Hey all, total n00b here with Q's

[johnnysomersett]

Okay, bear with me guys and gals as i know you lot all know your stuff (been reading while waiting to be registered)

Ive been playing with effects for a bit but only really re-housing them and adding in switches & extra pots.

I would like to try having a go at building some fuzz boxes but from component up - not just tinkering. There's a sound ive heard before that sounded like a dying atari 8-bit that i THINK
was done changing something called 'sag' ??

I have a breadboard and learn stuff silly quick but im having a bit of a hard time finding anything that explains the basics of fuzz creation and how to use what components
to achieve certain effects.

Ive managed to gleen that to distort a signal, the feed is fed into transistors to amplify it so far as to 'square off' the waveform but after that im a bit empty on information.
Does anyone know a good site/page that explains it in extreme laymans terms? or can anyone here help?

Ive tried that 'Andy's Simple Fuzztone' thats on the board but i couldnt get any sound to pass through it on the breadboard  I also guessed on the PNP transistor thingy
as i didnt have any of the ones mentioned lying around - that probably didnt help

So, anyone wanna help an idiot?

[arma61]

Does anyone know a good site/page....

what about the best place to start with ? 

http://www.geofex.com/fxtech.htm

[oskar]

I would like to try having a go at building some fuzz boxes but from component up - not just tinkering. There's a sound ive heard before that sounded like a dying atari 8-bit that i THINK
was done changing something called 'sag' ??

This should be what you're looking for.
http://www.beavisaudio.com/Projects/DBS/

[demonstar]

So, anyone wanna help an idiot?

It sounds like you're far from it. You sound well informed.

Anyway... Maybe these pages might help...

"http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=47572.0"
"http://www.diystompboxes.com/wiki/index.php?title=DIY_FAQ"    (Guess you've probably found this one already)

There's a couple to get you going. Like mentioned above geofex is great and in particular check out "The Technology Of..." series. I think the Fuzz Face article will be most relevant to you.

[johnnysomersett]

Thanks guys 

Muchos thanks for the voltage 'sag' link...would pretty much be able to build that into any pedal if you wanted! Im assuming it could be rigged up with a footswitch so you could have a level present and stomp it on when needed?

If so, can anyone do me a favour and fill in the wiring on the image below?



Thankyou already people 

[arma61]

I'm quite sure it can be done easily in another way, though this should work




Armando

[darron]

i wouldn't be worried with the difference between tinkering and designing your own effects. by the time you make something in one way, people have already done it. there's only just so many ways that you can make something distort. the difference is how you make your own tone controls, do your own biassing, and the values of components that you select for different reasons. there are different ways to go about things and you'll work out which ways you like the best and make your own design from it.

probably not what you want, but if you want to sound exactly like an 8bit atari, then look up a bitcrusher

[johnnysomersett]

Cheers for that arma61, will give that a go when all my parts arrive 

As for the 'bitcrusher', thats not all im after, more of an afterthought to the general question about fuzz

Guess the best bet will be to buy a kit maybe and see how that goes then i can try playing around with the component values, see what i get.
Other than that, ill keep studying schematics and see what else i can gleen.

Anyone suggest a good simple kit from somewhere to have a go as my first?

[Joe Hart]

Build Your Own Clone (BYOC) has some good kits for various effects. If you were just building a FF, I would just recommend getting some transistors from Small Bear and build it yourself. It's a simple circuit. The only "catch" is biasing it, but Small Bear does all that for you! They give you the two resistor values that you need.
-Joe Hart

[oskar]

Go out in the world child an burn, unintentionally, a whole bunch of circuits...
Reading schematics is good.
Following them is even better.
Failing to follow them... now we're talking.

Kits is a go if you can afford it.
A bare PCB from Tonepad, General Guitar gadgets ( has kit's too )or someone around here who has one to spare... is excellent.
But go stripboard...
I strongly suggest that you build a couple of them 10 component circuits that are scattered around here.
-Beavis, Trotsky for instance.
-Joe Davissons, Easy Drive
-Tim Escobedo's, LofoMofo


Oskar

[johnnysomersett]

Cheers again guys, lots of good links 

Im gonna get a simple fuzz kit, then try recreating it and play with the trannys & stuff

[demonstar]

Have you looked at the beginners project here?

[johnnysomersett]

Built the voltage dropper thingy today...

After a bit of messing around getting the jacks wired right i managed to get it working used a 10k pot as i had one lying around and it works real good!
Managed to get my EH Double Muff to sound pretty 8-bit through it  though it only works if only that one pedal is running off the multi-power supply...just goes back to normal if i power anything else through the powerbank - is this because the powerbank is making up for it somehow??

Gonna house it in a proper case next week - just gotta find a way to isolate the jacks from the metal case i plan to put it in (its in a little ABS box at the moment) any suggestions?