Big Monk
Well-known member
“Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ Monk, are we still yammering on about Fuzz Faces? 
”
If you can sit through my rambling, maybe I’ll have a point in the end…
I’ve gone deep into the Fuzz Face recently. “The Fuzz” was a real technical and practical deep dive for me and I’ve really come to love the Fuzz Face topology.
I always thought I was strictly a Mk II guy, but goofing around with the Fuzz Face and figuring out all the levers, what they do, how they interact, etc. has proven to me that it’s circuit topology, and it’s inherent simplicity, belies a depth and complexity of rich fuzz tone.
Recently I came up with a temporary configuration for a new pedalboard that incorporated all the pedals that survived this last and final purge of my circuits I had left. I wanted to test placement, wire routing, etc. and now that I have the final configuration plotted out, I’m looking to future proof by adding 3 more spots and configuring my available power ports for the 16 taps I need.
Currently I have a TrueTone CS-7 handling all my digital stuff, my E-Lady, Aion Ares and my Overdriver (on the 18 vDC tap) and my 7 tap Otraki supply handling dirt, wah, and my Boss CS-2.
The plan is to expand the Otraki with a 3 plug daisy chain and use a LM2596 regulator module and 1590A to make the 15 vDC tap into a regulated 3-14 vDC tap or run it straight through for a filtered 15 vDC tap for extra flexibility and to run the Monk Vibe.
Whew! I’m rambling here.
To the point! Get to the point!
I want to have a dedicated battery box in the board to run Vintage style fuzz builds in the space immediately after my wah. I’ll be using the battery box mini from PedalPCB when it comes es back in stock.
So the first Vintage style build will be a Fuzz Face. It’s my desire to make a true vintage style Arbiter Silicon Fuzz Face with just a few concessions to noise and modernity. I have the board designed and the graphics done, which I’ll post here tomorrow, but here are the basic specs and design choices:
- No LED
- Power from battery through the battery box (so it’ll have a DC jack to interface)
- No power filtering
- Single sided board with bottom ground plan
- Pad rings hidden in top layer to give the vintage look
- Follow the basic layout of the vintage Arbiter board, but with the following small changes:
• PCB Mounted pots (requires some slight tweaks from the vintage board layout)
• 22 nF RF cap from input to ground
• 100-180 pF Feedback bypass cap
• Extra ground pads for shielded wire
- I’m going to try and match the basic aesthetic of the vintage components with high quality modern equivalents including:
• Vishay Electrolytics (similar in style and look to the old Philips caps)
• CDE 150 Series tubular films caps
• Vishay-Dale brown Mil-Spec 1/2W metal films
I’ll post up some pics tomorrow of the graphics and board. Big thanks to @SYLV9ST9R for helping me with the original artwork I had laid out for another SiliFace project that got scrapped. I used his QC of my work and the old file to prepare the current one.
”If you can sit through my rambling, maybe I’ll have a point in the end…
I’ve gone deep into the Fuzz Face recently. “The Fuzz” was a real technical and practical deep dive for me and I’ve really come to love the Fuzz Face topology.
I always thought I was strictly a Mk II guy, but goofing around with the Fuzz Face and figuring out all the levers, what they do, how they interact, etc. has proven to me that it’s circuit topology, and it’s inherent simplicity, belies a depth and complexity of rich fuzz tone.
Recently I came up with a temporary configuration for a new pedalboard that incorporated all the pedals that survived this last and final purge of my circuits I had left. I wanted to test placement, wire routing, etc. and now that I have the final configuration plotted out, I’m looking to future proof by adding 3 more spots and configuring my available power ports for the 16 taps I need.
Currently I have a TrueTone CS-7 handling all my digital stuff, my E-Lady, Aion Ares and my Overdriver (on the 18 vDC tap) and my 7 tap Otraki supply handling dirt, wah, and my Boss CS-2.
The plan is to expand the Otraki with a 3 plug daisy chain and use a LM2596 regulator module and 1590A to make the 15 vDC tap into a regulated 3-14 vDC tap or run it straight through for a filtered 15 vDC tap for extra flexibility and to run the Monk Vibe.
Whew! I’m rambling here.
To the point! Get to the point!
I want to have a dedicated battery box in the board to run Vintage style fuzz builds in the space immediately after my wah. I’ll be using the battery box mini from PedalPCB when it comes es back in stock.
So the first Vintage style build will be a Fuzz Face. It’s my desire to make a true vintage style Arbiter Silicon Fuzz Face with just a few concessions to noise and modernity. I have the board designed and the graphics done, which I’ll post here tomorrow, but here are the basic specs and design choices:
- No LED
- Power from battery through the battery box (so it’ll have a DC jack to interface)
- No power filtering
- Single sided board with bottom ground plan
- Pad rings hidden in top layer to give the vintage look
- Follow the basic layout of the vintage Arbiter board, but with the following small changes:
• PCB Mounted pots (requires some slight tweaks from the vintage board layout)
• 22 nF RF cap from input to ground
• 100-180 pF Feedback bypass cap
• Extra ground pads for shielded wire
- I’m going to try and match the basic aesthetic of the vintage components with high quality modern equivalents including:
• Vishay Electrolytics (similar in style and look to the old Philips caps)
• CDE 150 Series tubular films caps
• Vishay-Dale brown Mil-Spec 1/2W metal films
I’ll post up some pics tomorrow of the graphics and board. Big thanks to @SYLV9ST9R for helping me with the original artwork I had laid out for another SiliFace project that got scrapped. I used his QC of my work and the old file to prepare the current one.
