DIRTY BOOTS V6

so i finally got my buddy's dirty boots finished.  it's going to be used on guitar and organ, so i added a couple extra controls.  a pre-bass and post-treble tone control combo work great together.  this is the main recipe for filtering distortion pedals, so it's no surprise.  i plan on doing a full overhaul of this design in the future, to see if i can optimize it any further, but until then, this one sounds great.  here's the schematic i ended up with.

and some gut shots.

 unfortunately i ran out of alpha pots in the values i needed, but the ones i ended up using are of decent quality.  here's a couple clips i made of the harder fuzz that this pedal can do.  the first is the DB by itself, the second is boosted. disregard the titles. it was 5:30 am when i got this thing finished last night.

4HMEN -> TOECUTTER - DOOM KONTROL.

here are some clips of the four horsemen into the toecutter. heavy ain't it? I think I might like to put these both into one box.

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!

PROTOTYPE FUZZ

i thought i'd take a little time to show you guys how i build my prototypes. this is a new fuzz i've been working on that is a kind of cross between the fuzz face and the fuzzrite. usually when i build up a proto for the first time, i'll just grab a piece of vero and start populating, and that's what i did here. i'll try to cut a piece of vero that looks like it's got plenty of room, but this time i think i just made it.;) the boxes that i usually use are these computer switching boxes that i bought on ebay for super cheap. i think i got 8 of them for 15 bucks or so. sometimes i'll stip the paint off with acetone, leaving the box sit in the chemicals for days. what ends up happening is a really cool weathered and corroded finish that lightly rusts and changes with age. i really like the look of it. the pots i've been using are these used mil spec Allen-Bradleys that you can get on line for a buck a piece. i'll spray clean and lube them up to try and bring some life back into them if they need it. knobs will be whatever i've got lying around. many times my pots and knobs don't match, but i don't really care, it's just for me to use. i've got a number of pedals that i've made up for myself like this. usually i'll etch a pcb and put it in a nice box from PE.com if i am happy with the sound. hopefully this helped some of you out there with building your proto effects!

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I put this guy through hs paces the other day with great results! I'll post a full write up soon.

H-FUZZ

here's a pedal i built up for a buddy of mine the other day.  he plays bass in the local chicago trio Hobo and Boxcar, and wanted something that he could use for bass as well as guitar.  i built him up a circuit that i came up with based on the Fuzz Face/Wooly Mammoth model, that shines when it comes to double duty fuzz action.  it's basically a tweaked fuzz face with russian GT309 transistors (a new fave of mine), that has the fuzz factory/wooly mammoth adjustable NFB gate control, an input gain pot, a max gain trimmer, and a LPF/switchable HPF adjustable tone control, similar to the Big Muff, that allows for guitar or bass functions.  the mid shift switch allows anything from fat scooped bass, a dirty overdrive, or mid-heavy motorhead style grind.   for guitar, it's capable of anything from monster thick doom tones to mosquito sixties style fuzz. topped off with some sweet vintage knobs, it's a great switch-hitter.

as an aside, after taking this picture, i realized that i wired the center pots up a little tight, so i simply switched the two middle pots around. now, if the nuts loosen up, the wires on the pots won't get pulled out so easily. a word to the wise- leave enough slack on your pots!

DIRTY BOOTS SOUND CLIP

someone asked for a clip of the Dirty Boots, so I dug one up. HERE is a soundclick page by danielzink where you can hear it. if you go to the second song down, it's in the micro pedal demo. you'll hear a phaser first, then the DB. I haven't listened to the clip in a while, so I'm not sure how accurate of a representation it is, but I'm sure it's close. thanks, Dan!

MILITARY DIRTY BOOTS PICS

here's a Dirty Boots I built up in an old tank communication control box. it's got some serious mojo(just for fun;))components, a switch for hi and lo gain, and a single volume knob. I like the idea of repurposing death machines for rock and roll. I should've bought more of these boxes when I had the chance! I've got one more, if anyone is interested.

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.

AQUATAUR FUZZ RIDE

fsb forumite, helmut shows off his version of the GREEN BOMB called the FUZZ RIDE on his website http://aquataur.at.tf/.  he did a great write up, showing his additions to the basic GB circuit.  helmut added in and output buffers, as well as a sag switch for other tonal possibilities.  there are some nice soundclips uploaded there as well.  make sure to check out helmut's other articles- they are all great reads.  thanks, helmut!

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.

TOECUTTER V.1 REV.C PCB LAYOUT

recently there was a request for a Toecutter pcb, so i made up this version of V1 because i still think that it is probably the best sounding version. it isn't verified, but it is checked in eagle, so it should be good. i hope you guys enjoy it, and be sure to let me know if you get it built!

