Just built a Repro Fuzz and a Contact OD...

[HamishR]

And as usual the boards are excellent. Piece of cake to put together and make a beautifully neat pedal - and I managed to fit each neatly into a black Hammond 1590B box. I built both today after lunch and finished before my wife came home for dinner so PedalPCB is doing something right!

Not super impressed with the Repro Fuzz though. So I went onto google and Youtube and yes, my version sounds pretty much as it's supposed to. Very scooped sounding with harsh highs. And even though it does have highs it still has that weird thing where it sounds muffled even though the is enough high end. Weird. I should have listened to youtube more carefully before building it! Oh well, I can always use the box for another pedal... I'm sure I'll be able to find a 4-knob pedal to built.

Much happier with the Contact, even though it is really JATS. It's a good TS style pedal and acts nicely as a Strat boost before an open-sounding OD like the Rocket 45 Caliber. Very pronounced mid-hump but I like that it's not as compressed as a normal TS. A little more of a low-mid thump might be nice but overall a very usable pedal.

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

You could try retuning the tone stack. It's a standard Fender tone stack. I tried modeling it with Duncan's Tone Stack Calculator. If you want to reduce the mid scoop and smooth out the highs, try changing these:
C4 - 470pF
R9 - 33K
R10 - 15K
The notch will move down in freq and will not be as deep. The overall volume will go up a little bit.

 

[HamishR]

Hey thanks - I might just try that!

 

[gri]

i bought 2 repro fuzz boards. built one to spec and yeah i was totally underwhelmed. i have a bunch of germanium/nos/silicon trans. i swapped in a few. a old russian germanium sounds kinda nice but its doesnt hold a candle to a cloven hoof or even my old muff and hyperfuzz. think i may build the 2nd one but try and mod alot of the values and Q's. suggestions?

 

[untamedfrontier]

Not super impressed with the Repro Fuzz though. So I went onto google and Youtube and yes, my version sounds pretty much as it's supposed to. Very scooped sounding with harsh highs. And even though it does have highs it still has that weird thing where it sounds muffled even though the is enough high end. Weird. I should have listened to youtube more carefully before building it! Oh well, I can always use the box for another pedal... I'm sure I'll be able to find a 4-knob pedal to built.

Funny you (and chuck) say this, because I have both the real and built the repro, and it's definitely one of my favorite Fuzz/Dist pedals. I guess that's why there are 9,000 different tubescreamers out there ?

One of my favorite sounds with it is with my Mustang stacked with another OD and through 2 amps at the same time (Fender Twin and Ampeg B15). Sounds like a dream

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

I'd like to think that rig would sound great even without the Repro.

 

[Chuck D. Bones]

i bought 2 repro fuzz boards. built one to spec and yeah i was totally underwhelmed. i have a bunch of germanium/nos/silicon trans. i swapped in a few. a old russian germanium sounds kinda nice but its doesnt hold a candle to a cloven hoof or even my old muff and hyperfuzz. think i may build the 2nd one but try and mod alot of the values and Q's. suggestions?

Try swapping Q1 & Q2, also, check out the tone stack mods I suggested above. It's basically a Fuzz Face with a Fender Tone stack, so adjust your expectations accordingly.

 

[HamishR]

Funny you (and chuck) say this, because I have both the real and built the repro, and it's definitely one of my favorite Fuzz/Dist pedals. I guess that's why there are 9,000 different tubescreamers out there ?

Exactly! Sometimes I'll see what another player has set up at a gig and think "Oh dear, that's going to sound awful!" only to have them come on and play and it sounds great. Then at other times the opposite - at one gig a year or so back in the band before us the guitar player had some very pricey, TGP-approved gear - and it sounded like mud.

As much as I am really not a huge fan of the classic green TS there is a local player who is a bit of a legend here and in the alternative scene in the US and he currently plays a Yamaha Revstar with P90s through two TS9s and an AC30 and gets a huge range of tones which suit his playing perfectly. That's probably why he is the legend and I'm not.

 

[Gordo]

I've always been a Yamaha fan but just hate the looks of the Revstar. That said, I really like the way they (especially the P90 version) sound.

 

[HamishR]

I'm conflicted over the looks too - I wouldn't say I hate the looks of the Revstars but they don't scream out to me to buy them either. I haven't plugged one in but they look and feel well enough built, and I love the idea of the P90 version. And I have an amazing Gretsch '59 VS Duo Jet which probably covers similar ground - it's a killer guitar.

 

[untamedfrontier]

I'd like to think that rig would sound great even without the Repro.

It definitely does, fun fact about the twin is that my drummer bought it from the old Fort Apache in Boston, so there is a decent shot it's been on some pretty interesting recordings (link)