Making Distortion LESS Fuzzy?

[clipman3]

Anyone ever try making distortion less fuzzy? I'm working with a Boss OS-2's overdrive side (which is just a pretty simple soft clipping circuit), and have made it leaps and bounds better by adjusting a few caps for more bass/mids and changing the diodes. The diodes I have in now changed it from an asymmetrical zener clipping section to a (more or less) symmetrical clipping section with an LED and a silicon (not exactly helping my fuzz situation...), which judging by forward voltages isn't really symmetrical but whatever. I wanna add 2 bat41's in instead of the silicon eventually, but does anyone have any tips or good diodes for getting a nice smooth, natural(ish) sounding distortion out of a soft clipping circuit?

[mistahead]

MOSFETs I've heard are good...

It comes down to various clipping, the short answer is nothing clips quite like "soft tube overdrive" - FET based solutions are generally accepted to be pretty close, 1Nxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx + Red LED antiparallel seems to be another combo that gets a better result in some circuits.

[aron]

We have done this a long time ago. It's on the forums and even in the simple mods page. Cut lows, roll off highs, use a resistor in series with diodes, change op amps etc.

[PRR]

Fuzz is excess high frequencies, not "shape". Cut highs after clipper. That will sound dull. Boost highs before clipper.

This tonal balancing is done in nearly all distortion boxes.

[clipman3]

sweet. I've spent a while researching, but I never came across the fact that fuzz was an excess of highs before, that's cool. I'll give that a try, thanks!

[aron]

Also more lows not cut into a circuit will usually result in more buzz. For instance try a small value input capacitor into a fuzz vs large value. The larger value usually produces more buzz.

[tca]

Also more lows not cut into a circuit will usually result in more buzz. For instance try a small value input capacitor into a fuzz vs large value. The larger value usually produces more buzz.

+1

[GibsonGM]

It's all about tone shaping, just like everyone is saying above.  You wouldn't think so at first glance, but that's where about ALL the tone comes from!

The clipping itself - ok, that can take a couple or 5 forms, usually.  Not 'rocket science' by any means.
BUT - what you present to the clipping device, and what you do with the clipped signal AFTER, have TONS of effect on the final sound.

That kind of tweaking, and understanding what's going on inside the circuit, is the 'holy grail' of DIY, and of guitar geeks like myself in general! 

It's not necessarily about just 'the highs' - it is what level they're amplified to before clipping, in what proportion to the rest of the signal, and how much (if any) they're scaled back before the output.   But of course, too much low/mid will result in mud - they just overwhelm our clipping circuits.  So that's where we start (trim bass).   

Becoming knowledgeable in this area is 90% of the reason we're all here ) 

[pinkjimiphoton]

adjust your bias voltage to the active components higher. high enough, you can make a fuzz into almost a compressor.