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

[analogmike]

I have a few of these, never seem to work right. WORST CONSTRUCTION METHOD EVER!!!

When you open it up yuo WILL break wires. I improve these by unscrewing the circuit
board and mounting it to the top half with standoffs and tie wraps so that all the electronics are on the same half.

good luck!

you can see one of mine on top of the psychadelic machine, on the right of the rows of fuzzfaces.

[zachomega]

So it is the same schematic but the 10k pot is 100k?  Output still taken from the collector of Q1?  And sweet, I have a couple of salvaged 2SB54's around. 

-Zach Omega

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.

[zachomega]

Sir H C,

I drew this up real quick.  Does this roughly correspond with the units you have in front of you?



-Zach Omega

[Sir H C]

Nope, 8k and 500 in series on the collector of the 2nd q.  500 to the rail.  Cap for output taken from there.  100k is the resistor for the feedback, not a pot.  Fuzz pot is with the cap on the wiper I think (no pots with these).

I will have to dig through some more, whacky.

[zachomega]

So it is actually wired up like a true fuzz face then?

-Zach Omega

Nope, 8k and 500 in series on the collector of the 2nd q.  500 to the rail.  Cap for output taken from there.  100k is the resistor for the feedback, not a pot.  Fuzz pot is with the cap on the wiper I think (no pots with these).

I will have to dig through some more, whacky.

[slacker]

Just what I was about to say, you beat me to it 

[zachomega]

More like this?



-Zach Omega

[Sir H C]

That seems to be it.  Since the leads are all cut, I have to assume where they go.

Funny thing is that the PCB is pretty much the same as Dan's, but the components are in different places.  I will have to take some pictures.

[PenPen]

Saved the original "wrong" schem. I'm going to breadboard this and try that out. If it is indeed doing something funny that no other fuzz has done it looks like it may be worth while.

[Sir H C]

Here are some shots of other Crazytone/Crazyface fuzzes:

[Dan N]

Thanks for the photos! I can easily see a Fuzz Face in those.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y64/earthstandstill/crazytone-insidemkdf.gif

My pcb does have holes for the same circuit. Just strange...

I'm going to take Mike's advise about remounting the pcb. Argh, too bad I can't display it on a psychedelic machine.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Funny thing is that the PCB is pretty much the same as Dan's, but the components are in different places.  I will have to take some pictures.

Makes me wonder what would happen if we gave a fuzz (or anythng else!) to those "circuit bender" guys.......

[zachomega]

Sir H C,

Is that 5k pot on the one stock? 

-Zach

[Sir H C]

Zach, I don't think so.  I think that was a rat shack needed-a-pot-in-college mod.  I got these all in a box of busted pedals in college and would fudge/fix them for fun.  I think that pot is one that I had that was "close" to the needed values so I used it.

[RedHouse]

I have a few of these, never seem to work right. WORST CONSTRUCTION METHOD EVER!!!

When you open it up yuo WILL break wires. I improve these by unscrewing the circuit
board and mounting it to the top half with standoffs and tie wraps so that all the electronics are on the same half.

good luck!

you can see one of mine on top of the psychadelic machine, on the right of the rows of fuzzfaces.

Mike, your room is too messy, but not to worry, I have some extra room at my house for you to store some of your gear!   

[zachomega]

I just scored one of these things off of the bay and it finally came.  The two pots in mine are both 10k B pots.  One has an on/off switch attached to it. 

I like that it is true bypass with the stock wiring. 

Mine has two different transistors in it.  2SA350 and 2SA352.  What is the story on these transistors? 

The output is pretty low compared to the clean sound.  I'll take a look at what is going on and post a schematic.  The thing sounds all kinds of misbiased though. 

Also, mine doesn't have the battery compartment like some of them.  It has the solid bottom plate that needs to be removed when you want to access it and the board is held in place by the foot switch. 

-Zach Omega

[zachomega]

I checked mine...and it is wired up exactly like the first unit with the 2sa352 being Q1 and the 2sa350 being q2.

I also checked the grounds...It is 30 ohms resistance from the input and output jack ground ground to the power ground. 

Also, the 30k resistor measured 12k and then 15k with the meter leads reversed?  Sound like a bad resistor or the semiconductors playing games with me? 

The thing works and is actually fairly quiet...Just lower output, and clearly misbiased transistors.  The notes all trail off...but the attack is real buzzy. 

Would changing the 10k fuzz pot help in any way? 

-Zach Omega

[analogmike]

Old post but just wanted to put something here to help people who find this in google searches.

I have a few of them and found that they used the wrong value for the fuzz pot, a 50K pot with a 1K resistor across the wipers to try to get the resistance  down.

Replace the FUZZ pot with a 1K (or 1KC reverse taper better yet, available at Small Bear) and it should be much better. Leave the
resistor on the old pot, you don't need it, tape the pot/resistor assembly inside in case someone wants to put it back to stock someday.

have fun!

[LucifersTrip]

Does this thing have an official name, and is there any proper schematic?   The schem image in the first post no longer loads....

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

[tracks7]

I am in need of a schematic for one of these, im in the process of repairing one