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just a little tip- for a wider variation in the gain control use a larger pot- say 500K.  personally, i like to keep it up around the upper end of the gain range, so 100-250K is usually what i like to go with.  also,  a 100K volume pot will brighten up the sound a bit, and changing the 4K7 resistor to 10K will add more gain, but i think it loses some of it's crunchy magic.

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spencerpedals made this great post about The Toecutter over at FSB, i thought i should share it-

"Re: RnFR- The Toecutter

by SpencerPedals » Thu Feb 25, 2010 9:42 pm

Finally got around to breadboarding this with some low-leakage pirated germaniums, house numbered so I have no idea exactly what, and it will rattle your fucking skull. I've liked the clip since I heard it, but didn't have a closet full of parts. If anyone's ever heard the stuff from Slow Burn, the tones you get are almost identical. I always test pedals through an old school solid-state Crate and then if nothing explodes, I run them into my Ampeg V4. This thing definitely comes alive in the later (as most do) and with tuning dropped to C, is probably even lethal to small animals. I don't have any pets, so I can't say for sure. Actually I do have a snake and I didn't check, but she may very well have perished. I have V1.1 on the breadboard but with a 500K gain pot from V3 and used Q1 and Q2 in the 80's hFE and Q3 in the 120's. I'll be seasoning to taste over the next few days/weeks and report what I settle with. And if you're not a fan of growly loudness, it actually sounds very sixties fuzz when you turn the gain down and screw with the bias. Not my territory with this one, but versatility is there. More to come."

great stuff! glad to hear he's diggin it!

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!  

DIRTY BOOTS TWEAKS

jrod over at FSB is planning on building a DIRTY BOOTS, and asked me what kind of tweaks could be made.  it's really a highly variable circuit, and can be tailored to your specific tone very easily.  here's what i wrote to him-


there is a lot of tweaking that can be done to the DB.  you might want to lower the collector resistor on Q2 as it is a bit voltage starved.  if you want less drive, increase the resistor in between stages, or take out the bypass caps on the emitters.  also, you might want to increase the collector resistor on Q2 as it is kicking out pretty much full gain, and that can make it a bit noisy.  maybe try 1K.  it all depends on what you want.  if you want it brighter, lower the value of the compensation cap from C to B on Q1 or put a 47K resistor in series with the input.  adjust the in and out caps for low end.  it's a really easy circuit to tweak, so i would just put it on the breadboard, and figure out what you like for your amp.

TRIODE FUZZ NO.2/ AMZ SIXTIES STYLE FUZZ TAGBOARD LAYOUT

a while back, i posted this little article on a couple of fuzz circuits i found on the triode electronics site. the first is very similar to a fuzz face style circuit, where as the second is a little bit different. it has what appears to be an emitter follower into a kind of dc coupled complementary gain stage pair. very much similar to the jordan bosstone. here is a link to the original article.


http://apocalypseaudio.blogspot.com/2009/05/triode-fuzz-1-2.html 

while surfing around the voluminous pages of Jack Orman's AMZ effects website, i saw something that looked a little familiar.

http://www.muzique.com/schem/sixties.gif

it seems that the triode fuzz and the amz sixties style fuzz are one in the same!  most likely, this is an old circuit taken from one of the many electronics "cookbooks" from back in the day.  regardless, i've heard from a good source that it's supposed to be a great sounding circuit, so i decided to draw up a layout- this time for tagboard construction.  tagboard, eyelet board, or turret board can be a fun way to do your circuit board construction for a change.  there is no etching or drilling to be done, and you get to use those nice sounding axial foil caps that would've never fit on your pcb circuit.  i really like using this particular tagboard that can be found at weber as well as apex jr. for very reasonable prices.

https://taweber.powweb.com/store/fb-v.jpg

it has 3 different solder points per tag that makes it very easy to find holes for your passives, actives, and wire without running out of space.  the layout i made for the triode/sixties fuzz circuit was made specifically for this type of board, but you could easily adapt it to other types of tagboard out there.  i haven't built it yet, but i do plan to in the near future.  as always, let me know if you decide to build it yourself.

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i got this thing on the breadboard, and had a rough time getting it to bias properly.  i'm going to try and figure it out, and i'll post anything i find.

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due to problems with this circuit biasing correctly, i have pulled the layout.  i'll post a new tagboard layout for a better design shortly.  looking at this one with a more informed set of eyes, there are many things that could be done differently to make this a better design.  i'll post another tagboard layout for a proper fuzz circuit once i get it checked and verified.

