One Knob Fat Fuzz (Lofo Mofo mod)

[jmusser]

I had built Tim Escobedo's Lofo Mofo quite some time ago, and didn't care for it at all. It had expected it to be a very thin sounding fuzz, and it ended up exactly as advertised....Just like you were playing through the cheapest piece of gear that you could find at a yard sale! It just wasn't my cup of tea. Right when I was about ready to dismantal it, MartyMart and Dragonfly came out with the "One Knob Fat Fuzz" that was based on the Lofo Mofo. Basically, you change the .01s to 1uf, the 220pf to .1uf, remove the 500K pot and shottkey diode that act as a tiny speaker simulator, and add a 1 meg resistor in place of the 500K pot. That's about all there is to it. Oh, and replace the purposely anemic 2N2222, with a 2N3904. This made a fairly decent fuzz. MartyMart compared it in tone to Joe Davisson's Easy Drive, but I don't feel it's in the same ball park with that one. It is VERY bassy, and VERY loud. The tone is not nearly as focused to me. I played it for awhile though the little Epi tube amp, and I liked the bite you got out of it with the treble all the way up on the amp. When you hit the A string it actually echos at a higher amplification than the original note after about a second, which is pretty odd. I knew from the Easy Drive, that the OC140 germanium had subbed really sounded good in that single transistor circuit, so I traded the 2N3904 for one. That made a lot of difference. It gave it a sort of nasel tone that reminded me quite a bit of the Ugly Face, and it also gave it a buzzy tone that reminded me quite a bit of the 60s Style Fuzz Circuit (RCA Hobby Circuit #43) that I just built. I liked the germanium's tone far and above the silicon's tone. In the Easy Drive both the Si or the germanium sound equally good, and different. I even plan to make both transistors switchable for that circuit, because I like both tones equally well. Anyway this fuzz sounds pretty darn good in the neck pick up position and middle pick up position (Strat), and makes a nice overdrive with the guitar's bridge pick up. I believe this circuit's on Dragonfly's Site.

[MartyMart]

Not bad for half a dozen components is it ?
Too much bass .... use 0.1uf's or even .047's
5088 is also quite nice in there too

MM.

[jmusser]

Yea Marty, it sounds pretty good. Since I know you have some OC140s throw one in that circuit and see what you think. Did you have any luck getting the Darling Fuzz to work?

[MartyMart]

No, its as simple as anything but I can't get a peep out of it
just some "crunching/hiss"
There's only a handful of connections which are all fine
just wont work !!
The 10k pot from -9 volts with output from the wiper
looks wrong.
Could be output from Q2 emitter ...?

MM

[Dragonfly]

...btw...its ALL martymarts design...he just modified my layout, and i cleaned it up a bit. 

the credit definitely goes to marty

andy