This is a library of perfboard and single-sided PCB effect layouts for guitar and bass. I'm not an electrical engineer by any stretch of the imagination, just a DIY'er who likes drawing layouts. It is meant for the hobbyist (so commercial use of any of these layout is not allowed without permission) and as a way to give back to the online DIY community.

Friday, May 12, 2017

FuzzHugger FX Algal Bloom

Here's another cool fuzz from FuzzHugger for Fuzz Friday. The Algal Bloom is transistor based with a wide range of tones, from mild overdrive to full on fuzz. It has the Gain and Level controls you'd expect, along with a Bloom control (expands the fuzz tone), Clean (blend), and Power (voltage sag), along with 2 toggle switches for more things to tweak. Originals have the Clean control internally, but who doesn't love more controls? It's laid out with board mounted pots to fit in a 125B enclosure with top mounted jacks.


17 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Wire the switch lugs to the corresponding pads on the board. See the General Layout Notes tab for switch lug numbering.

      Delete
  2. I built this and it works with the choke switch off. When I turn the choke switch on though I have no signal unless the bloom & gain are tuned up pretty high. It could just be my build or my low output guitars though - I'm still debugging that.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's how the choke toggle is supposed to work. There is no manual online but the pedal comes with a little card if you buy it new.

    Once you engage the choke switch, Dime every knob except the volume and blend (If you have a blend knob, I don't). Slowly dial back any combination of the three knobs to get different sounds.
    You can also change the behavior in choke mode by pushing the pedal with another pedal.

    ReplyDelete
  4. So I was wondering how I could possibly get permission to sell pedals I make using PCBs from this site?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shoot me an email and we can talk about licensing. gehringcustomguitars(at)gmail.com

      Delete
  5. I finally built this pedal lol, it worked just fine, although I might add that I am using slightly different diodes, 1N4002s and 1N914s to be exact, had the parts left over when I unsuccessfully tried to make this pedal from tagboard effects' version. Thanks for the layout! :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Although I do have one question, is the power pot supposed to completely kill the signal when it's maxed out? The demos I've seen of this and the original don't appear to behave that way when the power knob is cranked all the way either direction, but mine does.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi! Can i use DPDT on\on\on switch instean of SPDT on\on\on? Or two SPDT ON\ON switches? How I can wire it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You can use a DPDT on/on/on in place of the SPDT on/on/on, just ignore the 2nd column of lugs.

      Delete
  8. Cant find a SPDT on on on anywhere, is the voice switch meant to put both caps in circuit or one of the two? if so wouldn't it take more wiring with a dpdt on on on?

    cheers

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Voice switch is a tone control that connects the audio signal (just before the Level pot) to caps going to ground (to roll off high frequencies). One side connects to a 10nF cap, the other to a 4.7nF cap, and when the switch is in the middle it connects both caps, giving a parallel capacitance of about 15nF. If you can't find an on/on/on switch you can use just an on/on SPDT and not have the 15nF option, or can wire a simple variable tone control in it's place. Just use a 100k or higher pot and a cap (something in the 15-22nF range is what I'd probably try first). Wire lug 3 of the pot to the Voice 2 pad, and lug 2 to the Voice 1 pad. Then populate the 15-22nF cap in place of the 10nF cap that would be connected to the Voice 1 pad. Will it sound the same as the switch? Not exactly as you've introduced resistance before the capacitance to ground, but it's a viable alternative. Hope that helps

      Delete
  9. It does, thanks! I couldn't find a clear schematic showing if the connections put the caps in parallel or took them out completely. I think I might try a dpdt on-on-on with lugs 3 and 4 bridged, lug 1 connected to 10nf and lug 6 to 4.7nf. (thanks for the speedy response).

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hello, I did this project, but it does not sound anything, it is silent, I think it is because I use a 4P3T for VOICE instead of the SPDT. This 4P3T has 3 selection pins and one in common (ground). I don't know if this component can replace the on-on-on, since it is a 3-position selector. If I buy the SPDT, it has 6 pins, does anyone know how it connects anyway? Does 1 join with 2? 2 with 3?

    https://kowka.cl/tienda/product.php?id_product=111

    ReplyDelete