New dist schematic/PCB...BuzzTone

[petemoore]

One great sounding, highly variable Fuzz unit.
 Cleans up ['well not as much as the original cct.] with the guitar vol. somewhat...
 It reminds me of a FF, but more stable sounding, very EZ playing box, with the guitar all the way up it's just over the top, at 8 a very usable well tuned Fuzz...down around 4 it cleans up, but doesn't lose the drive or get sputtery at all.
 I played this one for hours last night, using the available raspy or smoother grit [guitar vol], very nice gain control on the guitar, and yes harmonics popping up all over the place N/P, easy to get chord grit to smooth into harmonic overlays.
 Hybrid Fuzz IMO.
 However I'm using it as the 'heart' of a Fuzz, booster hardwired to input, 12ax7 on the output, and added comression [preboost] or not, great note 'envelopes' [attack sustain]...just loving the guitar volume [gain].
 A really simple, great sounding Fuzz, can be organic or machine like
 All boxed up/works fantastic.
 It does sound like a DIST+, much more usable variance tho, with the guitar volume control.
 Wired right up / Fired right up...messing around with the 'stuffings' [diodes, Q's, roloff caps etc.] went very well, lots of varaibility there...but didn't take many 'retunes' to get a chosen setup [like a FF].
 A great little circuit. A 'front burner item'...my FF's are all on the back burner except the Hot Silicon.
 Comparing this to a FF...The Buzz Box works well with others/FF seems to like seeing a guitar at input and a tube amp at output...not so well suited to different inputs and output connections...FF's are great, but I find I have to tune everything else 'so' for a FF to work 'right' thus limiting uses of other effects in the chain to 'post redialing' use for the most part...I have to twist knobs...can't just go from FF to a cool non-FF sound [leaving boost or other effect on with FF] without redialing knobs.
 Gain: Tons of variable, usable gain
 Output: Gobs
   

[Danny G]

I built this guy last night.  Had a little trouble getting the input jack wired correctly, but figured it out.  Sounded pretty good, but noticed the tone control wasn't working in a way that made sense... noticed I had that all wrong.  So I corrected it, and now the damn thing doesn't work at all!  Crap.  I'll figure it out.

Sounded pretty cool when it worked though!

[Danny G]

Dammit!  What am I doing wrong?  It was working, I was playing through it.  I noticed the tone control wasn't acting like a tone control, and realized I had it wired wrong.  I wired it "right" and it stopped working.  No matter how I wire the tone control, it does not work!!!!


WTF!!!  Help!?!

Anybody?

[brett]

Hi.  Is it possible to check whether there's a signal before the 10k resistor?  If not, it's likely that one of the transistors has blown.  If there is a signal before the 10k resistor, the signal is being grounded, perhaps around one of the 2n2 caps.

Also, the "tone" control is really just a cutoff filter for high-frequency harmonics.  It works on frequencies (7 to 20kHz) way above any notes you actually play on a guitar.  If your ears have been subjected to lots of loud music for many years, the filter may even be above your hearning range.  I can JUST hear the effect.  A rule-of-thumb for your upper limit is 2kHz per decade from a base of 20kHz at 20 years of age.  Severe industrial or recreational noise can increase the loss to several kHz per decade.