliff jacks since they are isolated ground. I have heyboer iron for most of those designs, although the 5e3's won't be here till Monday and *it's starting to warm up* finally. Yay!

The lightning is going to be an Organ Donor, using Hammond A043 organ transformers (el84 iron).

Here's the 5e3 layout I'm working on, I decided to stretch it out to a 17 x 8 x 3 hammond chassis. All of the one's I built before were in the tiny standard chassis. So cramped, I think this is going to lower cost as well as make it a bit more fun to build. The lightning is 99% done, the 5e3 obviously has a lot to do.



And the lightning I just finished:

 

[RetiredUnit1]

Wow - cool story! FWIW I would never try using cloth covered wire in a pedal! But I do use it in amps because I find it easy to use. I only use it in Fender style amps though.

I build a lot of Fender style amps - mostly tweed but the occasional BF or brown. And I ALWAYS make changes! For example I would never use the filament wiring scheme he used in many tweed amps where one end of the filament winding was grounded. I always use a centre-tapped (or virtual centre tap) setup where both ends are used and the filament wires twisted around each other. I'll often increase the values of filter caps, use a larger PT or even add a choke to a 5E3.

But anyway, to the OP I love the look of your pedal. The illustration is great! The interior is impressive also. You must have a lot of patience. It's almost a shame you will be stepping on this pedal!

And that's not the Smoke on the Water I was expecting!

So a bit of collaborating evidence for my almost unbelievable story about meeting Leo, it's my buddy Matt with his wife backstage during a concert his dad was involved it. Matt is my bff and his dad Les was Leo's bff that I wrote about.

And yeah, that's Roy....