Fuzz / Octave switch.

[newfish]

Hi All,

Will be building a Fuzz Face (using some OC45s I have lying around) this week.

I'm wondering if I can add an 'Octave' switch - similar to a Fender Blender.

I've already built a Bobtavia, and a Silicon Face, and was wondering if the diode stage of the Bobtavia is the bit that soup-up the octave effect.

...or am I barking up the wrong tree?

[ambulancevoice]

Hi All,

Will be building a Fuzz Face (using some OC45s I have lying around) this week.

I'm wondering if I can add an 'Octave' switch - similar to a Fender Blender.

I've already built a Bobtavia, and a Silicon Face, and was wondering if the diode stage of the Bobtavia is the bit that soup-up the octave effect.

...or am I barking up the wrong tree?

The Fuzz Face doesnt have an octave up
its just a straight fuzz
i think you can add an octave circuit to it though

[newfish]

...that's what I'd like to do - but I'm taking a stab in the dark as I'm very much a "see layout, make layout" DIY-er.

I was wondering if there's a simple way of doing this - such as pinching a bit from an established 'octave' design.

Cheers!

[tcobretti]

If you search the archives you should be able to learn how to do this.  You'll probly want to copy the output section of a Tychobrache (just the two diodes and transoformer). 

However, you don't need to do this.  Just put the green ringer before the FF in your signal chain and turn both on at the same time.

[newfish]

Brill.  Thanks Tco - that's exactly what I was after.

My plan is to put the output of the FF through another DPDT footswitch, so I can either route the signal straight out (as per normal Fuzz Face), or patch through the tranny / diode arrangement for some octave craziness.

"We're gonna need a bigger breadboard..."

[tcobretti]

Like I said, you should at least try the GR into the FF; I posted a similar effect a while back and it worked great.

If you got the Tycho route, you may need an additional transistor stage after the diodes to make up for volume loss.

[fNNR]

Hi

Sorry for answering such an old post.

I'm actually interested in doing the same thing, adding a green ringer octave to a fuzz face. Has anyone here done that and finished it? I was just thinking, wouldn't I need two seperate power supplies because the Fuzz Face operates on a negative power supply but the green ringer operates on the standard positive power supply. Or is there some way to go around this?

I also don't fully understand how the octave part works. The signal is fully rectified so it's frequency is doubled, I get that. But I thought that when you fully rectified a signal you'd only get positive amplitudes (no swings below zero), how is this dealt with?

Thanks

[drewl]

I've built a couple fuzz/octave combos so far.
I like the fuzz circuit after the octave- ymmv
on a green ringer variation I swapped out the 6.2K emitter resistor for a 10k pot/20uf gain control which when down is an octave circuit, with gain all the way up it's a fuzz.
One version is a distortion+ type circuit with octave in front, both functions can be switched individually.

[petemoore]

Green Ringer's cool cause it doesn't quite work as octavey without a Fuzz in front.
  Since it's common enough to want to go from FF clean or Fuzz into octave, and since the FF cleans up, pretty good dialed in octave/fuzz/ringmod tones [and a variety of them availed at the guitar volume], this prevents the toe tapping involved in the octa-dailing...[every octave sounds different and depends on __ [ot].
  The transformer thrown in [Tychobrahe etc.], well the transformer gets to put in and take out it's bits...and is a different sound. Taking the end [octave tranny / diodes] out of the Tycho...leaves a 'fuzz'...many report this fuzz is good sounding. And although the Tycho can' be great sounding Octa-Fuzz [very cool], it required more extensive 'peripheral' dialing in, and seems less acceptive of having anything but exactly what it wanted [and adjusted just 'so'] to do that for me, Green Ringer seemed more forgiving, flexible [in that just about anything with boost+ something, added after or even to the Green Ringer makes the Green Ringer...Ring.
  But my Tycho got finicky and was taken out of the race [worth thinking about working up another because it really had more 'swashy swirl', if you will, [..and now I have a loop box.