Acetone FM-3; any thoughts???

[Bernardduur]

Hello all!

I played one a while ago and while it has a lot of fuzz under the hood it sounded quite nice, big and juicy!

Anyone has a schematic of this baby??

[Sir H C]

No schematic but that one is the closest to the Bee-Baa of the Ace Tone fuzzes.

[Bernardduur]

Yes, I heard that also.....

But I also tried a Bee Baa (that guy just loves vintage fuzzes) and this unit was so much fuller and bigger; the Bee Baa just was shrill and tiny next to it!

[Sir H C]

Sounds like his Bee-Baa might have been functioning wrong, or just running it in treble boosting mode.  Mine when used as a fuzz was thick, very Super Fuzz without the octave so chords worked better.

[Meanderthal]

 I agree... Mine is really thick and powerful, a very Sabbath kind of sound. Since Ace-Tone became Roland, I would imagine the FM-3 must  be the ancestor of the BeeBaa. I'd be very interested in a peek at a schematic of one myself.

[Sir H C]

Sorry just have pics, not mine either.

[Meanderthal]

 Hmmm... Cool! Never saw one before... Looks like it might be a BeeBaa(for the most part) without the notch, but with a tone knob for the boost. Interesting! One step closer to what I would consider ideal- a BeeBaa without the notch or boost...(notch sounds too 'Hairspray Metal' for my taste, which could also be described as "thin and shrill")

[Bernardduur]

Sounds like his Bee-Baa might have been functioning wrong, or just running it in treble boosting mode.  Mine when used as a fuzz was thick, very Super Fuzz without the octave so chords worked better.

No, it was functioning right; imagine that sound but then thicker, more open less compressed.......

Just more natural sounding...... I really liked the FM-3 above the Bee Baa just for THAT sound

[Dan N]

I'd sure like to see a schematic or some good guts shots.

There is an extra pad on the FM-2 (pad 3) that looks made for a cap and resistor to ground. Funny if the FM-3 turned out to be a modified FM-2. Input into tone recovery stage = Boost?

The Superfuzz, Standard Fuzz, and FM-2 all have an isolated gain stage that could be switched out to make a booster. Super and Standard at the beginning of the circuit, FM-2 at the end. The BeeBaa seems to have run with that notion.

The BeeBaa and Doublebeat fuzzes are my favorite non octave fuzzes. Someone at Ace Tone/Roland sure knew how to fuzz.

[Sir H C]

I will beg the guy I got those pictures from if I could get some gut shots of his FM-3.  I have met some people with insane fuzzes, first generation Solasound Tonebenders, the whole FM line (there is an FM-1 that is very much like a FY-2 from Shin-ei).  Dan, I still have your Acetone, got another dirt cheap off the bay in rough shape but had a spare enclosure (with panel and all) so might see if it is an FM-3 in there.

[Dan N]

I will beg the guy I got those pictures from if I could get some gut shots of his FM-3.

That would be cool! Good luck!