GREEN BOMB SOUND CLIP

here's a clip of the Green Bomb that FSB forumite pillof made a while back. I stupidly forgot to add it to the blog. thanks pillof!!
GREEN BOMB SOUND CLIP

FEATHER FUZZ #1- and POST #100!!!

hey, it's post number 100! let's party!! man, this blog has been fun so far, so I'm looking toward 100 more. thanks to everyone who has been following along with me, your comments mean a lot, and I hope to see you around in the future. here's my latest pedal that I'm rather proud of, I think it's fitting for the big 1 0 0.

i've been commissioned by a great band out of Champagne, IL ,called the Dead Feathers, to create a couple of fuzzes for them. they weren't satisfied with their current fuzz tones, and i told them i'd be glad to give them a hand. the first one is for one of the guitarists that plays mainly fingerstyle guitar. he was looking for something with a decent amount of attack, and they are into the garage rock/sixties style stuff, so i thought the Green Bomb would be great. i added the addition of a JFET input buffer, because i feel it evens out the inconsistencies that can come from playing with ones fingers, and it gives the signal a bit of extra oomph that might be needed to keep the attack when playing without a pick. i did the layout on vero, as i don't have a pcb made up for this particular design yet, and made a few modifications when i tuned the circuit by ear. the pedal has some cool, old, low gain, two-tone, T-106, Si transistors i picked up a while ago from a surplus guy on ebay, and pretty much run of the mill metal film resistors, box caps and a couple ceramics in the filter sections. the electrolytics are some nice audio grade ones i just picked up from a dealer in poland. another thing i did with this build, is instead of snapping off the tabs on the pots, i drilled the extra small holes, and mounted them properly- thats not something you see a pedal builder do everyday!;) Dirk Hendrik would be proud! the finish is an awesome plum sparkle with dark green heathkit knobs, topped off with extra large rubber feet and a green led. it really looks killer in person. the pedal is sounding really cool too, and i think he'll be happy with it. stay tuned for the second pedal- it's going to be an all new design.

disregard the scuff on the the tone knob.^^^ it's getting replaced.

sorry the 2 pics above are kind of blown out, i took them indoors in crappy light.  although, they do kind of have a cool early seventies grainy b movie style to them that i kind of like!

GREEN BOMB FUZZ AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE

i've decided to sell a limited number of Green Bomb fuzzes to anyone who wants to purchase one.  each box will be a bit different, built old school style on tagboard, tuned by ear with whatever high quality components i choose to use at the time and true bypass.  if you are interested, you can get ahold of me at apocalypseaudio(at)gmail.com.  the price will be $150 each.

thanks!

abe.

IBODOG'S GREEN BOMB VERO

i just thought i would post a link to ibodog's green bomb vero layout over in his diys gallery.  the layout is verified, and there are a number of other nice layouts over there, too.  click on the title of this post for the link.  thanks, ibo!

GREEN BOMB PICS AND CLIPS

brothers and sisters! you know it's time to...

show you some pics!

my buddy Double A picked up Green Bomb No. 1 and has been putting it through it's paces lately.  he has reported back that the intense fuzz sounds garnered from this machine are indeed up to his high demands, and was kind enough to post a nice clip as well as take some pics of the this sucker for me.  (i really hafta get a camera soon!)  he started up a little myspace page that will be focusing on different pedals, and he chose the GREEN BOMB as entry number one!  check it out, there is a sweet sample of A-Double hashing out some nasty Davie Allen licks!

HERE


he was also kind enough to send me a few pics as well.  here are a couple of the best-

IBODOG'S GREEN BOMB FUZZ SOUND CLIP

click on the title and you will be treated to a great clip of the GREEN BOMB FUZZ made by FSB regular ibodog. many, many thanks to Sir Dog for his excellent contribution.  it shows off many of the middle range tones of the GREEN BOMB.  hopefully, i will soon make some clips of the more extreme end of the palate as well for you all to enjoy.

thanks ibo!  you rock.  i am in your debt.

GREEN BOMB FUZZ TAGBOARD LAYOUT

here's a tagboard layout for the GREEN BOMB that i built up today.  it's got a great deal of variation due to the wide range of gain and the phase cancellation.  lots if tones, but it always has that great FuzzRite buzz.  it's going to be a fun fuzz when i get it fully built.

GREEN BOMB FUZZ

here's something i was working on the other night.  it's a revved up mosrite fuzzrite based off of gus's gusrite circuit.  i basically juiced up the gain even more, did some stabilization and frequency response adjustments and added a nfb based tone control to add even more weird phase shaping possibilities than what was had in the original.  it's basically like a fuzzrite on steroids.  i'd suggest a mid gain transistor for Q1 and a high gain for Q2.  different transistors do different things, so it's worth trying out some different ones.  oh, and it can totally do that spirit in the sky thing perfect!  when you turn the gain all the way up you get that ratty almost misbiased thing that greenbaum had going on in his onboard fuzz.  back the gain off and rattyness goes away.  this thing is my new go to for crazy psych madness.  if you want more of a honky sound, lower the transistor gain a bit.  i'll probably try and do some more tweaks in the future, and i'll post them when i get a chance.

also-  i've got a tagboard layout that i'll post when i get it verified. ;]

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here are the schematics from Gus's rite fuzz and the mosrite Fuzzrite for reference.  if the owners have a problem with my posting them here, i will gladly take them down.

also, i was asked on FSB to describe the added tone control.  i tried to explain it to the best of my ability.  if anyone has anything to add, please, feel free.

the fuzz control on the fuzzrite works by adding the output of the first stage, an out of phase signal, with the output of the second stage, in phase signal.  this is what produces some of the thin, hollowed out, phase cancelled sounds that the fuzzrite is known for.  the shape control takes the non-inverted output of the first stage, with the output of the second stage, which also gets mixed in with the output of the first stage with the fuzz control.  the shape control has a low pass filter due to the .01 cap to ground, so when when it's negative feedback takes place, it only cancels out the lower frequencies and leaves the highs.  with this control you are still able to get the brite, zippy sounds of the original fuzzrite, but are now also able to get the thicker sounds of gus's ritefuzz- all through the same negative feedback techniques similar to what was used in the original fuzzrite!