Sandford and Sonny BlueBeard Fuzz schematic?

C

comradehoser

Well-known member
I know it's yet another big muff variant and it's overhyped (in the bass community), but my friend had one and regrets selling it.

Anyone have a reliable schematic or values or link to same? Can't find anything in the usual suspects. Gut shots don't give any hint to cap and transistor values.

I'm surprised nobody has traced this although apparently JohnK did as he has his own version with a toggle as the Blackbeard. I don't think it's in production anymore. I don't know if this violates an ethics of tracing smaller builders, especially as the guy Sonny worked at a great used music shop up the road from me.
 
I'm getting old. So many things I don't remember seeing, doing, saying, posting...


THAT's WHY I MAKE NOTES!
*TLDR-RESPONSE AT BOTTOM OF THIS POST.

So, from my old notes, after having exhausted everything I could find at the time, I can tell you teaming masses of Muff-mavens out there this Monday (I know it's Friday but... MMm it's Monday somewhere in the space-time-continuum-omniverse):

Get just about any MUFF-based PCB, and you CAN build yourself a BlueBeard*!

Use GGG's "TUNED" Muff schematic, aka GGG's VERSION.

Will you have a "BLUEBEARD"?

*No, you will not.
You'll have a clone of a BlueBeard, just like if you'd chosen to build instead a Ram's Head "WHITE CAN" Muff, you wouldn't then have an EHX "White-Can" Ram's Head Muff. Only an EHX-built Muff can be an EHX Muff, just as my parts-caster will never be a Fender Telecaster, even if I put a "Fender Telecaster" decal on it. 🙄


Have I ever owned a BlueBeard? No. So how can I say you can build one and it will behave like a BlueBeard?
How can you be sure what you're breathing is air? Are you an Astrophysicist, what do you know of the Moon's pull on the ocean-tides?


So much BS-Hype was propagated about this circuit, and even the people who owned one and were DIYers-at-heart did nothing to confirm nor deny definitively what the circuit was. Enter an intrepid curious cat... 😼


From my notes:
BLUEBEARD MUFF

BlueBeard, a Muff meant for Bass, yet still only uses 100n caps; shrouded in controversy because GGG built them for Sonny, and then offered a “TUNED MUFF” kit later that appears to be the Bluebeard…

MY LINKS: #7
"Ahhh, looked again — Found It. It's not listed as "Tuned", just as "General Guitar Gadgets Version":
Schematics | General Guitar Gadgets"





RCUBED Here is General Guitar Gadgets' official response:

GGG: "There have been some misunderstandings about this version. GGG is involved with building a pedal by Sandford and Sonny called the Blue Beard bass distortion. This "Tuned Version" is somewhat similar to the Blue Beard, but it is not a Blue Beard. It sounds somewhat different and it is in a smaller box of course. This is an excellent distortion for bass or guitar or synth, but this project should not be considered a kit for a Blue Beard pedal."
[see FenderHutz’s comment in green below, JD is fibbing here (or there)]

Personally I think it's the same schematic with some possible component changes (capacitor or resistor values or slightly different transistors or diodes).



MIKEBOTH: ... all the resistor values I can see are exactly the same.🥷
Edit - I have it. It must be the marker scribbled on the unfinished box that makes all the difference.


RUSTY NUTS: “ - resistor values from screenshots look to be exactly the same”
Aye, but the component numbers are different, and I don't think anyone's seen a diagram of both side by side. Resistor values are the same, but are they assembled the same?


KARATEKID25: [re SILICON DIODES] The exact readings where around 0.602 - 0.604 volts for all eight diodes.


