Building the Christine oscillating fuzz PCB

[Taylor]

Ok, I've started getting some email questions about building the Christine Fuzz, so it's time for another installment in the "building the..." series. To recap, this is a design originally by The Tone God. He gave me the go-ahead to create a PCB for a slightly tweaked version of his design. Most notably, I've removed the in and out buffers, because I liked the way this allows you to control the pedal's oscillations and texture using the guitar's volume and tone controls.

It's designed to be a really simple, quick, clean build, but offer a ton of strange and massive fuzz sounds. It does a lot of the same velcro and oscillating tones from the Fuzz Factory, but without any germanium or other special parts needing to be selected. There are also some octave-jumping and synthy sounds available.

Here's my build. I was going for a "dredged up from the bottom of the sea" look. 

[Taylor]

I received a question about the pot orientation. This photo should make it clear how they should be wired to turn the right way. I use the Alpha right angle PC mount pots available at Small Bear. These make for a super easy build, and also keep you from having a wiring mess that can contribute to noise. I put a little bit of velcro on the back of the board to keep the pots from shorting anything.



The major mod I've come up with is to use a buffered inverter IC (part number is in the PDF). This makes what is already a very crazy effect into something completely different, and completely nuts. I have now built a second one using the buffered chip. It would be cool to swap between them with a switch, but my experiments and research seemed to indicate that this can't be done without altering the sound of the circuit noticeably.

Any other questions, mod ideas, or build reports/photos are welcome.

[SpencerPedals]

I went looking for sound clips of this a few months ago and came up dry or to broken links.  Would you happen to know where I could find some?

[slacker]

Here's a clip of the Tone God's original build http://www.eskimo.plus.com/fxstuff/christine_knob_tweaking.mp3

[Taylor]

Thanks for posting that, slacker, I hadn't seen that myself. I bought a guitar recently, so I can now make guitar clips (figuring nobody wants to hear bass clips), so once I get some time I will make a bunch of this one - it's one of those circuits that's too crazy and versatile to capture in any one clip.

[moosapotamus]

I bought a guitar recently, so I can now make guitar clips (figuring nobody wants to hear bass clips)...

.

Are you kidding?!?! Bass clips are way more important than thin, screechy, little sounding guitar clips!

~ Charlie

[ORK]

I received a question about the pot orientation. This photo should make it clear how they should be wired to turn the right way. I use the Alpha right angle PC mount pots available at Small Bear. These make for a super easy build, and also keep you from having a wiring mess that can contribute to noise. I put a little bit of velcro on the back of the board to keep the pots from shorting anything.



The major mod I've come up with is to use a buffered inverter IC (part number is in the PDF). This makes what is already a very crazy effect into something completely different, and completely nuts. I have now built a second one using the buffered chip. It would be cool to swap between them with a switch, but my experiments and research seemed to indicate that this can't be done without altering the sound of the circuit noticeably.

Any other questions, mod ideas, or build reports/photos are welcome.

Are other readers here also getting redirected to youtube when clicking the Alpha link to Small Bear above? Reminds me of other recently reported hackings. (Tonepad and Effects Connection)?

[Taylor]

I'm not getting redirected to youtube, but my link is broken. Here's the fixed one:

http://www.smallbearelec.com/Detail.bok?no=692

[wizardsofzen]

loved making this board, it was less than 30 minutes, maybe 10... first testing on guitar, this thing is the tits.

thank god for radio shack, ordered the wrong IC socket.

populated board, don't know yet if it matters, but i used the Audio Grade Capacitors from Nichicon

in a metal pen case like swim wear.

this build was for my personal effects gear.
i make pretty experimental nasty gnarley Drum & Bass.

http://www.soundcloud.com/wizards-of-zen
(shameless self-promotion, sorry)

i suppose i can get around to posting some samples of my build.
i ordered both IC chips. the TI CD4049UBE i have is now going into a MR.EQ when ever i can find a PCB (any help is welcome!)
the MC14049bcpg makes this thing what it is imho, the TI chip is just a tame kitten, the MC unleashes this beast big-time.

[Taylor]

Glad you posted your build here! Looks cool and it's nice to hear your music as well.

Things have gone towards the "polished" in the Pictures thread here over the last few years, so it's kind of refreshing to see a nasty build like that sometimes. 

[wizardsofzen]

oh yea, i got intentions of a pretty box for it sometime, but the tones had to come out fast, so what i had on hand went in. look forward to more of your kits! currently i have a Meeblip ( http://meeblip.noisepages.com ) that needs boxing, 5 small effects (+APC & 4093 Drone) kits from Synthrotek (dot com) that i don't know what i'm casing with, and an Oakley Sound TM3030 (Roland TB303 clone) on the way thats going into a 2U rack space. I made Casper electronics (dot com) Drone Lab and love the filters on it. someone get the Shruti-1 back in stock!

