That "Spirit in the sky" tone

[Shepherd]

Try an 'Y' cable plugged into both inputs of a fender amp.

[skumberg]

Hi, I've been following this thread for awhile & I've got a 1.5V fuzz that I bought at Olsen Electronics in Chicago
in about 1968/9?   It was very fuzzy, but usable through a wah in the heel-down position.  The board is pretty small
(1"x2"), so I built it into my crybaby & there it stayed for the next 35 years.  Today I found, in a box, a second
fuzz that I bought at the same time & am posting a few pics:  http://s581.photobucket.com/albums/ss256/doctorzylo/

Hope this sheds some light.  It is a Herald Fuzz Master AM-44A   Sorry for the fuzzy photos.

Hi and welcome to the somewhat neerdy search for the spirit in the sky!
Does it have a similar character to the spirit tone? Looking at the circuit it seems like some kind of Maestro FZ1 copy. From my experience with the TBmk1(Similar to FZ1), if thats what it is, it dont think it lets a clean tone through even with volume down. To my ears the spirit in the sky tone is a cleanish tone at sensitive picking and a very distorted transistor at larger signals. Like a misbiased transistor pushed into conduction. Ronson used a circuit similar to the one you have with a wah so perhaps you sound like the spiders from mars.
I'm not entirely happy with my modded ff. But the clean vs fuzz is there. I'll see if i can make it better.

cheers
Nicklas

[mac]

Try an 'Y' cable plugged into both inputs of a fender amp.

i have the y cable, but i do not have a fender
anyway i'll try it in my laney.

Someone wrote to Norman and he replied that he is not allowed to talk about set up.
Has anybody ever try to contact the technician that did the mods?

mac

[zombiwoof]

I've always wondered if Norman's friend just took a commercially available fuzz (like a Bosstone or similar) and built it into the guitar, instead of making his own circuit.  A Bosstone board is pretty small, and he could have done this easily.  And it was a "buzzy" type of fuzz.

Al

[DougH]

A big part of that sound was the way he played and the riff itself. Think of it like a slowed down La Grange- only it's in E instead of A, all single notes, and finger picked. Any fuzz that responds a little to "touch" is going to get you close, if you play the riff right. That riff, played with distortion that way has a very unique sound.

[Quackzed]

yeah, i would definately agree that you need to 'finger pick' the riff, I would go even further and suggest that you may actually need to be pretty agressive with that .. as in heavy thumb/finger pluck to get the amount of temporary over-saturation you need. I think that it may be a single transistor arrangement, that you relly need to slam to over saturate. hence the clean/farty nature of the tone... and definately some sort of bias control to set the amount of gating... a misbiased fuzz with a big input cap and guitar volume rolled off just so will get you in the ballpark i think..just in case you have a fuzz to experiment with lying around... I know, I know-it's a long shot...

[mac]

i play the riff in that way. 
but i still can't get that saturated fuzz, just a farty tone. 

mac

[zachary vex]

Many believe it was a Mosrite Fuzzrite.

[mac]

Many believe it was a Mosrite Fuzzrite.

i breadoarded a ge mosrite fuzzrite. i started with two similar ge (70, 100uA), q1 bias at 6.5v and q2 at 0.2v.
the mixing of (-) and (+) signals of different amlitude works fine.
it needs tweaking of some values like the 22k going to ground, collector resistors and in and out caps.
i´m also going to try a fuzz face with/without feedback resistor, and mixing q1 and q2.

mac

[blanik]

i wrote to him a year ago or two about that and... he replied...lol

here's his awnmser:
"Thanks for writing.
I had a custom built fuzz box. Many rumors have circulated around the internet, including the slit speaker, but not true.

Norman Greenbaum"

i think what makes his riff sound special is the fact that it was finger picked making both notes sound really tight and the main part of the sound is coming from a driven amp, not just the fuzz

[ragtime8922]

Howard Stern's band, The Losers, did a cover of this and Fred Norris, his guitarist (also of his own band "King Norris") seemed to nail this tone. I'm sure someone could contact him or call in to the show and find out what he did to get that tone.

[B Tremblay]

Howard Stern's band, The Losers, did a cover of this and Fred Norris, his guitarist (also of his own band "King Norris") seemed to nail this tone. I'm sure someone could contact him or call in to the show and find out what he did to get that tone.

Fred used a Gorilla Breath fuzz for that one.  It's made by Bababooey FX.

[mac]

Getting closer,

http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/mac/sound+demos+of+my+circuits/spirit_001.mp3.html

mac

[Fancy Lime]

Hi,

I've been barking up that particular tree for quite a while, leading to a number of interesting fuzz designs (like this: http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=118360.msg1102311#msg1102311) but never quite the Spirit sound. Unfortunately I cannot get the clip to play. Does it work for everyone else?

Andy

[deadastronaut]

yep, the clip plays ok...

[mac]

Unfortunately I cannot get the clip to play. Does it work for everyone else?

Check Flash Plugin
I cant play it in my cell phone, no flash installed

mac

[pinkjimiphoton]

This will be my next project when I return home. I like those fat fuzz tones.
Need some advices. I did a search but nothing helpful, except that I have to go Ge, and possibly use low batts.

It is an interesting tone. When played softly it is just a regular fuzz, but after a limit it begins to saturate very hard.
It reminds me a finite phase transition. Something like a step curve.

Ideas are welcome.

mac

mac,
pm me on facebook bro, i gotta stupid simple fuzz circuit i just cooked up that pretty much nails the tone you are looking for.
2 q's and a handful of passives. i think you'll diggit