MONTARBO PB-2 FUZZ SECTION

hey if anyone is out there, sorry it's been so long.  been kinda denying the blog love lately, hope to get back into it with some cool stuff to add.


here is a little italian fuzz circuit that i thought looked interesting.  it's from the montarbo pb-2 fuzz/phaser combo pedal. i like the negative feedback diode configuration.  at first it looks a bit like a muff, but there are some differences when you look closer.  you can see that the diode loops are separated by capacitors effectively isolating them from the DC that is used to bias the transistors, where as in the big muff, the diodes have their own dedicated blocking caps, filtering the frequencies to be clipped.  also, there is a 47K resistor to ground on the first tranny's diodes that may introduce some harsher clipping by pulling the diodes closer to earth.  it looks like a fun little way to adjust clipping, and i plan on giving it a shot in the future.  if anything cool comes of it, i'll be sure to let you know on the blog.

cheers!

ELEKTRATONE'S DIRTY BOOTS

FSB forumite elektratone built up this cool rust finished version of the dirty boots a while ago.  i thought it was about time he got some fame on the blog.  it definitely looks like this thing's been through the apocalypse and back!

APOCALYPSE AUDIO - PANZER FUZZ

my latest creation is an uber-high gain fuzz-tortion designed around the soviet GT308B germanium transistor. since this seems like one of the more common russian germanium transistors that people buy, i thought it would be a good candidate to include in my next project. the 308B has a gain that usually hovers around 75 in most specimens that i have seen, except for some batches marked with red dots that have a gain of around 20 points less on the Hfe reading. as with most other soviet Ge's, their leakage is pretty much nil, this allows for excellent stablilty, easy biasing without trimpots, and no need to do tedious gain/leakage checks. i thought the 308 would be the perfect candidate to design a high gain fuzz around because of it's relatively high gain compared to other russian Ge's, and i haven't done anything along those lines since the Toecutter, which although it is doomy as hell, it is in itself not all that terribly high gain anyway.

the controls of this guy are as follows- gain, lo drive, hi drive, tone, and volume. the lo drive control is basically a full range gain control for the 2nd stage, and the hi drive control is i gain control for the 3rd stage that is concentrated only on the high frequencies. with all of the gain and drive controls turned up, you get an all out doomy grind with plenty of bite for on the top end. rolling back the gain control gives you a great crunch tone that i would describe as medium-high gain. the tone control is a heavily modified version of one that i saw on the AMZ site. i added 2 more caps, and adjusted all of the values for a nice even sweep. turning it all the way up also brings in a little bit of low end as well, so you get what sounds like a little dip in the midrange, too- adding to the metal tone of circuit. don't get me wrong though- this isn't one of those ultra-scooped metal zone P.O.S.'s. this thing has a ton of low end and has been tuned to have a bump in the high mids as well in order to cut through the mix and add some nice grind to the tone.

i did this write up of the basics of the schematic for culturejam's new circuit design forum circuitworkshop.com.
it can be found HERE.

the input cap(.033) was chosen to roll off just the bottom end of the input signal, there will be plenty more of that to come. the first stage is a basic booster using feedback biasing(1M resistor), and a .47 uF bypass cap for more gain throughout the full frequency range of the guitar. the emitter resistor(1K) was chosen to limit the amount of output from the first stage, and the 470pF cap rolls off some highs and stabilizes any oscillations that might happen.. next we have the gain pot(500K) and a 2K2 resistor setting the minimum amount gain available. the .01/220K combo allows highs to pass easier than lows trimming some of the fat off of the boosted signal. stage 2 is biased the same, as is stage 3. i find this technique of biasing easy and simple, allowing for fewer components as well. the .047uF cap rolls some high end off of this stage. the lo drive pot is a 10k pot going through a 47uF cap to ground. this isn't really just low end getting boosted per se, more of a full range gain control for this stage, but with the lows rolled off by the .o47 cap it definitely has some of that feel to it. the 100K/.1uF combo are doing negative feedback duty, reducing the overall gain a bit, as well as taming some noise and adding stability. next, the .0047 cap is more low pass filtering, and the .068 is hi pass,interstage coupling, and DC blocking. stage 3 also has some more high end filtering grom the .0022 cap to the 9V rail, and the bias values have been tweaked by ear a little. the hi drive pot is a 1K connected to ground through a 100uH inductor. turning this up adds a decent amount of sizzle to the sound. the 680/.1uF to ground were added to round out the frequency response of this stage a bit. the tone control is a tweaked version of jack orman's swtc2. i changed some values and added the .0033 and .01 cap to ground. the final .001 cap is rolling off a bit more of the very top end. finally the volume control has a 2K2 resistor to ground to limit it's lowest value. the mosfet and 1M resistor are there for reverse polarity protection, and the 100uF cap is for power filtering.

attached is a pcb layout, that is of yet unverified, but it has been checked in eagle, so it should be good. i'm going to try and get some clips done soon- they won't be the highest of quality though, but you should be able to get the idea of what is going on. hope someone out there can give this one a shot- it's really a killer!


XXXXXXUPDATEXXXXXX  it looks like the size printed on the layout is a bit small.  if you measure it out to that size, then increase by 10% you'll be perfect.  sorry about that!