Blending a fuzz and an oscillator

[ReeceAblaze]

Hello everyone.

I want to put a fuzz in a case with an oscillator and be able to blend the signals.
I can't find an oscillator that would be good for this and that runs at 9v.

Any suggestions?

[dano12]

For the simplest route, CMOS can be quite effective:



A simple resistive mixer could control the osc and pedal output. For a more refined mixer, a single transistor design such as the Buff'N'Blend would work well!

For more CMOS fun, check out:
http://beavisaudio.com/projects/cmossynthesizers/
https://milkcrate.com.au/_other/sea-moss/#osc

[ReeceAblaze]

That Oscillator looks like what I am looking for. Also what is a resistive mixer?

[dano12]

That Oscillator looks like what I am looking for. Also what is a resistive mixer?

A more common term would be a 'passive mixer' although wikipedia likes to call them 'additive mixers".

Here's a great example:

http://www.muzique.com/news/passive-mixer/

[ReeceAblaze]

Thanks. That link is really helpful. I have currently built a few fuzz face clones and want to learn more about the way everything works. I am hoping to design some of my own stuff once I begin to understand it. Do you know any good places to start?

[dano12]

Do you know any good places to start?

Oh, I sure do! This entire forum is the best resource, espcially the Beginner Product board: https://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?board=6.0

[ReeceAblaze]

I will take a look through there now. Also how important is a major knowledge of electronics to doing this stuff because I picked up a copy of the art of electronics and at 1 chapter in I was already feeling overwhelmed and disheartened.

[dano12]

I will take a look through there now. Also how important is a major knowledge of electronics to doing this stuff because I picked up a copy of the art of electronics and at 1 chapter in I was already feeling overwhelmed and disheartened.

Electronics knowledge is not hugely important at the outset as long as you are working with low-voltage projects like pedals. It will grow as you go.

To my mind, more important is the desire to figure things out, leaning to listen, physical assembly and working with tools, basic troubleshooting skills and a loud guitar amp

The Art of Electronics is a highly-regarded masterpiece, perhaps the best of its area ever written. And after repeated attempts, I have not made it past the first couple of chapters.

[ReeceAblaze]

That puts me at ease.

I definitely have a desire to figure things out and work with tools. I have done some troubleshooting already and although it is annoying it can be fun to laugh at myself when I figure out the issue and how minor and silly it was.

After learning a small amount about clipping diodes I opened up an old temperamental big muff and cut them out of the second gain stage. Once it successfully turned on (which it doesn't like to do very often) I thought the difference in sound was cool. I could only test the difference against a Russian Reissue Big Muff which has less gain anyway so my comparison won't have been spot on but there was definitely a difference from before I took them out .

[pinkjimiphoton]

+1 on everything dano said.

that said, get a breadboard. you'll be glad you did!!!

you don't have to know shit about electronics really to get going designing fuzzes. us fuzzmongers tend to "break" the rules.

for all intents, you can make a fuzz like this on a breadboard

take two resistors. value isn't critical. anything from 10k to 4.7m would probably work.

stick them so one goes to +, one goes to - on your power supply.

at the mid point, put a cap. this will be your input.
on the other side of the cap and resistor node, put the middle pin of an average npn transistor. you WILL need to look up the pinout, i just use a cheap transistor tester i got on the bay for this.
you have three connections
collector, where the + goes in, and the sound comes out <thru a cap>
base, where the sound goes in
and emitter,  which you can tie directly to ground, to start. experimenting with small value resistors and big honkin caps can get ya a lot of mileage, but first start with just getting it working.

so at your base connection, you have your input cap, and two resistors to "float" the bias at a half way point on the base.

now ground your emitter <or try resistances between 100r and 10k  in parallel with resistances from about 22n to 47u... a huge range of variation, really, but all legit if it sounds good...

now for the collector, stick a pot or trim pot between the + and the collector circuit. you may want to tie one of the pins to the wiper but its not totally necessary. i'd go with a 10-50k pot there. tie one of the outside pins to +, and tie the wiper <middle one>  to the collector.

last step, pick an output cap. smaller caps like 2.2n will be very bright sounding, bigger caps like 10u will be very phat and likely rather muddy. if you use a polarized or electro cap, make sure the + end connects to the pot and collector. the - end becomes your guitar out.

fire it up, and turn the trimmer til it sounds good.

if ya need more distortion, use anti parallel diodes. whatever ya got... from the output side of the output cap to ground. that will make it distort more.

but thats a simple one-stage booster/fuzz/distortion. you can change values and add or subtract parts, but as ya see, its pretty simple.

ya need + /-, input and output caps basically. the pot helps ya set the bias. with ge, you can even ommit the biasing resistors, but it may not sound as good.

seriously, fuzzes ain't rocket science.. i'm somewhere around 500 of 'em built at this point, 10 years in... many of my own design. i started building shit just like what i described above.

in fact, here's an example, the very first thing i ever "designed"... and it worked!

[ElectricDruid]

I will take a look through there now. Also how important is a major knowledge of electronics to doing this stuff because I picked up a copy of the art of electronics and at 1 chapter in I was already feeling overwhelmed and disheartened.

Electronics knowledge is not hugely important at the outset as long as you are working with low-voltage projects like pedals. It will grow as you go.

To my mind, more important is the desire to figure things out, leaning to listen, physical assembly and working with tools, basic troubleshooting skills and a loud guitar amp

The Art of Electronics is a highly-regarded masterpiece, perhaps the best of its area ever written. And after repeated attempts, I have not made it past the first couple of chapters.

+1 agree. I'm sure Art of Electronics is a great work, but I've made it this far without needing a copy. There are other (perhaps easier) ways to learn the same information. I recommend those instead!

Tom