JEN FUZZ III vintage psychedelic fuzz

[tubelectron]

Hi All,

I dealt this pedal for peanuts at a flea market, with only one issue in it : the footswitch was broken, so I installed a 3PDT to have a TBP operation, that's all.

When I plugged it in, I thought I already heard that sound one hundred times before, in one hundred Soul/Rhytm'n'blues/Disco/Pop/Psychedelic tunes/70s... Some kind of a "forgotten cult"... Very pleasant to me !

Exactly what you will never have with a FuzzFace, TubeScreamer, BigMuff : virtually no bass, only a trebly/peaky tone, with huge sustain and overtones if you max the "attack" control. Listen to Frantique's "Getting Serious" tune, and wait (or skip) for the end to hear the instrumental reprise : the soloing guitar has exactly the sound of a FUZZ III.

Here are the pics and the schem of the unit, for those who may be interested - have a try !







A+!

[Mark Hammer]

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=87984.0

[LucifersTrip]

Exactly what you will never have with a FuzzFace, TubeScreamer, BigMuff : virtually no bass, only a trebly/peaky tone, with huge sustain and overtones if you max the "attack" control.

that's great!   and the funny thing is, it is basically a Fuzz Face...with an emitter follower, smaller input cap, diode clipping...and a really small volume pot

I got exactly what you described with my Jen Fuzz clone.

If you have the time, can you post the voltages...thanx alot

[tubelectron]

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=87984.0

I saw indeed your post some time ago when I hadn't my FUZZ III yet, Mark. The main difference is in the coupling caps : 0.1µF in your JHS, 0.01µF in my JEN : this is responsible for that "trebly" tone. I was tempted to shift for a trial with 0.1µF like in the JHS in order to see what would be the sonic behavior, but I didn't took the time to. Moreover, I am afraid that the sound would be boomy/muddy, due to an excess of bass clipping at high gain settings...

My workbench is full of tube guitar amps for service these time, LuciferTrips, so taking the voltages will come later... sorry... And yes, now I remember that you've built a clone and posted the informations on the forum.

A+!

[Mark Hammer]

No reason why it has to be one OR the other.  Install a switch to select input cap values.