Orpheum Fuzz tweaks

[black mariah]

Going off of this layout: http://aronnelson.com/gallery/album161/Orpheum_fuzz_vero

Okay, first things first, get rid of that awful "tone" control. Since you don't have that, you also don't need C2 so remove it. Now we get rid of that annoying sag by putting a 500k pot in series with the input to limit the level going into the circuit. Hey, isn't that nice? Finally, replace R3 with a 100k pot.

It's incredible how much tonal variation is available here. Bias it normally, turn down the input level, and you have a decent mild overdrive. Crank the input and bias it cold (for lack of a better term) and you get a scraggly mess of a fuzz. The good kind.

This is basic stuff but really shows how the interaction between input level and bias can change the tone of a circuit.

[foxfire]

hello, this is my first post and i am a newbie. i know you're all very excited. anyway i just ordered enough parts to build 2 orpheum fuzz pedals which will be my first vero board builds. i have made 3 byoc kit pedals. as far as getting into mods, i managed to wire up 2 pedals in one enclosure with a flipper switch and each of the pedals have simple mods of their own. back to the orpheum, i plan on building the first one "stock" based on the vero layout on dragonfly's layouts. I'm gonna add a led and want to use sockets for the "tone" cap. based on your post here am i right to assume that c2 is the tone cap? I'm thinking I'll probably want more bass than what it'll give me stock. depending on how i like the sound i may do what you have suggested to the second build. thanks for any feedback.

[tcobretti]

What BM calls the tone cap is C2 on that layout.  It would be interesting to put a larger value in there; I believe it will make the tone pot have a greater effect.  To my ears the tone pot is more of a fuzz pot, but it is pretty subtle.  I used a 500k tone pot (the original apparently used a 1M) which seemed to make it work a little better.  I would certainly recommend socketing the .0022u output cap.  Larger values there will fatten the overall sound.

[foxfire]

cool, thanks for the tip.

[rockgardenlove]

What kind of transistors should be used?

[foxfire]

since they didn't specify i'm gonna use sockets and i got 4 different si transistors and i have a few what i think are ge npn's to mess around with.

[vanessa]

And when you're all done you got yourself a FY-2 comanion fuzz... 

Just kidding!

[tcobretti]

As I recall, transistor choice doesn't matter much. 

There is a schem of the Ge version floating around.  Check the big Orpheum thread, I think that's where I saw it.