My Ritefuzz is too loud. What should I do?

[kevinlipe]

Yep. Built a Ritefuzz a long time ago, but never put it in a box and lost the (tiny) vero board when I moved last spring.

Built another one over the weekend using an 8x8 vero layout I think I got from here a long time ago, and it's way too loud. It's exactly like the posted layout/schematic; I even used 2N3904's.

It seems like the "blend" pot and the volume pot have to be all the way up for me to really get the "sizzle" and phase-y Fuzzrite stuff I built this pedal for. I've been thinking about replacing the Blend pot with a 100kΩ resistor to make it so the "blend" control is always maxed out.

That doesn't solve my volume problem, though. It's so much louder than unity that it's ridiculous, and I feel like the volume pot has to be maxed out before the fuzz starts sounding like I want it to. The controls seem really interactive, which makes sense given the simplicity of the circuit. Any recommendations? Replace the volume pot with a resistor so that it looks to the circuit like the volume pot is always maxed and then put another volume pot after that? (that is, put a 100kΩ resistor to ground right in front of the "real" volume pot?) Or just try a smaller volume pot?

[joelindsey]

maybe putting a voltage divider after the volume pot. The sound could also be dependent on the pedals/amps coming after the fuzz. Does adjusting the volume control of a pedal generally affect the output impedance of a pedal (assuming the volume control is place at the end like in most designs)? If that's the case the output impedance of your fuzzrite and the input impedance of the subsequent pedal/amp could match/mismatch tone-wise as you adjust the volume. The output volume of a fuzz and an overdriven amp can be very interactive.

[doug deeper]

Hmm...if your volume control is changing the sound,
You may have it wired wrong. Make sure that the center
Pin (wiper) is the one connected to the switch.

[kevinlipe]

Hmm...if your volume control is changing the sound,
You may have it wired wrong. Make sure that the center
Pin (wiper) is the one connected to the switch.

I just checked, and this is the layout I'm using:


And it's wired correctly. I just played with it with my Rickenbacker 620 and a Fender Frontman 15W solid state deal to confirm what's going on. I only get "fizz" at the very top end of the volume knob, when the "blend" pot is between 75% and 100% of all the way up  if you're looking at the front of the pedal. Without that, it's like all of the treble goes away, and everything sounds muffled.

The way this thing is wired, both pots are all the way up, isn't it basically the equivalent of putting a 100k resistor to ground right on the output cap of Q2 and letting 'er rip?

[LucifersTrip]

unfortunately, there's more factors...pickups, amp, amp settings, etc...

...and it is a common problem that a fuzz will sound best at high or full volume. Many times there's loss of treble as the volume is decreased so it sounds muddier and loses fuzz.

A common way to add treble as the vol is decreased is a small cap from the wiper to the non-grounded side of the vol pot.
I think for 100K a common size would be .0047uF

good luck

[Solidhex]

 That would work. If it doesn't you could try lowering the value of the .1 caps going to the "BL" pot. Around .056 or so. I like Lucifer's idea though since its simpler.

[petemoore]

  Maybe put a SWTC or other tone control [Stupidly wonderful tone control doesn't reduce volume and can accentuate LF's/or HF's] where the blend knob was replaced with fixed value component[s.

[kevinlipe]

  Maybe put a SWTC or other tone control [Stupidly wonderful tone control doesn't reduce volume and can accentuate LF's/or HF's] where the blend knob was replaced with fixed value component[s.

i'm thinking about replacing the 100k blend knob with a 25k pot and a 75k resistor (aka a 68k and a 10k in series  ) and then putting a Rat filter between that and the volume control, just to see what happens. I guess without adding the Rat's FET buffer after that, I haven't solved my volume-pot-interactivity problem, though.