"New" old fuzz. Round Japanese Crazy Tone style thingy!

[Dan N]

Recently Mr. Sir HC PMed me wanting my address so he could send me a new fuzz. Is that cool or what!

Photos!
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y64/earthstandstill/ctffront.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y64/earthstandstill/ctfback.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y64/earthstandstill/ctfin.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y64/earthstandstill/ctfpcbtop.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y64/earthstandstill/ctfpcbbot.jpg

On first glance it seemed to be a Fuzz Face with the fuzz controlled by a variable resistor in the feedback between base Q1 and emitter Q2. Once I got acloser look with my loop, I got this:

http://users.rio.com/senorris/junk/crazytone/ctfschem.gif

What the heck? Even now I keep looking at the darn thing for another connection to the collector on Q2. Nope. Sorry.

Here's a cartoon of the board:

http://users.rio.com/senorris/junk/crazytone/cftop.gif

I'm way open to any corrections. Physical or philosophical...

Thanks very much Chris!

[Sir H C]

That is too funny, I never noticed they were wired wrong!  I will have to look at some of the other ones that I have lying around, could be that the solder jocky that day was just off.

Glad you enjoy.

[rockgardenlove]

Weird...

[markm]

Weird...

Agreed.
I really wish someone would give me some old effects 

[Dan N]

Forgot to mention- the thin yellow lines on the cartoon are where pads are connected by long part leads. Also, it's really a nice sounding fuzz! Not real sustainy, but warm and cleans up pretty good. Whoed of thought?

[tcobretti]

We had a thread a while back when one of these fuzzes turned up on ebay.  I'm glad I didn't buy it now that I have the schem!  I actually put this style of "fuzz" control into my fuzz face recently, and it is actually kinda interesting.  The cool thing is that it allows you to tune how responsive the fuzz is to changes in your guitar's volume knob.  I used a 20k resistor to set the minimum feedback resistance, then I put in a 50k pot to adjust the feedback resistance. 

Thanks for the post, it's a nice one for my schem archives!

[Sir H C]

I used this circuit to make my first fuzz face copies but hooked to the second collector.  I have no clue why they wouldn't do that.  Weird.

[tcobretti]

I think I missed the weirdest part - the whole output not from the 2nd collector part.  What the heck?  In this case, what would the 2nd transistor even do besides provide feedback to the first transistor?

[zachomega]

I'd definitely like to find out how this is supposed to be wired up.  I've wanted one of these for a while now.  Any idea of the ideal gain range of the transistors and any possible substitutes? 

And that is 510 ohms on the base of Q1, right? 

Also, speaking of crappy Japanese Fuzzes, if anybody is interested, I can post the schematic to my Walco "Full Frequency Fuzz Tone Generator".  Pretty common circuit with a short decay. 

-Zach Omega

[Harry]

Also, speaking of crappy Japanese Fuzzes, if anybody is interested, I can post the schematic to my Walco "Full Frequency Fuzz Tone Generator".  Pretty common circuit with a short decay. 

Oh PLEASE PLEASE do!!!!

[Sir H C]

I have a bunch of these so I will open some up and see that they are all the same.  Could be they were copying a Fuzz Face and messed up.

[zachomega]

I'll start a separate thread for it. 

-Zach Omega

Also, speaking of crappy Japanese Fuzzes, if anybody is interested, I can post the schematic to my Walco "Full Frequency Fuzz Tone Generator".  Pretty common circuit with a short decay. 

Oh PLEASE PLEASE do!!!!

[zachomega]

I would not be surprised.  sounds like an easy enough change to make as well if you wanted to switch between both "modes"...One as a more traditional fuzz face and the other as their version. 

Any word on those transistors?  I just went to Datasheetarchive and they claim they were supposed to have a hfe centered around 70.  I have a bunch of 2sb175's which fall right in that range.  I was going to use a few for rangemaster style boosts, but perhaps this is an application for them as well.  Although I just assumed they were germanium...Are they?

-Zach Omega

I have a bunch of these so I will open some up and see that they are all the same.  Could be they were copying a Fuzz Face and messed up.

[rockgardenlove]

Uhm...is there any chance I could get one of these too?  How much would you want?

[Harry]

I'll start a separate thread for it. 

-Zach Omega

Also, speaking of crappy Japanese Fuzzes, if anybody is interested, I can post the schematic to my Walco "Full Frequency Fuzz Tone Generator".  Pretty common circuit with a short decay. 

Oh PLEASE PLEASE do!!!!

Thank Yee! That must be the King of Cheesy Fuzz, huh?

[zachomega]

Yeah, it is a fun effect.  The goof ball cases they come in with the hard wired cords and jacks is similar to the "muff fuzz" style...only cheaper...if that is possible.  The soldering on the boards is really pathetic.  On the sound go round I took apart, one of the caps is factory wired backwards...and on another one of their effects (possible the feedback eliminator) there are parts that have solder around the leads but the leads are free to move.  The worst is the Chord and note sustainer.  My first one (yes, I bought more than 1...) had a sprung jack out of the box, a crummy footswitch, and the board needed to be filed away so that I could get the 9 volt battery to fit.  Anyway, the Walco effect thread is started. 

-Zach Omega

I'll start a separate thread for it. 

-Zach Omega

Also, speaking of crappy Japanese Fuzzes, if anybody is interested, I can post the schematic to my Walco "Full Frequency Fuzz Tone Generator".  Pretty common circuit with a short decay. 

Oh PLEASE PLEASE do!!!!

Thank Yee! That must be the King of Cheesy Fuzz, huh?

[slacker]

looks interesting. One thing though, the fuzz put isn't providing negative feedback. The 22uF cap across the 1k5 resistor means that that point is at AC ground, so that end of the fuzz pot is at ground as far as the signal is concerned, all it's doing is loading down the input.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

An interesting case of mutation in the wild fuzz population.
Just as the 'original' fuzz was a mutation of a standard 2 transistor stabilised bias amplifier.
Where does the 'fuzz' come from on this one? I think it's the misbiasing of the first transistor that is allowed by the fuzz knob.
And yes, the second transistor could be any damn thing.
This has made my day
I can't see why this couldn't be the starting point for something good.....

[Sir H C]

These things are a lot of fun.  Splattery to the max. 

[Sir H C]

Now things are getting weird.

I have two PCBs for these things in front of me.  Different circuit!  2SB54 transistors, 100k in the normal position, 30k, 500 ohm, 8k in there too.  Caps 3.3u .01, and 22u.  I haven't traced in/out yet wires all cut, but this is just getting crazier.  And the resistors on these are different, one standard color coding, one, all dogbone with splashes of paint for the colors.