My germanium octave doubler prototype was finished today.

[Pedal love]

I just finished my prototype germanium octavia circuit. I only have one sound file of it. Unfortunately, The file is very short and recorded badly, but it will have to do until I have time to do more. Its with a Fender strat switched on the neck pickup. I will post pictures, additional sounds and schematics when time permits.pl

http://www.classicfuzz.com/geroct.wav

[Dirk_Hendrik]

Great work so far! Go on with the show!

[aron]

Sounds good.

[Pedal love]

Thanks guys, that means a lot. Aron, I have been watching what you have been saying. The things that have been going on here lately have really got me thinking about the beauty of DIY for its own sake. I am going to post schematics on this and on anything I can. We need to return to an older, more free exchange of ideas without the rankness or abuse, that has permeated at the present time. Thanks for opening my eyes to this.pl

[Processaurus]

Sounds neat, real electric.  That's some intense hum with that strat though.

[Pedal love]

I was in a room with a lot of noisy lighting. I should have waited and recorded it differently, it actually sounds a lot quieter than it appears in the sound clip.pl

[Pedal love]

Heres another one:

http://www.classicfuzz.com/oct1.mp3

[aron]

Still sounds good! 

[Pedal love]

Thanks Aron. Whats really cool about this one is you can drive it with a wide range of pedals. I even drove it with the speaker output of a 5 watt ss amp cranked up and it still held together well. For pedal drive, it likes the Mongoose fuzz. In the sound files, I used the speaker output of a two watt Kona amp made here in Fort Worth, Texas. I need to experiment with it more but it seems feasible so far. I am going to do more testing, then release it here.pl

[MetalGod]

that actually sounds REALLY good, I like how pronounced the octave effect is without being too icepicky.

looking forward to seeing the schem - is it based on any other octave effect or something entirely new?

[Pedal love]

Its new but it has a lot of similarities between the Roger Mayer/Tycobrahe Octavia and the current Roger Mayer Octavia design that is used to this day. The main thing is its not a silicon, but a germanium circuit. I think thats the germanium warmth you are hearing. It is definitely a different bird. To exactly what extent I am not sure. Still testing.pl

[Pedal love]

Well it seems I'm having to build a driver circuit as both the Octavia and its driver, really aren't cutting it. I think I can have a build ready soon, but it will have to be two seperate circuits. I'm leaving you with a different circuit above that is a simple passive tone control that I built, that has been getting a lot of praise from some good guitarists in California.Its being built and sold by some buddies, but this is the actual schematic. Its being used by guitarists and pedal steel guitar players alike. This is the whole schematic minus the switch. which is a simple DPDT 100% bypass arrangement. It needs to be put in a pedal shell of a Vox wah or Dunlop volume or wah pedal. I am not a schematic maker, so please try to follow it as well as you can. Its a very simple standard circuit.Thank you.pl

[Pedal love]

I just wanted to say I appreciate your comments, about this first prototype of mine and a schematic is coming as soon as possible.Thank you.pl

[Pedal love]

Heres a schematic I drew last night of a modded fuzz face. It has been years since I hand drew my own, active device schematic. Please pardon the errors. This is of a fuzz circuit, I used to record with. If it is of use to anyone, there are no copyrights I know of.

[Pedal love]

Sorry I made a couple of mistakes. R4 is actually 20k, C5 shouldn't be there and theres a .047uf capacitor from the input node to ground, to get rid of the crap. Anyway use pretty strong batteries. I use Ultralife lithiums, but you can use Goldpeak or others as long as they have a good amount of voltage. Heres the revised schematic. Thank you.

[Pedal love]

I promised to send reports and show some work. This schematic is a failed driver for the germanium octavia circuit I made. You guys name your circuits, so I call it: bad driver fuzz, because it is very distorted and it failed to drive the circuit it was feeding properly. I haven't made public the octave section, as I don't have that working properly. I felt germaniums hard to work with when I started. In reality, they are nearly impossible due to noise. It is a similar circuit to Roger Mayer's Classic Fuzz. No, I wasn't trying to rip him off. If it violates other circuits or patents, sorry. It was merely done as an experiment. Back to the drawing board.

No responsibility claimed for this circuit. Its functionality is likely not practical, as it is the product of failed experiments.

Bad Driver circuit:

[Pedal love]

This is the schematic I promised, to my bad driver fuzz. It sounds a lot like a good fuzz face. If you mass produce it, I have sent the required schematics/diagrams to my cousin who is not only an attorney, he was Reagan's and Nixon's attorney, when they were in office. The material I sent was post dated: August 29, 2007 and is in my cousins private vault. He is also doing a patent search. However, If you want to make one for yourself and a couple friends, nobody is going to say anything. Thanks and goodluck with all your builds. Terence

[Pedal love]

http://www.classicfuzz.com/bdrv3.wav

[soulsonic]

What about the driver didn't work well with the octave circuit? What sort of a sound are you going for? What is the purpose of the huge feedback cap at the end?
The clip doesn't sound that bad, but I see alot of things that could be changed with this circuit to possibly improve it.
Also, that passive tone control circuit doesn't require a DPDT for 100% bypassing - all it needs is a SPST to make/break the connection from the wiper of the pot to the wire connecting the input to the output.

I'm not trying to be critical in a negative way, I just see alot of things that can possibly be improved with these circuits to maybe give you what you're looking for.

[Pedal love]

Soul, I thought it needed better drive, for the octave thing. I had no idea it had a sound as a fuzz. I have very primative recordings here. I used to own some vintage fuzz faces. To hear it live, it sounds like a good fuzz face. I just thought others would get a kick after building some if it came out alright. Peace bros.