"new" old fuzz...the Suzy-Q Kustom Harmonic Clipper

[pinkjimiphoton]

mmmmmmOk......

so i took this thing out tuesday and last nite and used it live... thru my cyber twin tuesday, and cyber deluxe last nite.

it worked great. i used it in a small effect chain, guitar> toneblaster fuzz> dunlop "hendrix" wah >suzy q > boss be5 multi (just used for noise gate, delay, and vibrato).

had a local amp maker legend come jam (tom stankiewicz, "cotton amplifiers") and HE was impressed. all the tone came from the two dirt pedals, and i left 'em both on all nite.
all i had to do was turn my guitar up and down, and got everything i needed out of them.

the noise issue was damped (with the last set of transistors, a 470p cap from input of output pot to ground nuked any misc noise) finally, i'd say it worked out great,
so IF you get brave and decide to build this, please let me know.

as an extra added bonus, for the guys who like very noisy fuzzes, if you want a total buzzsaw fuzz with ZERO noise, invert q3 in it's socket.. and you'll get a crazy noise gate effect with a very broken fuzz that sounds like gargling with glass, yet still has a decent sustain!!

so... i would call this verified. thanks to all who helped me come up with it!!!

[Strat68okc]

Was there a vero for the latest version?

[pinkjimiphoton]

hey strat,
nope, not yet. i'll try to whip one up later, i gotta go dig my cars outta a couple feet of snow. 

[pinkjimiphoton]

my friend Vot on another forum built it, and made a VERIFIED layout for vero:





he added a q3 trimmer, and made it so it has 4 hole transistor sockets... can use either ecb or ebc!!

thanks Vot!!

[Strat68okc]

Awesome! Thanks!!

[pinkjimiphoton]

let me know when it's built!! 

[Strat68okc]

I just tore down a non functional 1971 Lowrey Genie Organ. I'm hoping it has some good GE transistors in it. As soon as I get parts from there or ordered, I'll tell you how the build goes.

[pinkjimiphoton]

cool! they probably don't even have to be ge's...i bet 2n3904's would work.
the gain wasn't as important i don't think (HA! ME think!! lol)....as the noise.
low noise transistors are probably best.
it should be PLENTY loud.
i run mine about 9:00, any more than that and it's just too loud. it's excellent that way.

[deafbutpicky]

Hey,
I got my parts finally and put it on the breadboard yesterday. I used bs170s mosfets and 1n34a diodes.
It really gave me a good fight at first. Squeal, hiss and what not, it just didn't stop shouting at me.
Swapping the fets made it even worse, I tried 3904, 3903, bc109c, 2n2222, bc539b but no success.

The main problem is in the first gainstage. The bs170 oscillated and the npn trannys sounded extremely misbiased.

Today I went for round two, messing with some parts around the first and second stage:
instead of the 1k and trimmer I ended up with a 68k. Sounds best and it sets the bias to the values you gave on the schematic.
Less hiss, and finally nomore mermaid squeals.
The 640k in the second stage is replaced with a 1M trimmer, set to 740k to get the 3.54V on the gate. This one is not so critical,
but gives some more bite at your value.

Now you really can get lost in the sound. A tone controle is certainly not necessary. The attack and harmonics pots are really interactive
and there are lots of good tones in them.

One tweak I found: make the 1k and trimmer a 47k and place a 120R and 10µ in parallel between source and ground in the first gain stage
and it's more of a warm distortion. But I Iike the fuzzy bite with higher gain settings in the original, so, just an idea.

Another thing is the last gainstage. The whole thing is way too loud. I don't know if it's essential for the tone and I didn't want to
mess with the original design yet.

So thanks for Suzy, it fun to play with 

[pinkjimiphoton]

Hey,
I got my parts finally and put it on the breadboard yesterday. I used bs170s mosfets and 1n34a diodes.
It really gave me a good fight at first. Squeal, hiss and what not, it just didn't stop shouting at me.
Swapping the fets made it even worse, I tried 3904, 3903, bc109c, 2n2222, bc539b but no success.

The main problem is in the first gainstage. The bs170 oscillated and the npn trannys sounded extremely misbiased.

Today I went for round two, messing with some parts around the first and second stage:
instead of the 1k and trimmer I ended up with a 68k. Sounds best and it sets the bias to the values you gave on the schematic.
Less hiss, and finally nomore mermaid squeals.
The 640k in the second stage is replaced with a 1M trimmer, set to 740k to get the 3.54V on the gate. This one is not so critical,
but gives some more bite at your value.

Now you really can get lost in the sound. A tone controle is certainly not necessary. The attack and harmonics pots are really interactive
and there are lots of good tones in them.

nice tweaks, thanks for the report bro!! i do find it to be pretty versatile and interactive, glad you got the hissyness worked out!!

One tweak I found: make the 1k and trimmer a 47k and place a 120R and 10µ in parallel between source and ground in the first gain stage
and it's more of a warm distortion. But I Iike the fuzzy bite with higher gain settings in the original, so, just an idea.

sounds like a great add on mod bro! i'll try it when i build the vero VOT worked up this week.

Another thing is the last gainstage. The whole thing is way too loud.

dude....it's a pedal from ME...jimi "wall of sound" photon!!!!
seriously, yes, it's LOUD. nigel tufnel would approve..
but dig this... turn the attack and harmonic controls to minimum, and crank the level pot.
now you have a classic overdrive preamp...and you can add in a little of the attack and harmonic controls and give any tube amp a serious wallop and slam the input stage HARD. just gives ya more possibilities. you could probably use it as a front end into a power amp if you had to.

