Fuzz Factory clone

euan · Post by **euan** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 7:31 pm

Yaldy. I love when pets chase or stalk things.

Especially lights reflected by watches.

Post by **Mike** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 7:31 pm

I've never seen her do it before, she's totally lost her mind.

Because she's so fat it's fucking turbo comical.

euan · Post by **euan** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 7:34 pm

Make she thinks it is a gigantic worm coming to eat her?

More Cowbell · Post by **More Cowbell** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 10:50 pm

I put it together and did my own box decor...I call it a "JANGO FUZZ".

The volume of this pedal is weak, will AC128's help this out? Tends to be a bit "splattery" too, is this typical?

Here are some pics...

euan · Post by **euan** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 10:52 pm

I think weak volume and splattyness can be down to mismatched transistors. Get a matched set of AC128 and youd be fine I think.

Ninja Mike 808 · Post by **Ninja Mike 808** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 1:13 am

haha, cool case. Does your fit fit easily between those knobs?

More Cowbell · Post by **More Cowbell** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 2:52 am

WUT ninja?

I figured out my problem, I had a transistor backwards, I had the Emmiter where the C should be.

That made it rawk w/ballz now...but, I pick up radio stations if I have the knobs turned up, and get microphonic feedback? Any ideas? Can this be caused by shitty pots? The pots are radio shack shit, and if you turn the knobs from stop to stop, at each end of the spectrum it cuts it out, so basically I have control from 9-3 instead of 7-5. WTF.

mezzio13 · Post by **mezzio13** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 3:05 am

BTW Cowbell, props for going the echtant route. Total balls out! You can make some pretty good PCB's using MS Paint...

More Cowbell · Post by **More Cowbell** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 3:25 am

Apparently my problem is normal? This is what its doing...

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Ninja Mike 808 · Post by **Ninja Mike 808** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 3:34 am

More Cowbell wrote:WUT ninja?

nvm

I saw one of the pots and thought it was the switch... I'm blind, as you should know...

That's a crazy neato problem you have, though - check your grounding maybe...

Post by **Mike** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 7:25 am

Are you sure you haven't got the Stability (power starve knob) backwards? At max settings the Stab should be out of the circuit and the thing should be Stable and not oscillating. in Fact with Gate at full you shouldn't hear anything as everything will be gated out unless you strum the guitar...

More Cowbell · Post by **More Cowbell** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 11:35 am

I should of watched hurb's vid before I played with it. ITs fine. Its supposed to be a noise box/fuzz. The volume and ballz issue were resolved when I properly placed the transistor on the board. It works awesome now! So many tonez.

Post by **Mike** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 11:44 am

Nice one.

It shouldn't osciallate with the Stab on full though. Try this setting:

Vol - 9:00
Gate - off
Comp - off
Drive - full
Stab - full

that should just be a standard full-on fuzz sound with no oscillation.

More Cowbell · Post by **More Cowbell** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 12:00 pm

Sounds Ace!

James · Post by **James** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 9:34 pm

I built this and it didn't work. It passes signal in the effect mode, and the volume pot works but that's it. I checked witha volktmeter and a couple of areas of the circuit aren't getting power. The 10uf caps, does it matter which way round I put those? I know they can be polarised in some circuits and have the marking for it. I've tried to fix any soldering problems in the problem areas and no dice. So I'm thinking perhaps I need to reverse one of the electrolyte caps. It could still be a simple mistake I'm missing and I haven't spent that long going through it.

I might give it half an hour in a bit (ie after Mike replies to this) and try and get it going.

Post by **Mike** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 9:41 pm

I would definitely check the orientation of your capacitors, as well as your transistors for a kick off. then work your way through the circuit checking against the veroboard. When I built one I fucked the very first cap input up like a dick. Also check your trace cuts. It definitely matters which way round things are.

FF's are tricky because of all those pots.

Ninja Mike 808 · Post by **Ninja Mike 808** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 9:43 pm

Well, you could touch every joint with your iron, just to clear up any possible cold solder joints.
I also like to push shit around, ya know, make sure the wires are set properly...

You should also build an audio probe, lemme know if you need the info on this, but i think some one posted some schematics for an audio probe (the simplest build ever).

But yea, if you have things like ICs, transistors, polarized caps that aren't going to the ground - then maybe try using sockets, so if they're backwards, you just gotta flip em.

James · Post by **James** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 9:45 pm

Can i bork the cap by having it the wrong way round or will it just say "Fuck that" when it sees the incoming voltage and be stubborn about lettinganything through. I don't want to switch it around and find I broke it sending stuff through the wrong way, so is it best to just replace it?

Post by **Mike** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 9:50 pm

James wrote:Can i bork the cap by having it the wrong way round or will it just say "Fuck that" when it sees the incoming voltage and be stubborn about lettinganything through. I don't want to switch it around and find I broke it sending stuff through the wrong way, so is it best to just replace it?

You can't break one unless you exceed the rated voltage, which you won't. You can just flip it. If it comes out fucked from the desoldering just toss it. I try and salvage what I can but sometimes it's a pain.

Like OtherMike says, an audio probe is also a good idea (Take a guitar lead, chop of one end, solder a 1uF electrolytic cap anode to the hotline and ground the shield to your circuit with a croc clip or whatever, and probe the collectors of transistors to find where you're losing signal.

James · Post by **James** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 9:51 pm

I made one of those last night, but haven't used it yet because I can tell with the volt meter where things are going wrong (roughly at least).I'm going to try flipping the cap and I'll re-check some solder joints. Almost all of the stripboard works so it'sjust one or two things to fix (hopefully).