FUZZ FIXX: Anyone ever heard of this one?

[jrod]

Anyone ever heard of the the FUZZ FIXX? I came across this one on the web and couldn't find any other info about it. The site claims it was used by "Dinosaur Jr." and "Peter Buck" of R.E.M. and only 20 were made. There are no values for the components on the schem, but here it is anyway:

http://www.softscience.us/amps/2n/fuzz.gif

And here is a link to the site where I found it. Just scroll down a bit and you'll see the short write-up.

http://www.softscience.us/amps/2n/2n.html

jrod

[Harry]

Interesting, so by Maestro Fuzz Face I assume he meant Fuzz-Tone, huh?

So, any "learned techs" out there gonna figure out the values for this "copier"?  

[slacker]

Looks like its basically a Fuzzrite type fuzz with a booster in front of it.

[science]

good call.  I designed the fuzz fixx for loud music when it was a music store in fremont [seattle, wa] back in the 90's.  We made 20, we paid $50 each for the killer aluminum boxes.

Yes it is a modified fuzz face with a few variations.  If you want a schematic, email me.

mr.science@softscience.us

[tiges_ tendres]

good call.  I designed the fuzz fixx for loud music when it was a music store in fremont [seattle, wa] back in the 90's.  We made 20, we paid $50 each for the killer aluminum boxes.

Yes it is a modified fuzz face with a few variations.  If you want a schematic, email me.

mr.science@softscience.us

Do you have any pictures of this pedal?  I'm not interested in the schematic, but I am in interested in seeing what one of these looked like.  What made the aluminum boxes worth $50 each?

[joegagan]

hi science. nice to have you here. i like your schematic. i played around with similar phase controls a few years ago.

[science]

Whoops, how time flies......  Darn it I cannot upload the pictures until I get home.  will email a reminder to do so.

The boxes were built to our design specs of 16 gauge aluminum, bent, cut and welded beautifully by Ballard Sheet Metal in Seattle, WA;  Our design goal was to make it unbreakable [these were done in the early 90's when players would jump off of monitors onto their stomp boxes when, well, high;  we managed nicely, as the knobs are all inset and cannot be crushed under foot.] and they are hard to destroy.

The fuzz rite it was modeled after had a pot that took the signal from between the 2 germanium transistor collectors; I added another pot plus 2 small [4k7 I think] collector resistors back to the 9 volt line, so you could have one stage with 4k7, the other, 100k, or both 54.7k, or vice versa; this allows saturation to be moved around it with ease.

The first one also included the small value pot in series with the 9 volts to allow the oscillator action plus a bypass cap switched to allow for no oscillation, but the 9v drops to about a volt for more compression.

[joegagan]

cool, thanks for the check in.

[superferrite]

Found the schematic on the Science page.  A boosted Ge Fuzzrite (with lots of tweaks).
Great idea.   Thanks for bringing this thread back.

Ahhh, the heady days of Grunge past.....

I (sort of) remember them well...

[John Lyons]

So is the schematic in the first post THE one?

EDIT:
Googlified it, found it, yep, THE one. 

[glops]

I breadboarded a more simplified version of this one and it sounds AWESOME.  Used the first boost stage with a 50k volume pot feeding into a
Fuzzrite with germanium transistors and have been playing with different cap values for the fuzz section.  I think 3300pf for Q1 and a .08uf for Q2.  With the 50k, I can dial in the right amount of boost to push the Fuzzrite to where, with the guitar volume all the way I get the splat and when I turn it down I get a great fat overdrive.