PHARAOHAMPS:
The board in the unit on the left [BLUEBEARD] is the old GGG Big Muff Pi DIY board. JD Sleep at GGG made that layout available several years ago, and it's pretty well known in the DIY world. I know I've built 2 or 3 BMP's on that layout. The board on the right with the GGG silk-screen and green solder mask is one of JD's new boards. As to component differences, without knowing the values on the poly caps (shiny round-ish blobby ones) I can't speculate. However, the GGG tuned Muff has much smaller values for the interstage coupling caps [PRESUMABLY MEANING THE STOCK MUFF, NOT BLUEBEARD {but then mentions blattiness of stock muff…>}], which roll off the bass from clipping stage to clipping stage in the pedal, and prevent the gross blattiness of the stock Muff.
Are the two pedals the same? It's certainly plausible. S&S may have some tweaks that they're making to the stock Muff. I would bet that the cap on the LED is to prevent popping during switching, since the voltage drop caused by the LED turning on can mess with the bias voltages on the transistors in the pedal.
Sure, the kit is less expensive, but if you're not up to the task of building the kit, I'd say the Bluebeard is probably a pretty decent deal. I know I have seen pedals that weren't made as well selling for more money.


rratajski: The pots are the same, A100K x 2 and B100K on both the GGG and BB.
[WHICH CONTROLS HAVE THE A100k and which the B100k?]


help-me-talkbass-must-find-bluebeard-fuzz.1296840/#post-20284954
DUNWICH’S BLACKBEARD MAY BE THE SAME MUFF
and from my own post in the above thread, links to …
https://www.talkbass.com/threads/sanford-and-sonny-bluebeard-fuzz-kit.375367/

ANDREW: Robopedals have teamed up with Sanford and Sonny to make the Bluebeard available again.
[True when originally posted in the thread, currently though?]


Sanford & Sonny Bluebeard
http://guitar-fx-layouts.42897.x6.n...-Sonny-BlueBeard-Fuzz-Distortion-td20220.html
BLUEBEARD IS GGG TUNED WITH FOLLOWING MINOR CHANGES
- a 47 ohm resistor between 9v+ and the circuit,
- another 220uf in parallel with the one from 9v+ to ground,
- and a 4.7k resistor instead of 1k for the LED.
So nothing that would really change the sound much.


“Hello my name is Sonny friend of Surachai. I would like to clear up some things. Along time ago i tried a 70's lamb's head big muff that sounded very girthsome for bass. The guy Brian would not sell it too me but let me take it to Alfonso Hermida (www.hermidaaudio.com) to copy so that i could have a true bypass version with a barrel type power supply and a sturdier more beer proof hammond box.

I am not an electrical wizard ALL credit goes to Alfonso. Alfonso said he had a friend who could make the PCBoards in small batches of ten this man's name is JD Sleep El Presidente of generalguitargadgets www.generalguitargadgets.com Once i heard the prototype and a few changes were made my one pedal was going to be a batch of ten as I had several friends who wanted one.

JD wanted to move into eventually making pedals full time and we struck a price for 10 assembled. Years and many pedals later I still do not have a web site just a myspace. JD makes pedals for lots of people and oh yeah the lack of paint... When I had the first ten no one wanted to wait for them to be painted and i didn't want something cheap that would just flake off like a lot of projects i had seen I think it would make the build seem cheap.

So i looked into powder coating and with every batch i had people waiting saying no just give it to me and after 50 pedals and def after 100 I gave up on the idea of painting them and the idea of engraving or stamping did not work out so well. So I have nothing to hide and all I do is sell to friends and people who hear about me through friends. I pay JD to make the pedals. I do not [make the pedals].

There are a lot of things to talk about in the world and a lot of things to spend time doing on the net but when anyone asks I tell them JD built it and if you get something you want built he is THE man he is now able to build pedals full time for a lot of other people.

I pass the pedal on to people who want it and in the, i guess 5 years i have been doing this I have always said if this pedal does not work with YOUR rig then you can return it for a 100% refund the only people I have had problems with is some dude that bought through Atomic and was more concerned about hatin’ online when he could have gotten his money back in full.

