Function F(x) Clusterfuzz

This Fuzz Friday I present you the Clusterfuzz from good dudes at Function F(x). It's a great sounding fuzz and really versatile. You might be able to squeeze this into a 125B if you can squeeze the rotary and toggle switches under the board. Otherwise a 1590BB like the original is probably the way to go.

Mini BassDrive

This is an adaption of the Fulltone Bassdrive without the boost footswitch, allowing for a smaller enclosure. I got the idea from a comment by Simão on the Fulldrive 2 post, and I though it could prove useful for my fellow bassists. Like the Fulldrive/Bassdrive, it's modded Tube Screamer with clipping and voicing options with the 2 toggle switches. Based on this schematic with the boost footswitch and 2nd gain pot removed.

Baja Optical Limiter

Here's one of Bajaman's non-amp emulating circuits, the Optical Limiter. It's based on the Demeter Compulator, but is not a compressor but a limiter. What's the difference?

The ratio is the main difference between a compressor and a limiter. A compressor has a low ratio that turns down SOME of the volume when it goes above the threshold. A limiter has a huge ratio that turns down ALL of the volume that goes above the threshold. (from Musician on a Mission)

Here's the schematic for reference. It's designed as a buffered bypass pedal, with the input jack going to the In pad on the board, and a third of a a 3PDT footswitch selecting between the buffered out and effect out. The off board LED pulses with the signal but probably isn't going to be great as an on/off indicator. Just use another third of the 3PDT to make/break the connection between the LED- pad and the cathode of the LED. And then use the final third of the footswitch to wire an on/off indicator LED as you normally would. (At least I think that's what Bajaman had in mind...) Also, the LDR should have 5k light resistance, 500k dark resistance (a GL5516 should work). Oh, and I added an extra pad so GSD pinout JFETs (J201, 2N5457, etc.) can be used in place of the 2SK117.

Wampler Pantheon

The Pantheon is Brian Wampler's take on the classic Bluesbreaker circuit. It adds some of the mods from the King of Tone as well as a Baxendall tone stack for the Bass control (the would be treble control of the Baxendall is fixed) and a gain switch to set different min/max settings of the Drive pot. Fits in a 125B like the original. If you're not feeling like etching or grabbing the perfboard, there are boards available on the store.

Human Gear Animato

Got a request for this one, and it's an interesting Big Muff variant. If you're a fan of Muse you're probably already familiar with this one. There's a germanium input stage followed by a fairly standard Big Muff circuit. Here's the schematic for reference. It would be a tight squeeze in a 1590B even if you wired the pots off board, but probably doable. Otherwise it should fit nicely in a 125B with top mounted jacks.

Noise Gate

Here's an interesting and fairly simple noise gate circuit sent to me by Stanik Nupel from a Polish electronics book. Schematic and Stanik's original layout can be found here. The switch isn't in his original layout, so it may not be all that necessary. It'll be a tight squeeze in a 1590B, but should fit especially if you're using low profile jacks. Otherwise it'll fit nicely in a 125B with top mounted jacks.

BearFoot FX Honey Beest

This one just got traced over on FSB. Apparently the heaviest of Bjorn's Honey designs. Here's the schematic for reference. Note: In the schematic the source and drain on Q1-2 are reversed from the way they are normally oriented, but I recently learned JFETs are generally symmetrical and will work either way. The original is built on a PCB that several of Bjorn's circuits can be built with and is laid out for TO-18 package JFETs with a different pinout than the TO-92 packaged 2N5952. I'm wondering/guessing it was easier to swap the drain and source legs when fitting the transistor to the PCB, but perhaps other/earlier versions of the circuit used TO-18 JFETs and had the drain and source oriented the "normal" way. That's my reasoning and as a result I've reversed them to the "standard" orientation in this layout. Also I altered the polarity protection method to fit on the board better. I'll shut up now.