Gus's Ritefuzz tone shaping

[Rodgre]

This should be a simple one for y'all.

I whipped up Gus Smalley's Fuzzrite this morning with a couple of 3904s. I tried a few other trannies and the 3904s seemed to sound best.

Now, I would like to tailor the tone a bit to get a little thinner tone, somewhere in the Tone Bendery "Heart Full of Soul" vein. I assume that the input cap is where I would achieve this. I just wondered what value I should try. Higher or lower than the .1 that's in there now?

Here's the schematic:



Roger

[Rodgre]

Ah... I figured it out. I ended up using a SPDT switch to switch between the .1 for a full sounding fuzz and a .002 for a thin screechy fuzz.

Roger

[jmusser]

I did that same trick to the Si Tone Bender that RDV modded, along with an output cap switch as well. I believe I went with a .01. If you use it with the standard input cap value, you won't really notice much difference, but with the .002, it'll thin the tone even more. You'll have to give us a a sound sample so we can see how close you came to the "Heart Full of Soul" sound. I love that tone (and tune)!

[Rodgre]

The gain is a little more extreme and splatty than "Heart Full of Soul", but the tone is there. I compare it to the Beatles "Revolution" (which is an overloaded mixing desk) and the rockin' solo after the breakdown in "Black Dog."

Yardbirds riffs sound great with that tone too. I think the tone switch make it a really versatile circuit for very little parts. Heck, I built it up while I was making my morning coffee waiting for my girlfriend to get out of the shower....

Roger

[jmusser]

Well, I'm definitely going to build it now! The "Revolution" fuzz tone is something I was asking about the other day. It's not a tone you want all the time, but on some British Invasion stuff, it's a must. The SI Tone Bender comes close, and so does the OUSB, but they are still not as high pitched as the Revolution fuzz tone.

[RDV]

Well, I'm definitely going to build it now! The "Revolution" fuzz tone is something I was asking about the other day. It's not a tone you want all the time, but on some British Invasion stuff, it's a must. The SI Tone Bender comes close, and so does the OUSB, but they are still not as high pitched as the Revolution fuzz tone.

That little Guyatone "The Fuzz" can pretty much nail it. In my sample I only did the treble roll-off octave tone. With both controls on the pedal @ 12:00 it gets real close, it's still an ugly sound however. My ShinEi 8tr Fuzz-Wah sounds much better.

RDV

[birt]

can you post voltages please?

edit: i used the original schematic, does it make a difference? (to thos voltages i mean)

[birt]

i just tested my fuzzrite. it's heavy trebly distortion. not fuzzy enough for me. any mods?

[brian wenz]

Hello Hello--
    If you really want the Yardbirds fuzz build the Vox Tonebender [2 germanium trannys...]  I know I keep harping about this circuit but it really gets it!  [Does the Beatles thing, too].   Gotta remember that the Yardbirds stuff was all Vox amps with EL84 tubes, so that makes a difference.  When the Beatles started using Fender amps they didn't run the TB through them but they did run it through the mixing board.......different fuzz sound altogether!
By the way, a Fuzzrite with stock values does the "thinner" fuzz thing really well.  For me, Gus' Ritefuzz was too fat for playing through a tube amp at higher volumes.
Brian.

[birt]

*bump*