I do not say that this pedal is the end all be all I waited for the EH BM reissue i even stupidly waited for the line 6 distortion modeller before i made it. I like to use an EQ after but not everyone does that is why i make it as a replacement for all the thin black eh out there. I like the green ones but the backdoors and the switches sucking oh yeah and being hella spensive.

Well I never pretended to be anything other than a nerd looking for the best bass sound ever I talked to Mike Matthews about the buckets of parts put into the 70's pedals there is a wide variety of parts in them all and the pedal i copied had aged a few years I am trying to build a pedal for people who want a solid pedal that will not crap out on them in ten years and will be just as awesome when they are old. man i hate typing.

I have only taken out one ad and that was for an independent publication "give me back" everyone else is word of mouth like surachi. I am already overwhelmed with orders i don't know what S&H to Denmark is. I do NOT want to sell to crappy blues smooth overdrive guys I want to sell to people who kill kill kill. I am not putting out myself as anything other than a conduit. if you don't like the taste don't drink the water. I am not gonna proof read this I have to go play bass now nite nite Metal, Sonny”


ADAPT: this is the GGG tuned muff with the additions i specified. there's a thread on talkbass where they compare the two, the GGG and the BB circuit-to-circuit, and the additions i made are literally the only ones, 47R resistor from power supply, extra cap in parallel (which i combined from 440 to 470uf) and the 4.7k LED CLR. i am sure the toggle switch is just a bigger capacitor on the input.


[no, it’s a tone-bypass switch]

GUT SHOTS OF BLUEBEARD & GGG https://www.talkbass.com/threads/th...-now-im-peeved-off.450447/page-4#post-6226313

#18 FENDERHUTZ:
If you want a kit that is to spec of the Bluebeard in a smaller form factor for 71.00 dollars, buy the BMP distortion box tuned "GGG" www.generalguitargadgets.com
 JD told me it is the same config as the Bluebeard, just in a smaller box.


NIFF: it's a modded russian big muff… but, modded to hell. it seems to have really amazing clarity and range.

BassJunkie730: It's really not modded to hell
only about 6 or so values are changed and they aren't as radical as your think.
[What 6? Modded to hell? One resistor and one parallel-cap for power-filtering...]


𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑𝄐𝄑
Click to expand...

Here's my TLDR take-away:

Guy with a BlueBeard builds the GGG and confirms that apart from a resistor and a parallel cap...
[those parts unrelated to the sonic-portion of the circuit, all to do with power-filtering and mentioned in the quoted text above — I double-down dare anyone to buy a BlueBeard, build a clone and then DOUBLE-BLIND LISTENING TEST COMPARE THE TWO (or 3 or 4, build many for mitigating parts tolerance-drift]

...they are the same damn thing, IMO.
 
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Hmmmm... does this sound like it should be posted in the Wish List? Because there might be an amount of bassists interested in building it.

I was thinking there were changes in the coupling caps, but now it just looks like power filtering--what sonic difference would it make to put a 470uf cap as opposed to a 100uf? It can't be that the pedal all of a sudden pushes more volts?

Also very odd that after all this, there is still no schematic. I know there is the veroboard layout, but I don't really mess with that. I guess that will have to do for inferring the connections..
 
I posted a link to the schematic already, it's on the GGG site, under GGG's VERSION.

Here 'tis compared to the Russian Muff:

GREEN RUSSIAN VS GGG TUNED BLUEBEARD MUFF COMPARISON SCHEMATIC VS.png


Despite the hype, I'd be willing to bet the Russian sounds better on bass — THE big diff-air-awnce being the clipping-caps (C6/C9) being 45n on the Russky and 100n on the Tooned.


From the thread of the guy that built the TUNED and compared it to his BLUEBEARD:

BLUEBEARD vs GGG TUNED Gutshot.jpg






While I would welcome seeing a BLUEBEARD-TRACE, I don't think it needs its own PCB.




