My first build . . . . that worked!

[stevestrat]

Hi guys, thought you might like to see my Colorsound Fuzz. Not my first attempt at a build but the first one that has actually worked as intended! It was inspired by watching the Edgar Broughton Band on Youtube, playing Love In The Rain way back in 1970, I fell in love with the sound. I contacted Edgar Broughton himself via the band's website to find out what he used. Original Colorsound fuzz boxes, forget it, even the '90s reissue goes for silly money (well over £200.00!) so self build was the only answer. I followed the Dragonfly layout and other than an initial noise problem that turned out to be a dodgy ground connection had no real problems.



The label is based on photos of the original.



It works best with my '70s spec Strat, guitar volume right up, fuzz level about 75-80% and you're there

[Greenmachine]

Congratulations.  Great feeling isn't it?

I like the exterior; nice work.

[oskar]

Looks good. How do you think it compares to the sound you wanted?

[LucifersTrip]

Hi guys, thought you might like to see my Colorsound Fuzz. Not my first attempt at a build but the first one that has actually worked as intended! It was inspired by watching the Edgar Broughton Band on Youtube, playing Love In The Rain way back in 1970, I fell in love with the sound. I contacted Edgar Broughton himself via the band's website to find out what he used. Original Colorsound fuzz boxes

that's great!!! Nice build. I had to reply since that video is actually one of my all time favorites on YouTube. I hope you saw the 7.5 min version and not the sh*tty 3 min edit....and killer he wrote you  back.

[deadastronaut]

that looks great, love the decal,.....

[stevestrat]

The sound is bang on! As I said volume full up on the Strat and fuzz box level at about 75-80% and you have Love In The Rain.

Don't worry LucifersTrip, it's the full version I saw (and keep playing!)! I'd heard of the EBB before but hadn't really listened to them until they were featured in a TV documentary about the history of Brit Heavy Metal. I just loved the raw, aggressive sound but despite hunting the net I couldn't find out what he used. However, there is an email address for the main man on the band's website so I thought what the hell and emailed him. His reply was quite comprehensive and very refreshing as I think you'll agree most guitarists live in an ivory tower and trying to find out about their gear is like hunting the holy grail!

deadastronaut. The decal is a self adhesive photopaper label with a clear label on top to protect it, available from most specialist label suppliers. My original intention was to use the clear label but that was a disaster, the colours ran and smudged before it even got out of the printer even though they are supposed to be inkjet compatible.

[deadastronaut]

yeah gotcha!...i just like the way you've shrunk it to fit....looks really cool. proper colours too by the look of it...

ive done waterslides etc.., but i'm an etching addict now...

[nexekho]

Awesome enclosure!  Wish any of mine... eheheh.

[stevestrat]

Awesome enclosure!  Wish any of mine... eheheh.

It's not difficult. All you need are the labels, printer (colour obviously!) and some imagination. I got my labels from Label Planet in the UK. They will supply samples, a couple of sheets of each requested.
Photopaper labels (4 on an A4 sheet) - http://www.labelplanet.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=Gloss_Inkjet_Labels_4%2F99
Clear labels (4 on an A4 sheet) - http://www.labelplanet.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=LP4%2F99GCP

The clear label isn't essential, just there as protection, you could just as easily use lacquer if you preferred.

I've tried waterslides in the past, for various projects but found there was too much buggering about involved. With this simply design, print, cover with clear label, trim and apply, much easier.

[bluesdevil]

Congratulations on your build!!
I've noticed a couple of different values in schematics/layouts floating around. Which is correct, 820R or 82R for the resistor coming off power?

[stevestrat]

There are different opinions, I read elsewhere 820R is correct and 82R was a typo but apparently both work equally well. I'm going to further complicate things by saying I used a 1k as mentioned in http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=79795.0.

[jdub]

Great work, man.  Congrats!

[Electric Warrior]

The Colorsound one knob Fuzz Box first came out in the 90's (though that type of circuit was sold as the Jennings/Rotosound Fuzz in the 60's). In 1970 some early variants of the three knob (MKIII/IV) Tone Bender would have been available.

[Paul Marossy]

Nice work stevestrat! 

[LucifersTrip]

The Colorsound one knob Fuzz Box first came out in the 90's (though that type of circuit was sold as the Jennings/Rotosound Fuzz in the 60's). In 1970 some early variants of the three knob (MKIII/IV) Tone Bender would have been available.

then the questions remains...what did Edgar Broughton use?

@stevestrat

what did EB actually tell you when you asked what he used...general Colorsound boxes?

btw, did you check the transistor voltages on yours, specifically Q2C?

[stevestrat]

Could be EB was referring to the Sola Sound (now Colorsound) Tonebender Mk 1? What ever it was the sound from mine is certainly is spot on to the Youtube performance above. The blue box generally featured in photos is referred to as a '90s reissue so there must have been something on the go before then! This is his actual reply:

Hi Steve,

Nice to hear from you.
The thing sitting on top of the amp would have been some thing called the WEM Handful a prototype noise generator courtesy of Charlie Watkins, father of WEM.
I used a ColourSound fuzz pedal, which I believe is available as a re-issue from Macaris , Charing Cross Rd, London. I used valve 100 watt marshall heads and 4X12 cabs and a 72 Strat. Those old pick ups are different and clang a lot. Modern equivalent amps would be the Marshall hand wired series. Hope this helps.

All the best

Edgar


No, I haven't checked any voltages, I'm relatively new to this game, as the thread title suggests this is the first box I've built that actually worked! I attempted a Dallas Rangemaster a long time ago, it wouldn't work, I got frustrated, left pedal building well alone and concentrated on working on guitars.

[Electric Warrior]

but the one knobber wasn't a reissue at all 
EB is obviously referring to some later stuff in his email. He couldn't have used a '72 strat in '70, could he   
To me it sounds like he's talking about the silver and orange 3 knob Tone Bender then. Colorsound is still making a similar looking fuzz, but it has the later silicon (Jumbo Tone Bender) circuit:



The germanium one in that type of enclosure would have been available from ca. '71, maybe even late '70 from what I've gathered so far, but I don't think he could have had one by march 1970 when that video was shot.

He could have had a Vox branded MKIII or Sola Sound MKIV at that time:





or the MKI, 1.5 or II of course..

In this video (1973?) he has some orange colored Colorsound pedal and a Vox wah:

The orange thing might be a Power Boost or a rare orange MKIV like this one:



not sure if they made the orange variant as early as march 1970, though. probably not.

[LucifersTrip]

Electric Warrior always comes to the rescue on the TB topic. I finally found the old thread where some varieties were discussed. I wanted to continue, but there were just too many things to clear up!

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=92104.msg787967#msg787967