Knight errant

[Mark Hammer]

Prompted by an article in an issue of Gearphoria ( http://gearphoria.com/ interesting mag), and rummaging through my uninstalled-circuit-boards boxes, I decided to throw together a clone of the Knight-Allied fuzz, a DIY project/kit from the 60's, and a vero layout of which can be found here:  http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.ca/2013/06/knight-kg389-fuzz-box.html

I made mine with a 2N3392 for Q1 and a 2N3391 for Q2,  The schematic shows a 470k resistor in series with a 100k pot for the input.  I just used a 500k pot on its own, in order to be able to get even more intense sounds.  Also used a pair of 1N4148s for clipping.

Pretty darn easy to build, and a pretty vintage 60's tone.  Small, too.  Using 1/8W resistors and small ceramic disc caps, my build is 6 x 11 holes on a piece of perf.  My build doesn't sound quite as muffled as the one demoed below.  More intense-sounding than that one (likely because of the input pot difference), but not as over-the-top as a Fuzz-rite. 

The only negative thing I would say about it is that it doesn't seem to matter what pickup you have on or what type of pickup.  I tried it out on a guitar with a pair of P-rails, so that I could get single coil, P-90 and HB functions at the bridge and neck, and quite frankly, it didn't sound a helluva lot different no matter what I did.  In some respects that's a drawback, but in others, it's an advantage - knowing what your tone will be, regardless of where your pickups are at could be construed as "the great equalizer" by some folks.

Definitely worth an hour of your time.  I suspect it is VERY close to some of the things that pinkjimi has posted in past, with his twisted mods.  But the schematic delivers a pleasing sound.  Probably a good idea to build yours with transistor socket, so you can try out different gains.

[EBK]

My build doesn't sound quite as muffled as the one demoed below.  More intense-sounding than that one (likely because of the input pot difference)...

But, do you know anything about that wedge-o-cheese enclosure?

I suspect it is VERY close to some of the things that pinkjimi has posted in past, with his twisted mods. 

Sometimes twisted mods are the only things that get us out of ruts. 

Thanks for posting this.

Just to clarify, is this something you had already (kinda/mostly) built, or did you recycle some of your bone yard to build this?

[Mark Hammer]

I had something I had perfed that used those transistors. It didn't work.  I cannibalized the transistors and jacks.  Took about 2hrs, start to finish.  That's one of the things I like about perf and 2-transistor circuits: they lend themselves well to quick compact builds that simply follow the diagram from left to right..