I ran a test recording of the Meeblip through the Christine and got some pretty nasty gnarly sounds, my Meeblip is using a pos bellsouth 9v 300ma wall wart and produces horrible tearing noises, the Christine made it nice and dirty (its being powered by an old SEGA Genesis wall wart - 9v 1200mA (maybe a bit much? i've got some lower ones i need to try out)
... heres a link - http://www.zshare.net/audio/8801604228bf9dba/
the lower 8 bit sounding atari-nintendo sounds are the meeblip, the hard distortion is the Christine, and the right side is a bonus mystery track that showed up from my recording path.

[PereatMundus]

   

This thing is so fun I'm awake now 03:00 in the morning after not able to stop fiddling with it.

Much fun pushing it a bit with a boost, or more fun pushing it in various ways with EQ.

See that tiny black box next to the crybaby.  that's a 1590A box,  into that I'll be pushing it when I get some more time over.

Had to push a guitar in there too.. LesPaul Jet-black Ebony fingerboard everything Chromed METAL, no plastics,  only thing stock on that thing is the wood.   

[digi2t]

Now I'm REALLY torn... I was gearing up to build a Great Destroyer, and now I'm smitten with Christine!

Taylor, I've just sold my house, and will have to move at the end of May. I probably won't be able to build anything for the next few months thereafter. I've got one virgin 1590 enclosure left on my bench.  What's the call here? Destroyer, or Christine? Sort of a "alone on a desert island, and could have one of these 2 pedals" question.

Cheers,
Dino

[Taylor]

They have pretty similar sounds available, especially if you use the buffered chip in Christine. AFAIK there's no fabbed PCB for TGD, so of course I'd go with my board since it's a much simpler and cleaner build.

Christine is a little more controllable - you can tune the oscillation with the OSC knob, so that's another advantage.

[digi2t]

Diplomatic salesman... I like that. Going to order the PCB today. The controllability factor is important, since often times I need to be able to tune the oscillations to a certain key.

Will using ceramic caps make a big difference here, or do I need to order those box types, like you've got there?

[PereatMundus]

Diplomatic salesman... I like that.

Yeap Taylor is nice.  Almost built all his PCBs now. just need to find some time with a decent drill for the boxes.

Now lets all push him into making
Uglyface PCB, Skyripper PCB
avalible

[So far his PCBs worked well for what Im doing so have high hopes for future projects  
*Rock/Industrial/Noise-stuff, if that makes any sense.  Insane guitars, Crazy Synths and Distorted Drums.]

[PereatMundus]

Now I'm REALLY torn... I was gearing up to build a Great Destroyer, and now I'm smitten with Christine!

Forgot to reply to that in my last post.

Just whanted to say that, YES the christine is a real real nice pice of kit.  *Just spent another 3hours playing around with it tossing  all other boxes I have through it in various ways to see what could be coaxed out of it.
Nice stuff.

[digi2t]

No prob dude. You're absolutely right where Taylor is concerned though, top notch miho. I've already got one of his Gristleizers on the board, and he was very helpful during the build. Hell, I'd buy dogshit from him, but my dog's got that covered.

Ordered the board this morning. Can't wait. This is going to be my last build for a while.

Cheers,
Dino

[Taylor]

Thanks guys. 

I was playing around with my Christine box today - just a ridiculous amount of weird stuff inside such a small circuit, just using the unbuffered chip, AKA the less crazy version. I'm still having a lot of fun with it.

I was liking it with a boost in front, so then I decided to swap out the gain pot (stock 100k) for a 1MEG. Lots more front-end boost now, which is really nice to have on tap.

If you put OSC all the way clockwise, you can actually get some very normal OD, dist and fuzz tones out of this pedal. Starving the power in this configuration can get some great sagging fuzz, as well, without any oscillations or extreme gating.

[PereatMundus]

I was liking it with a boost in front, so then I decided to swap out the gain pot (stock 100k) for a 1MEG. Lots more front-end boost now, which is really nice to have on tap.

Been and IS busy as hell theese last few days and comming weekend   So not much time to play.

I can say thou from another few hours that, to me it got more or less a requirement to push the Christine with a mosfet boost and of course shape it with EQ pedal after. (as any good fuzz for the best tones).

Dont think I have a 1MEG pot left over. But a fair few 500k's 10mm pots. So I'll try that out then.
*Seriously think that atleast with the unbuffered chip, one gotta have some more front-end boost to let the Christine show what it can do. Too me it got way more controllable with the guitar's Volume aswell when it had the mosfet boost infront. (both with modern high output  humbucker's and single coils )
*just a tad to "tame" without something pushing it. ( But then Im used to Devi Ever's Fuzzes ) ((  also I play by the rule of Two's when it comes to Fuzzes     1Fuzz is good, 2 Fuzzess is gooodness ))

Edit:
As far as what Fuzz to Pair the Christine with I just generally messed around with it But Like it with the Green Ringer atm, for some extra flavoir. (ring modulator fuzz). Im far from my full Kit atm, but looking to check out  > -TS808/MosfetBoost > Christine > GreenRinger (or GreenRinger throu Christine) > OctaveDown > AMP > EQ > a tiny bit of Chorus/Reverb/Delay for thickness. To see what can be had.