Dragonfly's Lil' Devil Fuzz sorted... next question please...

[ACS]

Well, finally got it up and running.  I swore black and blue that everything was the right value (it was), all the solder joints were schmicko (they were), grounds were all to the right place (yep), and everything was oriented correctly (ye... No.)

Bugger.  I checked every one of those components at least 10 times.  Every time they were correct.  And you know what?  I was right - they *were* correct.  What I hadn't checked however was the most crucial and obvious part...

What's that you say? Q1? No... Q2 then?  No...  Surely it was an electro then?  Wrong again...

*cough* battery clip *cough*

Damn.


So, now that it's up and running, what's the deal with the trimpot?  Should I just be aiming for the quoted 8.7K and be done with it?  Or is there method in the madness?  While we're at it, I notice that the 1K pot substitution just seems to cut the sound completely when turned down, rather than the 'fuzz control' it should be...  Thoughts?

Cheers
Aidan

[Dragonfly]

It happens to ALL of us ...and its always something ridiculous like that !   

Congrats on sorting it out.

"quoted 8.7k" ? You mean 8.2k, right ? 

What I would recommend is setting it to where it sounds best, which will liely be in the 50-60% of your supply voltage range. If your battery reads exactly 9V on the multi-meter, then between 4.5v and 5.5v should likely sound the best, for example.

Let me know what you think of it once you get it dialed in !

[ACS]

Yep, 8.2, that's what I said... ahem.  I'm having a good day aren't I?!

OK, so I've had a play around, and yes, there's a definite point where the fuzz is the smoothest.  mmm, nice

Two observations: 1. The 1K pot still doesn't do a heck of a lot except turning on a lot of spitting and farting when down around 500K, then basically no signal below that. 2. This sucker is LOUD!!!  Unfortunately it seems quite noisy as well - maybe this'll be better once I get it all boxed up?

Mmmm, first fuzz for me - gotta say, I like it

Where's the best point to put a basic tone pot in?  Kinda bassy in it's stock form for me, so would be nice to be able to tweak this...

Cheers!

[Dragonfly]

Yep, 8.2, that's what I said... ahem.  I'm having a good day aren't I?!

OK, so I've had a play around, and yes, there's a definite point where the fuzz is the smoothest.  mmm, nice

Two observations: 1. The 1K pot still doesn't do a heck of a lot except turning on a lot of spitting and farting when down around 500K, then basically no signal below that. 2. This sucker is LOUD!!!  Unfortunately it seems quite noisy as well - maybe this'll be better once I get it all boxed up?

Mmmm, first fuzz for me - gotta say, I like it

Where's the best point to put a basic tone pot in?  Kinda bassy in it's stock form for me, so would be nice to be able to tweak this...

Cheers!

The 1k should give a fairly full range of gain....though its not "subtle"... a 1k reverse audio will give a better "control".

As for a tone control... personal preference would be to place a "EZ Face style" blender tone control on it...except instead of having it at the beginning of the circuit, use it at the end. This pedal has plenty of volume for it, and it will be most effective there. If you put it in "front" of the circuit it will affect the amount of fuzz ...at the end it just affects the EQ. I would start with a 500pF cap and a .1uF cap as values.

A simple search for "EZ Face" "blend" should produce the schematic...if not, theres a NVN / Joe Gagan folder in the gallery here....