Members chuckmoose Posted May 27, 2009 Members Share Posted May 27, 2009 NPBD I built my first fuzz yesterday, and I just had to share because I'm really happy with it. I've tried several fuzzes over the last 6 months and have not found anything that worked for me. But I've been determined to figure out some way to get fuzz into my repertoire. I sold off all my fuzzes and decided I would just build some instead and see if I could find something that will work for me. I've had a pink sparkle painted enclosure and some pink LEDs laying around, and I thought it would be fun to build a brutal fuzz, something so over the top that it would scare you to play it, and put it in this very feminine enclosure. So I started off to build the most outrageous fuzz I could. I ordered lots of parts and started working on a silicon Fuzz Face variant called the Axis Face. I put it together on the breadboard and it sounded pretty good, the basic tonality was more useful than I expected. The Axis has a lot of gain control but not as much 'feel' as I would like. With a lot of experimentation I found a way to simplify the two pot gain control down to one and add a lot of dynamic response by changing some component values and transistor types as well as careful biasing of the transistors. I also added a cut-only tone circuit, similar to the Timmy, to tame the high end just a little bit. The low end is rolled off in the original circuit so I added a switch to allow me to get back the deep, chunky lows or keep the more vintage rolled off sound. The enclosure is an MXR sized box, and there is a lot going on inside this guy, so I didn't bother to make room for a battery. This fuzz works just as well with a power supply anyway, and it will live on my pedal board, so that works fine for me. Overall I am extremely pleased. The fuzz has decent mids, is not too shrill, and the gain range goes from typically fuzzy (but not over the top) to almost a mild overdrive. It's not at all a brutal fuzz, but rather an extremely useful one with a lot of flexibility. I went ahead and put it the pink box anyway though! It's got mismatched knobs for now, but I think it turned out looking pretty good! I'll post some sound clips soon... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members seifukusha Posted May 27, 2009 Members Share Posted May 27, 2009 id hit itCLIPS! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ambient Posted May 27, 2009 Members Share Posted May 27, 2009 Nice, well done man. Can't wait to hear it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members IamBurnout Posted May 27, 2009 Members Share Posted May 27, 2009 That thing looks like candy. I love candy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jonny toetags Posted May 27, 2009 Members Share Posted May 27, 2009 That's funny. I just finished up a fuzz yesterday and I used the same enclosure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members chuckmoose Posted May 27, 2009 Author Members Share Posted May 27, 2009 Sound clip:http://chuckmoose.com/sounds/FMFclip01.mp3 Strat into a '68 Bassman head and open back 4-10 cab. Running just above bedroom volume so the amp is still completely clean. this is just me noodling randomly, but it should give you some idea. The gain is maxed, tone is just slightly rolled off, and the bass switch is in the full range position. Dynamics controlled by rolling the guitar volume down, but never below about 7, and playing hard and soft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members boytbpc Posted May 27, 2009 Members Share Posted May 27, 2009 Sounds good. Now add a pot to adjust the bias and add a sag control (not just starve, but sag), and re-post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Double D Posted May 27, 2009 Members Share Posted May 27, 2009 this sounds awesome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members chuckmoose Posted May 27, 2009 Author Members Share Posted May 27, 2009 That's funny. I just finished up a fuzz yesterday and I used the same enclosure Great minds thinking alike? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ben Co. Posted May 28, 2009 Members Share Posted May 28, 2009 Great sound, sweet build! Nice job, man. -Ben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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