EDIT: fixed a typo "no" to "on"
 
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TLDR at bottom.
For those willing to wade in past their ankles...

Okay, so I recently had a Buzz Under the Bunyan, an abeille sous le capot, which made me revisit this whole, to borrow from yet another language, meshugas.


A fault of mine is that when something gets WAAAYYYYYYyy blown out of proportion and over-hyped, I either puke, walk away in the opposite direction (far away), or do both. A fault that can be a good thing, too.


So, when the Bluebeard was at its height of popularity (well, anytime it spiked) and was available, I didn't buy one because I didn't have a lot of spare coin and more-so didn't want to buy into the hype. "So why have you bought into so many other hyped circuits, Feral?" you may ask, for which I've no solid answer; maybe they were less-hyped?

Like I was saying, I recently became obsessed with this circuit again. I thought I'd exhausted previous avenues before, but I had only touched upon the tip of the iceberg of this Titanic adventure. I've done did a deeper dive: I've catalogued as many of these pedals as I can, searching old sales threads, commercial gear-pages, other English- and foreign-language forums... I've made notes about who owns what serial number, collected pics, seen which Bluebeards were traded and sold to other Fuzz-lovers, documented many claims to serial#xxx... — but I had to stop short of marking down every Tom Dreck and Harriett Hyperbole that casually mentions having one.
I've spent WAAAYYYYYYyy too much time on this.

Incidentally, "Bluebeard" is based on a French folktale of a serial killer, a husband that routinely marries and then murders his wives. 😒

500px-Blue_Beard_in_Tales_of_Mother_Goose_%28Welsh%29.png

Bluebeard gives his wife the keys to his castle, art by Gustave Doré (1862).


Most of the threads are old, photo-links corrupted; any sales of Bluebeards have already sold long ago save one in Russia that I can't trust is legit and even if it were... Well, I'm not Putin any of my money in Russia at the moment and it's overpriced. I found one very recent Reddit thread (Dec '24/Jan '25) where the OP claims to have found one in a thrift shop for $17. I'd buy one at five times that price, but generally used Bluebeards are priced out of reach.

So in my Internet travels I've come across demos and posts from various pedal-industry punters and pedal-builders, including comments from Sonny himself. I still don't like the hype surrounding it, it is not worthy of the blind zealotry some ascribe to it, but it is a great-sounding Muff in the demos.
All this has further entrenched my former opinion, with one change:

TLDR — If Sonny were to make the Bluebeard available again, I will buy one funds permitting.
I'd trace it, sure, but said purchase would be made expressly to have and to hold.​
I will build a clone for myself, eventually, whether I buy an original or not.​
Misschien een kleine kloon, 1590A...​
​
BLUEBEARD GRAPHIC 640X640.jpeg ​
 
Obviously I breadboarded to futz around with the circuit.

For those who have futzed with muffs, particularly in the bass persuasion-- any recommendations to try? Right now I have 5088s in for Q1-4 and 1N4148s for the clippers.
 
comradehoser said:
Obviously I breadboarded to futz around with the circuit.

For those who have futzed with muffs, particularly in the bass persuasion-- any recommendations to try? Right now I have 5088s in for Q1-4 and 1N4148s for the clippers.
Click to expand...
Try 47n clipping caps, 430pF filter caps, and 1N400x/1N4150/KD521V clipping diodes. Adjust the transistor/collector resistors so that you get the collector voltage a little below half of VCC, e.g. 4.2-4.3v when VCC is 9v. Should get you some massive low end.
 
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comradehoser said:
Obviously I breadboarded to futz around with the circuit.

For those who have futzed with muffs, particularly in the bass persuasion-- any recommendations to try? Right now I have 5088s in for Q1-4 and 1N4148s for the clippers.
Click to expand...

Well, I talk a lot more about Muffs than I've actually futzed, but...

