Fuzz Face With A VU Meter?

[Guitar Dude]

Hey (This is my last post of the night, I promise),
Would it be possible to put a backlit analog meter in a Fuzz Fuzz face so that when you bash the strings it kicks up and when you play lightly it hovers around the low end?

I know it's not essential or anything and it'll probably @#$% up the gentle balance of the Fuzz Face, but it could look pretty cool...or maybe I'm just crazy...

Tim

PS: What does VU stand for (Aside from Velvet Underground)

[Mark Hammer]

VU = Volume Units

You CAN have a panel meter or LED meter in your FF, although you'd need some sort of onboard input buffer that would split the guitar signal, sending it simultaneously to the additional meter circuit and the distortion.  Whether that additional buffering changes the tone in a way that is undesirable is another thing.

[Peter Snowberg]

I would think that the super high resistance and low capacitance of a JFET opamp like the TL072 would make for a buffer than was quite transparent. Use one opamp as a buffer, then rectify the signal, and the other opamp to amplify the signal to drive the meter. I would take the signal from the CW lug of the volume control to keep the meter consistent.  

Take care,
-Peter