Introduction and question

[evergud]

Hi all!

I am completely new to this forum, and pretty new to the whole DIY-thing also. I have been building a couple of things before, namely a booster and a three-knob tonebender, both kits. Right now I am in the phase of completing my Omega booster - will be fun to see if my amp (and me!) likes this one better. I guess I will be building some more overdrives, and possibly a tremolo also. Anyway, this is great fun!

Anyway, I have been discussing some designs with my brother-in-law (he is a professional guitarist, playing contemporary music - noise, mostly ;-)), and he thought it would be great to have a fuzz pedal inside a rocker pedal, to vary the fuzz. I have an old crybaby that I would like to gut, but the question is if I can use the stock pot for the fuzz pot? I haven't desided on design yet, but it will be along the lines of a muff or something like that, maybe a rat.

Is this doable?

Cheers,

Jørn

[eleanor296]

depends on your fuzz design.
From what I remember, The standard HotPotz has a resistance of 100K.
So if your fuzz has a gain control with a resistance of somewhere in that ballpark, you'd be good to go.
Of course you'd only have a limited amount of control, since the standard wah doesn't allow the pot to travel all the way to its end positions.
I don't remember what taper the standard pots have though....

By the way... why not just use your guitar volume?  Just as effective... and always handy.

~Andy

[evergud]

Thanks. If I remember correctly it is a 250K pot with a log taper (don't have it here).

Re guitar volume: Yes, that is right, and that is how I do it, but the purpose for my brother-in-law is to control the fuzz while he plays, and the stuff he plays is definitely with both hands at the same time. :-)

The lack of total travel will be another problem, but if I align the pot correctly, I hope that will solve it.

But I will see what value the pot is, and see if I can find a design which fits. Thanks again!

[MikeH]

You say he plays noise... really?  If that's true he might be interested in a fuzz with a feedback loop, and he could use the rocker to control how much feedback he introduces into the signal.  This creates wild oscillations that can be controlled and can add to the fuzz sound.  Pretty cool really.

[evergud]

Well, it's not that kind of noise, just lotsa weird notes and scratching and stuff, so the idea is to go from overdriven to clean as he plays, preferably without any volume loss. We'll see how it works out. Thanks for the answers!

[petemoore]

  I tie a ziptie right on the gainknob where my foot can reach it.
  But prefer to have a switch to do the honors between presets or one side adjsutable.
  Example is a gain full switch which is simple to implement with an SPST on the gain knob of my DIST+.
  Treadle I think would be most useful if it pans between medium and high gain...could be too touchy if the full range of gain is available..ie design around the pot so that a more useful range is available..and is 'fine tunable' enough to hit the settings you want [such as have toe down / max gain be...a gain setting you can preset.

[yodude]

... preferably without any volume loss.

You might also want to think about a compressor after the fuzz.