Rehousing Muff Fuzz: Replace slide switch with a dpdt???

[monkeyman831]

Hello All,

Brand new here, so sorry if this is question is basic, common knowledge.  I want to put my 1969 Muff Fuzz into a sturdy, new housing and replace the boost slide switch with a DPDT.  Now do the six poles on the slider just transfer over to the six poles on a DPDT switch?  Or.......

Thanks in advance!

[nocentelli]

Do you really want to rehouse a 45 year old vintage pedal? The muff fuzz is a very simple circuit so making a clone circuit board and housing that wouldn't be much more effort.

[deadastronaut]

+1..

just build another..

[mth5044]

I would imagine they do, but you can check with a multimeter using the connectivity setting or using a low ohm setting.

It's likely that the two in the middle are common and the ones on the outside are switched, but if you desolder the switch (MAKE SURE YOU MARK WHAT WIRES CONNECTED WHERE!!!! with tape or drawing a diagram if the wires are different colors), you can figure it out by connecting one probe to the middle lug, then probing either end. If you get a beep or read 0 ohms, the two lugs are connected.

There are two muff fuzz's on ebay right now.. each $99. Not a big deal to make more useful to you, IMO. Also not a big deal to build it yourself as it's a relatively easy circuit.

[monkeyman831]

Thank you for the replies.  I built the MF clone using the setup from generalguitargadgets. I followed the build instructions to the letter:  It paled in comparison to the original. There is something to be said about using parts made in the late 60s vs parts from the late 90s. Plus leaking transistors and years of general grime add to the noise I am looking for.   I actually want to use the effects I own instead of posting Youtube videos of how many I have in my possession.   So yeah, I do want to make a 45 year old pedal more viable and more useable rather that pointing at it on my shelf. 
Thank you mth5044 for your advice.

[mth5044]

Thank you for the replies.  I built the MF clone using the setup from generalguitargadgets. I followed the build instructions to the letter:  It paled in comparison to the original. There is something to be said about using parts made in the late 60s vs parts from the late 90s. Plus leaking transistors and years of general grime add to the noise I am looking for.   I actually want to use the effects I own instead of posting Youtube videos of how many I have in my possession.   So yeah, I do want to make a 45 year old pedal more viable and more useable rather that pointing at it on my shelf. 
Thank you mth5044 for your advice.

It's unclear if you are doing this, but I think comparing DA and nocentelli to collectors who don't use pedals and only make boasty youtube videos is a mistake. Both have contributed a huge wealth of knowledge to this forum and the entire hobby in general.

Also, it's pretty common for units made in the past to go through many revolutions to the circuits without much change on the exterior. It's more than likely that there are different variations of the muff fuzz all still called 'muff fuzz'. It is possible that EHX used whatever parts they could find and each unit may have been different from the next. You may have built a pedal that sounds exactly like someone elses vintage muff fuzz, but not yours.

Open yours up, check the part values and types and compare it to what you built. It might not match, or maybe it will! That's where the great part of this hobby comes in - moding your circuit until it sounds how you want it. While sometimes you get a great sounding unit right off the bat, chances are you will need to modify it to suit your gear and your ear.

[Mark Hammer]

I empathize with all the posts so far, including the OP.

Rehousing needn't be destructive.  I can think of a myriad of ways that the board could be rehoused in a more convenient chassis/format, and still be re-rehoused in the original chassis if there was ever a good reason to sell it as "vintage".  Just don't bugger up the board...

...assuming there IS a board.  My late 60's Muff Fuzz (long since thoroughly cannibalized) was essentially a spiderweb of flying component leads inside, with not board to speak of.

[PRR]

> do the six poles on the slider just transfer over to the six poles on a DPDT switch?

Usually not. It is possible to do things with slide-switch which can't be done on a toggle switch without more poles.

[Mark Hammer]

Keep in mind that the small-box format did not have a stereo input jack.  Rather, it came with a phone plug sticking out, that would plug into the guitar.  In turn, that meant that the slide switch was not used for true bypassing.  Instead, it took the output signal from either the wiper of the volume pot, OR from the input plug hot lug, just as an SPDT stomp might.  The other set of contacts on the slide switch were used for turning the battery off when the circuit was bypassed.  Otherwise, the battery stayed on, even if you unplugged it.

No wonder they switched to a box with a stompswitch at some point.

[monkeyman831]

Now, Now.  I was speaking in GENERAL terms about certain types of people.  I'm the freshman here!  I do not know anything about the people on this forum.  I simply asked a tech question about changing a great sounding effect I own to a more practical, playable housing and if changing the switch was possible. That's it.   I do have my personal opinions, but I did not mean to lump anyone here together to slam them.

I do own the original '69, the 70's black face and the chrome faced ones with orange lettering.  Yes, they all sound different!!  No, the '69 does not have a board, but the two 70's ones do have boards. All very small, and very tight.  I thought I would just extend the input and output jack lines, swap the slide switch for a dpdt,  and put it in a 1590B. Things are sometimes more involved than they seem.

HA!  Maybe I'll just pick up a Double Muff in the older sheet metal housing (not the nano) and call it a day   

[Mark Hammer]

Welcome. 

I'm pleased that EH eventually went to boards from the mess they has inside the original issue. 

A board would be easy enough to transfer over, though obviously easier still is simply buying a Double Muff.  Although the Double Muff is ostensibly just two Muff Fuzzes, end to end, the individual Muff Fuzzes it includes are a little different from the early issues.  Like those early non-op-amp issues, it is essentially a sort of pre-set silicon Fuzz Face, but it has different transistors (BC550) and a couple of extra caps to address noise and whatnot.

Just as an aside, when EHX had the slide switch on the little box circuits like the Muff Fuzz and LPB-1, I expect there was no assumption on anyone's part that users would be frequently switching back and forth between bypass and effect mode, so the switch turned the battery on and off.  And, as noted earlier, because those little boxes lacked any input jack that could be used for switching the battery on and off, the slide switch had to take on that duty.

It is usually a nonrecommended practice to tie any power switching into bypass switching because, in many circuits, turning the power on can either introduce an audible thump (something nobody wants to hear from a high gain amp through a 4x12 stack!), or can result in a brief delay while the circuit powers up.  We get a couple of queries a year here from novice builders who think "Hey, if I could turn the battery off when the effect is in bypass, then the battery would last longer!".  Sounds like a great idea, in theory, but in practice turns out to be an annoyance better left in the idea bin.

I mention this because anyone pondering conversion of a small-box effect like the Muff Fuzz (and probably the old Dan Armstrong boxes that also plug directly into the guitar, and I think some of the Jordan units) to a more conventional stompbox format factor would need to redirect power switching to the input jack, and use the stompswitch ONLY for signal switching.

[mth5044]

Good call, Señor Hammer.

[Mark Hammer]

De nada