Next fuzz/distortion pedal. All suggestions considered.

[brett]

Hi.  I've built a few of the popular fuzz/distortion units and would like some suggestions concerning some of the more obscure stuff.  The GGG site seems to have heaps of them, in a variety of colours (red fuzz, blue magic,...).  It would take a lifetime to build them all.  So I'm looking for suggestions.

My track record (and a brief opinion) includes;
Easyface - good all purpose fuzz, but not real exciting
Bazz fuss V2- nice synth-like overtones.  cool pedal
Miss Piggy - good all-purpose fuzz with good control and sustain
Blackfire - heavy stuff!  mountains of sustain.  excellent pedal
RM axis fuzz - didn't really like this, but I should have tinkered more
Odie - smooth, fairly hi gain pedal
tube-like fuzz - smooth and graceful (maybe TOO smooth?)
TS9 - you know what this sounds like
BluesBreaker - I like this even better than the TS9

So what would be 3 good, simple choices for future projects?
Tonebender?  Back to the RM axis?  ??

[MarkB]

how about something insane like a Noise Swash?
"-)

[Ansil]

vulcan

[phillip]

I think one of Joe Gagan's more intense designs would be a good build...something like the Dinosaur Fuzz or the BrontoBoost.  I was thinking about doing one of those myself...just can't make up my mind which one!

Phillip

[Ansil]

any one ever try a lpb1 into the ez face and add in that vbias control that joe came up with. some weird sounds can be done with taht.. of coures its kind of hard to fit five knobs on one pedal unless you use somehing bigger than a 1590b

[brett]

Thanks for the suggestions.  They're really excellent.

The noise swash is fully weird.  Maybe a bit too weird?  Tho I've already got a couple of modulators, including my own beast - the Modulatron.

The Vulcan looks awesome.  New to me.  It's obviously a must.  The Brontoboost has been on my radar before...I must follow through with that.  And Ansils idea of boosting and buffering before an easyface (maybe an Si/piggybacked easyface) has some great possibilities for experimenting.

Thanks heaps guys.

Any others?

[The Tone God]

of coures its kind of hard to fit five knobs on one pedal unless you use somehing bigger than a 1590b

My pre-production fuzz has six all in a row.

Andrew

[brett]

Those 9mm (a bit less than 3/8") pots let you squeeze a lot of controls together.  Here in Oz they're about twice the cost of 16mm pots.  But since I use a box that's only 2 1/2" (66mm) wide, I need all the help I can get.

[Marcos - Munky]

Try any of Joe Davisson's effects. The Obsidian sounds very cool.

[Mark Hammer]

Identify your priorities, then choose.

How much do you want to....

- learn about biasing
- learn about transistor-type differences
- just get a specific new sound you've never had available to tinker with before
- have something with a lot of control or modding possibilities so you can learn how things interact
- achieve a specific sound that you've heard somewhere else
- mimic something you cannot currently afford retail
- resurrect somethng from the past
- make something that "works" for the least possible cost and aggravation
- make something that works with the parts available to you where you live

There are other motives, and maybe some of these are really collapsible as one, but think it through, identify the one  or two most important to you, and then wait for the suggestions.

[WGTP]

I didn't see any Mu Amp/SRPP's in your list and they have a nice distortion sound.  

[brett]

Thanks for the list, Mark.  It made me realise that I like things that work well straight up, rather than offer lots of possibilities for tweaking.  Also, resurrecting old effects is kinda cool (so maybe a Tonebender, converted to NPN neg ground, is in order).

WG makes a good point about SRPP designs.  Thanks!  The Odie is my only FET overdrive.  It's cool but not a killer.

[The Tone God]

Those 9mm (a bit less than 3/8") pots let you squeeze a lot of controls together.  Here in Oz they're about twice the cost of 16mm pots.  But since I use a box that's only 2 1/2" (66mm) wide, I need all the help I can get.

You can fit six 16mm pots in a 1590B or BB. It will be tight and your drilling has to be dead on. The Vanishing Point prototype fit in there.

Andrew

[Doug H]

Back to the RM axis?  ??

Try a 27k feedback resistor, low hfe transistors and turn your guitar down to 5 as a starting point.

Doug

[brett]

Thanks Doug.  

I like the idea of smaller feedback resistors and a bit less gain in these kinda circuits.  I've got a fuzzface that I prefer with a 68k feedback resistor (instead of 100k).  

A probable reason why the RM Axis didn't sound too good was that I had high gain transistors (it seems hard to find anything noise-free and under 300) and I took the output straight from the 2.2uF cap (ie no vol control).  I was probably driving the input to my old amp too hard.  Same thing happened with a modded Bazz fuss recently.  Sounded bad until I put a volume control on the end and tamed the output.  The RM axis PCB is still lying around somewhere, so maybe I'll resurrect it for a weekend project.

[Doug H]

Thanks Doug.  

A probable reason why the RM Axis didn't sound too good was that I had high gain transistors (it seems hard to find anything noise-free and under 300)

I used a plastic 2n3904 and metal can 2n2222 and that works pretty well.

Doug