Fuzzy Fox and Abyss 2-in-1 (wiring nightmare!)

[jojofogarty01]

I’m doing a small run of pedals for a friends band. They were inspired by a sound they got in the studio, so they wanted to make a few pedals to capture that sound for themselves and as a promotional item for their upcoming album release.

This is the very sloppy prototype I made until I get the enclosures drilled and art printed by tayda. It’s a yellow enclosure with their art on it, so I’m definitely gonna switch the knobs on the final run.

It’s a 1590xx enclosure.

All of the pots were wired off board to allow a unique control layout. This was a ROYAL PAIN IN THE ASS! But I think it looks 10 times better than if I had kept it the way the pots are laid out on the cob.

For the prototype I decided to keep all of the offboard wiring longer than normal to allow easy access for tinkering. With this the pcbs are kinda floating there, so if anyone has recommendations for mounting them let me know.

The pedal also has a 3pdt order switcher. I need to move that hole down on the final run of enclosures in order to allow it to fit right. In the picture it’s kinda just hanging there.

I think the abyss and fuzzy fox captures the sound quite well. Not exactly univibe and not exactly phaser- I’m not sure what to call the abyss! The Fuzzy fox sounds pretty good but I need to use a A50k for the volume instead of the B50k.

I used 1N34A for the clipping diodes and Russian AAP153 for the octave diodes. I matched the octave diodes for vF. Do I need to match clipping as well? Also not sure if I got the diodes in the right place for octave and clipping.

I would like to increase the maximum rate of the abyss a little bit. How would I do that? Also, is it true that lower vF makes for a more pronounced octave in the fuzz circuit? I wish the octave was a little more present.

Ok. Sorry for the loads of information and questions. Thanks for checking it out!

 

[Feral Feline]

What I sometimes do is use some but not all of the PCB's board-mounted pots.

If I were wiring up these boards, I'd keep the Abyss' top 3 pots board mounted, and board-mount the pot from the Fuzzy Fox that's adjacent to the Abyss maintaining the same spacing as the Abyss (if that's what you're after, even pot spacing)...

If need be, I'd rotate either PCB 90º or 180º, whatever works to get the best possible/most logical layout of pots with as minimal offboard wiring as possible. To keep the PCBs stable, if they're both still conventionally oriented, I'd hard-wire the 3PDT breakout to the main PCBs — that way the pots on the north-side hold the PCB in place and the breakout-boards solid-core wires keep the south-side stable in the enclosure.

The Order Switcher I'd place on the back wall between the jacks if there's no room left on the face of the pedal (whether due to the graphic or knobs and other switches).


If it's all offboard wired, you can get small standoffs with adhesive backing that the PCBs can clip into/sit on top; or clip the legs off some pizza-box top-stoppers and hot-glue the little plastic discs to the enclosure and/or the backs of the PCBs (after verifying everything works of course. There's also some cool epoxy putty that stays malleable for a short while ... "Sugru", forgot the name of it for a tick. Sugru or something like it would work really well. A combination of partially board-mounted pots and Sugru would really be solid.


You don't need to match the clipping diodes, but it may help accentuate the octave up — I've read of matched diodes in a Muff's second stage producing some mild octave-up. It wouldn't hurt to try matching the clipping diodes. Certainly the octave-diodes need to be matched, as you've noted. I guess your Russian octave-diodes are germanium; instead of Ge I like Schottky, they're temperature-stable and have a similar Fv as Ge.


I'm not sure about the rate. I'd try a larger and smaller dual-gang pot, and/or adjust R17 & R18 / R19 & R20, but I'd be doing so blindly.

 

[fig]

dats a lotta knobs mon!

Brilliant. +1 to @Feral Feline

 

[BuddytheReow]

Excellent job! While the wiring is a rats nest (as most diy wiring tends to be) it does not affect the sound which is great!

 

[jojofogarty01]

@Feral Feline Thanks for all of the super helpful info and tips. I’m going to follow a lot of that.
Would a 1N5817 work well for the octave? My GE diodes I ordered were advertised as .23 vF but are really more around .3. The 1N5817’s I have are around .19-.2. I’m gonna socket them I guess and try around with different stuff.

 

[Feral Feline]

I think the 1N5817 will work well enough, if MATCHED. It's not as much about the diode type as it is about getting it as closely matched as possible — that's my understanding, so .19 or .2 is going to work well if it's .19 + .19 or .2 with .2.
I usually go for BAT 4x, as I often forget there's 1N-series Schottky out there.