RCA Fuzz ?

[Dragonfly]

Have any of you guys built the RCA Fuzz ? I found a schematic for it (althought its a bad scan...i'm working on a new schematic tonite), and it seems like it might be interesting.

If you *have* built it, what are your thoughts about it ?

thanks !

[petemoore]

No, I have an RCA Victor Tube Amp, with recent new EL84's [4] swap.
 Maybe it's the Fuzz Intended for use with that amp !!!...
 Actually never heard of that one....

[brian wenz]

Hello Hello--
    Where is the schematic that you're using??  
If it's the same circuit I built awhile back it was germanium 3-tranny [??]
Sounds okay.... a little noisey.   Wait a sec...did that one operate on 1.5 or 3 volts?
Brian.

[Dragonfly]

Hello Hello--
    Where is the schematic that you're using??  
If it's the same circuit I built awhile back it was germanium 3-tranny [??]
Sounds okay.... a little noisey.   Wait a sec...did that one operate on 1.5 or 3 volts?
Brian.

i found it somewhere online....cant remember where though.

its 3 transistors...2 NPN and 1 PNP ....sk3020's and a sk3005 ...my guess is to socket those and use a few trimmers and i should be able to use a "modern equivalent" set of transistors to cut down the noise and maybe "up" the performance a bit.  also, its a 9v cicuit, not a 1.5v ....

i should be able to post a redrawn schematic soon...

[brian wenz]

Hello Hello--
     Yeah, that's the one with the PNP  for Q2.  I found the schematic.....it's 9v and I DIDN'T build it.  The one I built has all three germs with slightly different circuit.
Brian.

[Dragonfly]

Hello Hello--
     Yeah, that's the one with the PNP  for Q2.  I found the schematic.....it's 9v and I DIDN'T build it.  The one I built has all three germs with slightly different circuit.
Brian.

yep...i redrew the schemo tonite so its easier to read...gotta wait for my hosting site to clear up, and i'll post it.  seems like it might be an interesting build for a fuzz freak like me

btw Brian...have you done any further work on the fuzzrite circuit?

[puretube]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/caseyseffectpage/Fuzz%20and%20Overdrives/rcafuzz.gif

[Dragonfly]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/caseyseffectpage/Fuzz%20and%20Overdrives/rcafuzz.gif

..thats the one....heres the redrawn schematic for "easier reading" then the original scan....

[brian wenz]

Hello Hello-  
  Yeah, that's the one I DIDN'T build!  There's a few of those RCA circuits floating around.........one of 'em is a 2-tranny circuit.  Wonder how old these are??
So far my fave FuzzRite circuit is is a 2-germ [PNP] version.  I stopped experimenting after I built that!  
Brian.

[Dragonfly]

Hello Hello-  
 So far my fave FuzzRite circuit is is a 2-germ [PNP] version.  I stopped experimenting after I built that!  
Brian.

are you just using trimmers on the collectors of the transistors for biasing?
what trannies did you end up liking?


im thinking of building an NPN version with some of the AC187 germ trannies i have sitting around....they sound great, dont have an incredibly high hfe, and are pretty inexpensive.  

more "just thinking aloud" content....what if you actually made the biasing pots "external", so that along with the "mix" and "volume" controls, you could actually "bias" each trannie on the fly? that way, if for some reason, you wanted to mis-bias one side and mix it in with the properly biased side you could do that easily...might get pretty "sick" in a cool way...of course with the turn of a knob you could dial in a properly biased version as well....(then you could add an overall voltage "starve" control, and switchable input caps, and.......and then you'd have a zillion knob fuzz )

you built the schematic version from fuzz central, right?

[Dragonfly]

Hello Hello-  
  Yeah, that's the one I DIDN'T build!  There's a few of those RCA circuits floating around.........one of 'em is a 2-tranny circuit.  Wonder how old these are??

Brian.

i'll probably build one in the next week or two, just to see how it sounds....

as far as "age", i have no idea....really old  

[petemoore]

Fuzz Lineage...reminds me of a book "Farm Implements of the Past".
 It had pictures, photo's, diagrams, copies of manuals, descriptions, track records, histories, settings [where they were made]...quite a good read for travelling...interesting stuff. Mother Nature and the other mother, Necessity creating all kinds of beasts.
 As you may know, before there were refrigerators there were Ice Boxes. What there was before Fuzz is known, how well documented it is is a matter for discussion or a whole new book on the matter.
 Anyone know of any super cool 'History of the Stompbox' or Fuzzbox books?

[Dragonfly]

Fuzz Lineage...reminds me of a book "Farm Implements of the Past".
 It had pictures, photo's, diagrams, copies of manuals, descriptions, track records, histories, settings [where they were made]...quite a good read for travelling...interesting stuff. Mother Nature and the other mother, Necessity creating all kinds of beasts.
 As you may know, before there were refrigerators there were Ice Boxes. What there was before Fuzz is known, how well documented it is is a matter for discussion or a whole new book on the matter.
 Anyone know of any super cool 'History of the Stompbox' or Fuzzbox books?

theres that book "Stompbox"...its a decent read...i'll have to dig my copy out, as i havent read it in a long time...but i think its a bit "lax" on the historical lineage, IIRC.


sounds like a Stompbox Forum project

[brian wenz]

Hello Hello---
      I'm  just getting around to boxing up some of my fuzzes and the germ FuzzRite is one of them.   I'll have to dig it out of storage to find out what actual values I used.  I remember NOT using the 470Ks  [maybe going down to 47K or lower....]  There seemed to be a point at which both trannys worked best, so trimpots would be a waste of time and trimpot.
The values for biasing change with the type of tranny, also, but it's a pretty simple circuit to mess with.  Yeah, I used tha Fuzz Central schematic for one and a Japanese schematic for another one.  Can't find the Japanese one.....it's real close to the Shin Ei Companion Fuzz with a few different values [and NO filter network at the end, either!]
Brian.