1 Knob Fuzzes

[BetterOffShred]

Hey there fellas, I've been building pedals for quite a while and just recently got into building stuff in the "A" sized boxes.   I built the AMZ fet-booster in one, and got hooked.   So anyway, I came across the "1-knob fuzz bonanza" over on Tagboard FX and decided to build a couple of them as they are all basically the same design with different input/output caps and subtle changes to a few resistors.     I built the "Black Arts Toneworks Ritual"  in about 20 minutes last night, and fired it up with some 2N2222a's .. and woweee!  It has some serious fuzz!  I tried it with 2N3904's, and it compressed more and didn't quite have the burl, but still pretty good.  Then I tried it with 2N4401's, MPSA18's, 2N5088, all with similar effect.     

I have a couple of BC109's of varying hfe leftover from my Fuzz God 2 build, so I may whip up the Meathead with dark/norm switch later today and see how that goes.

Anyway, I just wanted to recommend that build for anyone who may be on the fence about trying to build a guitar pedal, or any of you who really love fuzz.  It sounds great, and it's pretty nifty going into the Dan Armstrong Green Ringer..

-Brett

[BetterOffShred]

Meathead with DPDT switch for input/output cap switching from Dark/Norm was a cake build, and it sounds really fantastic!   I like it better than the Ritual for sure.  It's a little sputtery on the decay after about 6 seconds of sustain, but I rarely sustain a note for that long with fuzz anyway!   I'd recommend that build to anyone as well!

http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2013/04/1-knob-fuzz-bonanza.html

Lots of fun over there!   

-Brett

[Joel]

Saved for the future.  Ta.

[BetterOffShred]

The original Meathead schem calls for a 2n3904 and a BC182L, but the 1-knob layouts call for BC108's.. and all I had were some 109s.. so I'm going to order up some BC182L's and revisit the Meathead.  I also only had PN2222's, but I ordered some 2N2222's which I believe are just the higher current versions, but I ordered some anyway to see if it changes much.   Great fuzzes!

-Brett

[super&plexi]

Good to "see"you here!  Good timing,  looking for fuzz/od to shoehorn in E. B. Volume pedal.  Now if you can just help me out with how/where to mount on off bypass... Ha.

[BetterOffShred]

Aren't you after fuzz level being controlled by the expression portion?   These 1 knob fuzzes all have just a volume.. Full fuzz all the time.   

A couple years ago I built a Silicon NPN Tone Bender MkII.. and it's pretty tasty.  The fuzz control is very responsive, and the board is really small.  This might be a good way to put a small fuzz with gain control into an expression pedal.   It's a 2 knob pedal (3 for me because I used a pot for the bias for that really nasty Velcro fuzz sometimes)   http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2013/07/npn-si-tonebender-mkii.html  Incidentally, I have literally 75 of these transistors so if you want to build one I'd be happy to send you enough to build one or two. 
 
I guess I'd also like to see which E.B. volume pedal you have.   It's pretty easy to put in "Soft Touch" switching so you could push the pedal all the way down to "click" the effect on/off, like Dunlop wahs.   
Let us know :)
-Brett