Univox superfuzz VERO layout?

[skiraly017]

Can anyone compare the Super Fuzz to another fuzz pedal soundwise? My father had one back in the day and I don't recall what it sounded like. Thanks.

[rove]

Since I started the post I will give it a shot.  When I first heard it I was familiar with a fair amount of fuzz/OD sounds and to my ears it didn't sound ike any of them.  Since then, the closest I have come in my personal experience has been the ampeg scrambler I just built with a LPB follower, and perhaps that was what reawakened my interest in this pedal, because the scrambler doesn't seem to quite get me there.  So, fuzzy, a bit of upper octave, and rather thick in tonal character.  Someone else may be able to give you some more direct comparisons to other pedals.
Paul

[Dan N]

I went over the perf layout pretty carefully and it looks good! Nice work Slacker!

[slacker]

Cheers Dan.
Hopefully I'll have time to build it at the weekend, If I do, and it works I'll post some clips.

[tcobretti]

It sounds like an Octave fuzz with very little actual octave.  Very square wave and knarly sounding, but not much more so than most octave fuzzes.

Pete Townshend used one during the heyday of the Who.

[slacker]

RDV has some samples here http://fatboy.ssguitar.com/index.php?dir=Samples/Superfuzz/

[slacker]

I wanted to make sure the vero layout was correct so I put it together this evening. Seen as how I only built this to test the layout I didn't have all the right components. All the caps and some resistors were recycled from abandoned projects and I used a mixture of 1uF and 22uF electros because I didn't have any 10uFs. I subbed some resistor values for the nearest I had where I thought it wouldn't matter and made up some values out of combinations of resistors where I though it would.
Here's the finished board.



I'm happy to report that it works fine. Didn't fire up straight away and it took me a while to debug, turned out I had a couple of solder bridges and I'd missed a trace cut.
Haven't much time to play with it but it sounds good, the fuzz is very thick and has loads of sustain. The octave is quite subtle at the minute, sounds good on single notes but gets lost on chords, there doesn't seem to be any of the ringmoddy textures you get with some octave ups.

[rockgardenlove]

What trannies are those?

[slacker]

The trannies are NOS BC109s HFEs of around 350. Don't think they have any special mojo qualities but they sound good in fuzzes.

[tcobretti]

I don't know, they look pretty mojo-laden.

[rove]

Well I have had some more time to go back over mine and I am getting closer.  After some cleaning, rearranging, etc, I seem to be getting a tone reminiscent of the superfuzz, but at a much quieter volume than the clean bypassed signal.  Also the drive knob as in the diagram seems to work backwards for me...
any tips appreciated, I am going to keep at it.
Thanks again for the layout, awesome to have such resources so readily available.
Paul

[rockgardenlove]

Well, for the knob issue, just flip the outer two lugs.

[rove]

Thanks, I realize that I could switch the wiring on the pot, but just thought I would mention that in case it might indicate another error on my part.  Taking a break for perspective, sometimes I find with these things I need to step away, and every once and awhile, start over from scratch.  On the plus side, I finished my blue box and it's working great...
P

[slacker]

I wouldn't worry about the pot, I've probably drawn it the wrong way round, I can never get them right. Just swap the outer lugs over.
To debug mine I broke in down into sections. If you play guitar into the input and take the output from the drive pot you should get a loud boosted signal. If not there's a problem round the first 2 transistors.
If that works take the output from the level pot or the filter switch, you should get a good fuzzy signal with some octave. If not there's a problem with the phase splitter or the octave pair.
Then take the output from the Out and you should get a louder version of the fuzz sound. If not the final stage is the problem. You can also test the final stage on its own by disconnecting the middle wire from the level pot and connecting your guitar to that, then you should get a good boosted sound at the output.
Hope that helps.

[rove]

Hey I started again from scratch and got the superfuzz working!!
Sounds awesome, I used red LEDs for the diodes and 5089s and 5088s for the transistors.  Still have to box it up, very excited though.
thanks again for the layout.

[slacker]

cool, glad you got it working.

[RDV]

Very cool layout there.

I built the one in my samples on perf which was difficult. I used metal can 2N2222A from smallbear and as you can hear from the samples the octave effect can be very pronounced above the 12th fret but not much below.

RDV

[slacker]

Very cool layout there.

Thanks

I used metal can 2N2222A from smallbear and as you can hear from the samples the octave effect can be very pronounced above the 12th fret but not much below.

I've swapped the BC109s for 2N2222s in mine, they sound fuzzier to me and it has a bit of that speaking ripping sound to it now. Mines the same as yours, the octave is very good above the 12th fret but below that it adds a nice edge to the sound, but doesn't do the cool splatty octave that you get with something like the greenringer.
I added a starve/sag control to mine, just a 4k7 pot wired in series between the supply and the board, and that cleans up the sound a bit and brings out the octave a bit better. Lets you get some cool ringmod style noises.

[rove]

One thing I noticed is that the fuzz knob (or is it sustain?) when all the way cranked mutes out the signal in the last bit of its rotation, thinking this is because the diodes (LEDs) aren't letting the signal thru at that level--fuzz knob all the way to the left gives pretty glorious fuzz/sustain.  So thinking of adding a diode lift or switch to try out different tones.  the starve pot sounds cool, I may try that, has anyone messed much with C and R in the notch filter for different tones?  thinking of messing with that too.
thanks again for the excellent layout.  Tons of gain!

[slacker]

Not sure what you mean about the fuzz pot, but if you turn it all the way down it will mute the sound. If you want to stop this just put a 1k or so resistor between the pot and ground, that way it won't go all the way off.
I haven't messed with the caps or resistors in the notch filter, I like the big woolly sound, but some people say it sounds better if you swap the 22k and 10k (R22 and R23) round.
What I have done is rewire the notch filter so it uses a pot to ground from C5 instead of the switch so you can get a nice range of tones between full notch and normal. I think this was originally suggested by Mark Hammer and it's a good mod. You have to move a couple of components to do it but it's worth the effort.

Here's a couple of pictures of mine.