Instead of all the in/out & coupler-caps at 100n, try 120n–220n (in your Tuned GGG schematic C1, C3, C4, C7, C12, C13). Note on many Muffs, not all couplers are the same value. Try 10µ on input and output with 1µ in between 'em or 100n between but 1µ between the clipping stages.

However...
To reiterate what PedalBuilder already said, 47n clipping caps, I think is key#1.

Also, key#2, in my inexperienced opinion are the filter-caps. You can go a wee bit harder with the filter-caps... as high as 560p — or "White Can" Muff spec 680p. I see boutique Muff-stuff at 560p, but hardly ever see 680p used unless it's for a White-Can Ram clone.

Another key, so I've read, is that the Russian Muffs weren't as gainy, lending them to better bass response, which PedalBuilder also noted with suggested VCC at 4.2-4.3v.
I still need much edification about biasing transistors (who am I kidding? I need much edifying full-stop), so I am looking forward to playing with PedalBuilder's VCC settings, oh and those 1N400x diodes he suggested, too.

Let the futzing commence!
 
PedalBuilder said:
Try 47n clipping caps, 430pF filter caps, and 1N400x/1N4150/KD521V clipping diodes. Adjust the transistor/collector resistors so that you get the collector voltage a little below half of VCC, e.g. 4.2-4.3v when VCC is 9v. Should get you some massive low end.
Click to expand...
Forgive the ignorance. By filter caps, you mean C2, 5, and 8 (the 470pf?) or the caps in the tone section (c10/11)?
 
Since we have 4 dimensions of futzing here, do you all recommend a standard order of setting operations that can be productively employed before I dive in randomly? Like, set coupling caps>filter caps>transistor biasing>diodes?
 
comradehoser said:
Forgive the ignorance. By filter caps, you mean C2, 5, and 8 (the 470pf?)
Click to expand...
Correct.
comradehoser said:
Since we have 4 dimensions of futzing here, do you all recommend a standard order of setting operations that can be productively employed before I dive in randomly? Like, set coupling caps>filter caps>transistor biasing>diodes?
Click to expand...
You want to change the clipping caps (the ones between the diodes and the collector), not the coupling capacitors. I don’t have a standard order of making the changes, though.
 
Just for posterity's sake, I found this pretty interesting page by Coda Effects. Don't know if Coda the user here is related or no, but... there it is.

www.coda-effects.com

Coda Effects: Big Muff mods and tweaks

Learn more about electric guitar related electronics: DIY guitar pedals, from fuzz faces to delays and reverb, cables and circuits theory
www.coda-effects.com www.coda-effects.com
 
[OH, DAMMIT! This is for a circuit without c11 and c12 at 10nf, see below.]

I guess this could go in build reports or mods, but I'll just continue here.

The stock bluebeard (with 220uf-100uf power cap as the only mod) is solid. I'm not sure exactly why folks see it as the bass ne plus ultra, but it's an excellent-sounding and well-balanced distortion out of the gate. The 4148 clipping has less "fizzy-fuzzy" and more a nice tight granular character to it. The circuit is more "overdrivey" in that it doesn't just annihilate the original signal, particularly with sustain full CCW. If anything, the circuit seems to "dry out" the bass signal to some extent--and constrains it so that it sounds more guitar-like.

No doubt, as @PedalBuilder suggested, this has something to do with the bias on the stock build--it's set up for low gain in the low 4v on the collector.

So I will probably try to preserve this build, and implement a lot of switching mods, since I seem to be compulsively drawn to tonal options instead of making a damn decision and sticking with it.

Changes I tested out from suggestions above and the Coda page (edit: also key for understanding: https://www.electrosmash.com/big-muff-pi-analysis ) :

1. 100n clipping caps> 47n
More bass! Will probably try to do switching between this and 100n caps. Or plop in the EQ section of something like the Pyrocumulus, because that range of bass boost/cut is crazy and amazing.

