Got a few minutes ???

[Dragonfly]

Hi,
  I'm over at my parents house for Thanksgiving...no breadboard, no soldering iron, no parts....and I came up with this idea for a fuzz. It uses pretty common parts and values...it "should" work, but like i said, i dont have a means to test it. It uses a darlington pair to drive it, though you could also try a single mpsa13 (or similar) to replace the pair. Some values may need adjusted as well. Also, you could bypass SW1 and just run the diodes to ground.  Anyway, if you have a few extra minutes, and want to build it and report back, i'd appreciate it....for Q1-Q4 i'd try 2n3904's, but it might be worth trying 2n2222's (or ) as well....

as always, suggestions are MORE than welcome !
 
heres the preliminary schemo.... (see updated schemo in later post)
p.s. if anyone "sees" any problems, let me know on this thread...

ANDY

[Hal]

funny, im in the same boat 

[Burton]

wow, how can you just think of this stuff off the top of your head without even having the parts or anything...? that's crazy. you must be goood. especially if it works.

[Dragonfly]

wow, how can you just think of this stuff off the top of your head without even having the parts or anything...?

practice, practice, practice...  

that's crazy. you must be goood. especially if it works.

nah...you want "good", talk to R.G.  .....or Peter Snowberg .....or Aron ....or VSat ...or Mark Hammer...or <insert ridiculously long list here>

[Peter Snowberg]

Nice one Andy!

I know there is some 60s pedal with a similar topology, or is it two mono-transistor stages with the second being the phase splitter?

BTW: Q3 and Q4 don't have any bias.

You can already play air guitar, now it's time to practice some air soldering.....  No mom, really, I'm not nuts.

[MartyMart]

Great Andy !!  Geez, I can't do that off the top of my head 
So, OK how about this FWIW, bias Q3/Q4 with 470k's from 9v and 100k
to ground ... or just perhaps 1M2 from 9v   ??
Am I thinking that "right" off the top of my head ...... someone ??

Marty.

[Dragonfly]

Nice one Andy!

I know there is some 60s pedal with a similar topology, or is it two mono-transistor stages with the second being the phase splitter?

iirc, some of the royal fuzzes might have a similar topology

BTW: Q3 and Q4 don't have any bias.

youre absolutely right ...i knew something looked wrong !!!  what about doing something like the schemo below

You can already play air guitar, now it's time to practice some air soldering.....  No mom, really, I'm not nuts.

air soldering, eh ?

[Dragonfly]

Great Andy !!  Geez, I can't do that off the top of my head 
So, OK how about this FWIW, bias Q3/Q4 with 470k's from 9v and 100k
to ground ... or just perhaps 1M2 from 9v   ??
Am I thinking that "right" off the top of my head ...... someone ??

Marty.

as i was posting, you were posting....great minds think alike....and ours do too !!!!

i used a similar setup as what you described (kinda like a lpb style biasing) ...the values cuould probably use some tweaking....   


andy

[Dragonfly]

...so Marty ....got your breadboard handy ?

[MartyMart]

...so Marty ....got your breadboard handy ?

HA  !   I just finished my breakfast .... a bit early for the "fumes" isn't it !!   
Perhaps late afternoon, I've got an "hour"  should be enough 
How you liking those OC140's ... ??

MM.

[Dragonfly]

HA  !   I just finished my breakfast .... a bit early for the "fumes" isn't it !!   

its 3am here...gotta get to bed soon !

ps...is it ever too early for fumes ?

Perhaps late afternoon, I've got an "hour"  should be enough 

bc108's might sound pretty good...its kind of an "old school" design   if all works ok, it needs a name too...

How you liking those OC140's ... ??

i'm getting ready to use them in a few projects....a NPN skyripper being one....and a combo podal with a mosfet style boost, a liquid drive, and a npn germ FF...i think i'll call it the dirtbox special

[MartyMart]

"DIRTBOX"   ..... tut....tut... Andy  !!
You'll start a "Name Flame" war .....


With reference to both "Fuzz Face" and "Michael Mc Donald backing vocals" you
could call it the "Strap a beard on Fuzz"

Sorry, I know that's very "English" but I know a few backing vocalist's, who say that
whenever called upon to do "Peg" style vocals ... "lets strap a beard on"   ... in very high
respect of "Mr Mc Donald"  !!

MM.

[Dragonfly]

"DIRTBOX"   ..... tut....tut... Andy  !!
You'll start a "Name Flame" war .....

MM.

we wouldnt want that !?!?!?!

[Peter Snowberg]

Not to pick, but the bias for Q4 needs some checking.

I wonder how switched caps for Q3+Q4 would be? You could roll off the octave below a given frequency and just have boost for the low notes.

[MartyMart]

Not to pick, but the bias for Q4 needs some checking.

Does it need connecting to Q4's "base" rather than collector/output perhaps ?

MM.

[robbiemcm]

...so Marty ....got your breadboard handy ?

HA  !   I just finished my breakfast .... a bit early for the "fumes" isn't it !!   
Perhaps late afternoon, I've got an "hour"  should be enough 
How you liking those OC140's ... ??

MM.

ps...is it ever too early for fumes ?

Are there ever fumes involved when you breadboard?

[MartyMart]

...so Marty ....got your breadboard handy ?

HA  !   I just finished my breakfast .... a bit early for the "fumes" isn't it !!   
Perhaps late afternoon, I've got an "hour"  should be enough 
How you liking those OC140's ... ??

MM.

ps...is it ever too early for fumes ?

Are there ever fumes involved when you breadboard?

Metaphor  ... !!
Only if I blow up an IC     

MM

[MartyMart]

Andy, it works  !! ( with a couple of adjustments ) 
Just "squeezed one off" ( ) in half an hour  !!!
I borrowed the bias for your "octave" section Q3//Q4 from a "Superfuzz" and
used 100k resistors from 9v to both bases and 27k's from bases to ground.
( all these resistors are 1% metal film for balance )
Q2 feedback cap is 22uf ( I had no 10uf's ) and i used a 4k7 gain pot with a
4k7 r over it, so it's about a 2k4 pot.
Diodes, 2X 1N34a one direction and a 1N4148 the other.
Well it's LOUD and KNARLY somewhat like a "superfuzz" and the gain/fuzz pot
gets pretty wild flat out !!
Some good octave tones with front pup/tone rolled out and also some "chimes/ringmod"
stuff at some gain settings/gtr vol settings .... you need to "play" with this some 

All in All  VERY worthy of a build, in particular as its less than half the parts of a "Superfuzz"
and pretty much as good IMO, you could add the "scoop" eq, but I wouldn't bother  !!
Oh, trannys were MPSA13 for the darlington and 2X 2N4401's

KOOL ..... gotta run ....

Marty.

EDIT :
It also reacts well with gtr volume, unlike some "Fuzz" circuits when things just
dissapear pn anything less than "11"  !!
Nice smooth transition from "clean" through "slight breakup" to "HELL"  !

[bigjonny]

I am always running across those potentiometers with SPSTs on the rear, so when you "turn down" the pot -- click! -- the SPST opens the circuit.  Seems like this would be a good candidate for SW1.  You could then dial in how much those 1N914 diodes bleed to ground...

[RDV]

It looks like the Kay Fuzz. A Superfuzz w/out the notch filter or volume recovery circuits.

RDV