I don't know if it's essential for the tone and I didn't want to
mess with the original design yet.

totally not essential...it's  there cuz if you use the VN2222's they need the extra output stage at the end, or it's just below unity gain.
did you vero this, use your own or vots? or did you make a pcb?

So thanks for Suzy, it fun to play with 

i am honored you like it bro!!!
thanks for verifying it, too!!!

[deafbutpicky]

Nah, stuck it on the breadboard, as I have some projects I'd like to try atm and the weather here
makes paintjobs on  boxes hard anyway. Just try to overcome my ignorance at ge and it's fun
to play with some smaller circuits weekends, as I'm short of time the last weeks.

The use as booster is a point I didn't think of, you're right. As I play into a transistoramp
and let my pedals do the dirty work.

Still have to try your other fuzz/od and there are some things I'd still like to try with this one,
(the transistor swap mystery for example) but I'm pretty shure I'll make this circuit a proper
home/case sometime. Probably call it pink suzy photon 

[mirosol]

Drew up another stripboard layout using Rev. F schematic and posted it on the blog. Thought i'd share it here too.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hebGe2Za5tQ/USEhRvRvmlI/AAAAAAAAB0Q/rtJe95b28EE/s1600/Jimi-Photon-Suzy-Q-MKII.png

[pinkjimiphoton]

Nah, stuck it on the breadboard, as I have some projects I'd like to try atm and the weather here
makes paintjobs on  boxes hard anyway. Just try to overcome my ignorance at ge and it's fun
to play with some smaller circuits weekends, as I'm short of time the last weeks.

The use as booster is a point I didn't think of, you're right. As I play into a transistoramp
and let my pedals do the dirty work.

Still have to try your other fuzz/od and there are some things I'd still like to try with this one,
(the transistor swap mystery for example) but I'm pretty shure I'll make this circuit a proper
home/case sometime. Probably call it pink suzy photon 

LMAO!!! LOVE IT!!!! find a graphic of a fat old hippy in a tutu!!

[pinkjimiphoton]

Drew up another stripboard layout using Rev. F schematic and posted it on the blog. Thought i'd share it here too.

i am so honored to have one of my designs posted on this blog, it's one of the best resources for DIY guitar pedal builders on the planet!! thanks Miroslav and IvIark!
miro, this is a BEAUTIFUL layout, and small!! i love it!! thanks so much!!!!

EDIT: i changed miro's link so it would display the picture..click on it to visit the blog!

[pinkjimiphoton]

miroslav at tagboardeffects.blogspot.com also did a vero of this up,
i built it today...
here's the post i just made there. his layout is built and verified, it has two minor mistakes i'm sure will be fixed soon.

ok, it's built, and running.
that track cut at d14 needs to be removed *NOT AT D9, DUH~~!!, and the jumper from b3 to d3 needs to be removed. (in other words, if you made the track cut, jumper it, or no b+ to q2!!)
and then it works, and great. sounds just like my original, a little less noise (as to be expected)...beware!! them vn2222's blow out EASY...so don't forget to power down when trying different transistors!!
fwiw, on this one, i ended up with mpsa13 in q1, ac176 in q2, and vn2222 in q3. bias trimpot about 1/2 way up. socket your transistors, and see what sounds best to you.
on this build, the transistors are slightly different than on the original, but pretty much i think any npn's will work. you know you've got it when the attack and harmonic knobs are half way up, and the volume is about 9 o'clock. should be a little louder than unity, and sound like green river, or suzy q by creedence.
i'll post voltages tomorrow, late for tonite's gig!!
miro.. nice job on the vero!! undo them two little mistakes, and you can call it verified.

[Strat68okc]

I'm still waiting on parts. Good to know, thanks.

[pinkjimiphoton]

ok, first, here's the corrected vero...hope ya don't mind, miro!



i went thru and took voltage readings. like i said, i tend to just stuff transistors in arbitrarily, until i like something.
sometimes any old transistor will work. sometimes not.

also.. think of all three transistor locations as being cbe, from top to bottom. i didn't lay this thing out originally as dsg or anything.

so anyways..

voltages, with a fresh 9v alkaline : 9.66v

q1, mpsa13 npn hfe unknown.. went higher than my meter reads.

e 0.0
b 1.18
c 1.38

q2, npn germanium, AC176 hfe: 140 @9ma leakage

e 3.63
b 3.71
c 8.40

q3, vn2222 n channel mosfet, hfe: 1,074

e .10
b 1.83
c 1.87

[pinkjimiphoton]

ok, i'm building one of these things for my friend dick.
he wanted a tone control, so i added one.
i tried the stupidly wonderful tone control, and couldn't get it and my circuit to make sweet electron love.
also tried the bmp one. same thing.
so i figured i'd try something really simple, just a basic parallel tone control, like in a guitar. i had good luck with it in my stiff hippy II 386 overdriver.

it works great. at least in this circuit. rolls off the treble leaves the mids intact, doesn't get too muddy. a/b'd it, and full up doesnt seem to suck volume OR tone.

[pinkjimiphoton]

here's WITH the stupid pedal trick tone control:

[mirosol]

The link at upper left corner is for connecting the 1M resistor from Q2 gate to drain. I'm just wondering about the fate of that resistor as it is in the rev. G schematic..

Should i remove the resistor from the layout? It connects to nothing without the link...