2. 4148 clipping diodes> red 3mm LED
No.
I love red LED clippers in my high-gain pedals, but this just sounds gross.

3. 3mm LED>1n4007
Yes, definitely! The clipping sounds more impolite, grimy, and gnarly with the 4007. Will probably try to put on a switch

4. 1n4007>no clippers
Yes. Super gnarly, loud, and raw sounding. Sounds like I'm leaning towards an on-off-on situation.

5. filter caps 480p>550p (what I have)
Probably? It sounds like it's moving the clipped frequency up, so equivalent to letting more of the original bass frequencies through. Like more of a clean blend.

Oh yeah, I tried a 5089 in the recovery gain stage, and that's a no.
 
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Well shucks and consarnit.

Was looking to implement the Pyrocumulus tone stack and realized I'd done made breadboard errors.

Breadboard ferkakte because I neglected to put in C11 (10 nf to ground off tone pot) and instead stuck the 10nf in C12, which was supposed to be 100nf.

Rectified it, and now the circuit is much bassier and different sounding, I'm going to have to retest everything from the beginning. Interestingly, the tone stack did do things, and maybe the openness and granularity was due to my error.
 
Feral Feline said:
TLDR at bottom.
For those willing to wade in past their ankles...

Okay, so I recently had a Buzz Under the Bunyan, an abeille sous le capot, which made me revisit this whole, to borrow from yet another language, meshugas.


A fault of mine is that when something gets WAAAYYYYYYyy blown out of proportion and over-hyped, I either puke, walk away in the opposite direction (far away), or do both. A fault that can be a good thing, too.


So, when the Bluebeard was at its height of popularity (well, anytime it spiked) and was available, I didn't buy one because I didn't have a lot of spare coin and more-so didn't want to buy into the hype. "So why have you bought into so many other hyped circuits, Feral?" you may ask, for which I've no solid answer; maybe they were less-hyped?

Like I was saying, I recently became obsessed with this circuit again. I thought I'd exhausted previous avenues before, but I had only touched upon the tip of the iceberg of this Titanic adventure. I've done did a deeper dive: I've catalogued as many of these pedals as I can, searching old sales threads, commercial gear-pages, other English- and foreign-language forums... I've made notes about who owns what serial number, collected pics, seen which Bluebeards were traded and sold to other Fuzz-lovers, documented many claims to serial#xxx... — but I had to stop short of marking down every Tom Dreck and Harriett Hyperbole that casually mentions having one.
I've spent WAAAYYYYYYyy too much time on this.

Incidentally, "Bluebeard" is based on a French folktale of a serial killer, a husband that routinely marries and then murders his wives. 😒

500px-Blue_Beard_in_Tales_of_Mother_Goose_%28Welsh%29.png

Bluebeard gives his wife the keys to his castle, art by Gustave Doré (1862).


Most of the threads are old, photo-links corrupted; any sales of Bluebeards have already sold long ago save one in Russia that I can't trust is legit and even if it were... Well, I'm not Putin any of my money in Russia at the moment and it's overpriced. I found one very recent Reddit thread (Dec '24/Jan '25) where the OP claims to have found one in a thrift shop for $17. I'd buy one at five times that price, but generally used Bluebeards are priced out of reach.

So in my Internet travels I've come across demos and posts from various pedal-industry punters and pedal-builders, including comments from Sonny himself. I still don't like the hype surrounding it, it is not worthy of the blind zealotry some ascribe to it, but it is a great-sounding Muff in the demos.
All this has further entrenched my former opinion, with one change:

TLDR — If Sonny were to make the Bluebeard available again, I will buy one funds permitting.
I'd trace it, sure, but said purchase would be made expressly to have and to hold.​
I will build a clone for myself, eventually, whether I buy an original or not.​
Misschien een kleine kloon, 1590A...​
​
Click to expand...
Where is this bluebeard logo from? Is this official? I'd like to use it on a build, but not if it's an official thing.
 
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