Looking for a good DIY bass distortion/fuzz

[davidjnichols]

Hey guys, I'm looking to build a bass fuzz or distortion pedal.  Probably fuzz.  Something to get it really gritty.  I'm hoping for it to have Level, Gain, Mix/Blend, an EQ of sorts (maybe just a tone knob), and maybe Boost (footswitchable).  Does anyone have a schematic that matches that description?  I found the blend circuit floating around this forum, so I think that'd be pretty easy to incorporate. 

[nocentelli]

Run a google search for "LPD MegaDEN Bass Fuzz": It's over at the other place, so I can't post link to it here. It's a DIY design with a bazz fuss core, with a level, gain and "harmonics" (tone) pot, as well as a buffered blend circuit wrapper with separate wet and dry level pots. If you wanted a blend knob, you could probably just connect the wet and dry outputs to the outer lugs of a single pot, and connect the bias/half-supply/vref to the wiper to pan between wet and dry.

[nocentelli]

ps - if you do replace the dry and wet pots with a single blend, you'll need to add a master volume by replacing the 10k to ground at the output with a 10k volume pot.

[EATyourGuitar]

russian muff works really good for me on bass. I am not one to need a clean blend. you may want a clean blend. I just turn the muff on and it goes into super ass kick mode.

[rosscocean]

The Bazz Fuss is good but isn't very flexible, i bet the Megaden could be really good. I really like the proco rat with the ruetz mod for bass. I also have a Joyo Ultimate drive which is supposed to be an OCD clone that sounds great on bass.

Ross

[hex_void]

You can make a bass overdrive based one some distortion pedal made for guitar, change the tone controls, add a mix knob and a bunch of filters. I tested the distortion I built for guitar on bass and apart from the obvious lack of low frequencies with the tone control bass knob on it not turned all the way up it sounded awesome.

[digi2t]

Try this one;



Built one for my daughter's now "ex" boyfriend. He plays bass. Didn't blow my skirt up on guitar, but pretty cool on bass. Here's the schematic;



Did a sound sample (pardon my crappy playing, I'm not a bass player); http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=11560147&q=hi&newref=1

[JebemMajke]

Supercollider clone ... killer on bass. Just use 2 red leds for second set of diodes and it's a killer.

[alparent]

http://hammer.ampage.org/?cmd=lt&xid=&fid=&ex=&pg=1

Look for Gruntbox. (2nd from the bottom.)

[Thecomedian]

Built one for my daughter's now "ex" boyfriend. He plays bass. Didn't blow my skirt up on guitar, but pretty cool on bass. Here's the schematic;

Which, the pedal or the boyfriend?

[azrael]

Check the Ginger project on runoffgroove.com

[Derringer]

I was always happy with this for some fuzz/overdrive options



any darlington tranny should work ... or even a high gain NPN I reckon
and I'd use a 2n5457 or other easily available jfet for the buffer nowadays instead of the J201

I built this for my bass player years ago and he still uses it
I did add a boost stage to the end though for his

[Jazznoise]

The symmetry/assymytry clipping thing is an important thing to note. Those low order harmonics are a huge part of a bass guitars sound - especialy with recording as most home systems don't do the 20-80hz region much justice.

Hey Derringer, is the bottom circuit a half wave rectifier?

[digi2t]

Built one for my daughter's now "ex" boyfriend. He plays bass. Didn't blow my skirt up on guitar, but pretty cool on bass. Here's the schematic;

Which, the pedal or the boyfriend?

NEITHER!! 

[moosapotamus]

The fuzz found in the Acoustic 360 preamp has been my main go-to bass fuzz for years. I've built almost a dozen different versions, so far. I'm actually working on a 24V version right now.

~ Charlie

[JebemMajke]

The fuzz found in the Acoustic 360 preamp has been my main go-to bass fuzz for years. I've built almost a dozen different versions, so far. I'm actually working on a 24V version right now.

~ Charlie

I was always curious about that one. Do you have a sound sample? And could you possibly share schematic of the fore mentioned dirt box?

[Derringer]

The symmetry/assymytry clipping thing is an important thing to note. Those low order harmonics are a huge part of a bass guitars sound - especialy with recording as most home systems don't do the 20-80hz region much justice.

Hey Derringer, is the bottom circuit a half wave rectifier?

bottom part is just a bass fuzz ... though I suppose it does do some half wave rect.

[moosapotamus]

The fuzz found in the Acoustic 360 preamp has been my main go-to bass fuzz for years. I've built almost a dozen different versions, so far. I'm actually working on a 24V version right now.

~ Charlie

I was always curious about that one. Do you have a sound sample? And could you possibly share schematic of the fore mentioned dirt box?

Audio clip...
https://soundcloud.com/moosapotamus/360fuzz-v2-jam

Schematic and discussion...
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=87908.0

~ Charlie

[Earthscum]

After playing a modded DS-1, Bazz Fuss, DOD FX91, and other fuzz's and distortions, my favorite is ultimately the Big Muff. When I jam, if I only have 1 distortion in my chain, I choose the Muff.

Here's what I built (I always play with the diodes out... considering just pulling them and the switch): http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=95696.0

My typical lineup (on bass) is Bazz Fuss, Toe Jam, Nurse Quacky, Big Muff, DS-1, Little Angel, DOD FX17 Wah/Vol, KMD Phaser. I like my effects 

[JebemMajke]

How 'bout OCD? I've built one and I hated it with guitar. Didn;t know what to do with it so I've tried it with bass and it's cool. Really nice OD/Dist. It has good amount of bass, dirt and it';s dynamic response is great. Sometimes I push it with my si/ge hybrid fuzz. Nice sound. Especially with BBE Sonic Stomp at the end of the chain ( send/return for the lucky ones ).