Death by Audio Fuzz War II

Here's the newer 4 transistor version of the Fuzz War for Fuzz Friday. Apparently the boys at DBA thought a modified Big Muff was a better circuit. Much like the Supa Tonebender, the first gain stage lacks clipping diodes, and (unlike the Supa Tonebender) the second gain stage has modified the clipping from the original BMP.

Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret

Here's the original Dirty Little Secret from Catalinbread. It's a great sounding overdrive that emulates the sound of a Marshall JTM45. The Rock/Rawk switch goes between two different gain settings, and this is a good candidate to be run at 18v for more headroom.

One-Knob Noise Gate

Found this one over on the Tagboard forum and thought it would be a good addition here. It's a simple noise gate with minimal parts count that can easily fit in a 1590a. I've laid it out for a board mounted pot. The schematic calls for a 1M pot, but people have built this using one as low as 25k, so experiment there. The original schematic was a little hard to read so I redrew it.

EHX Satisfaction Fuzz

It's Fuzz Friday once again and this week we have the Satisfaction Fuzz from Electro Harmonix. It's essentially a Jordan Bosstone without the clipping diodes and a smaller output capacitor.

Walrus Audio Deep Six Compressor

Apparently it's going to be a compressor week. It came to my attention that my original schematic and layout for the Deep Six had a few errors. And since I want to build this one myself and my dislike of off board wiring, I laid this out for board mounted pots. It should be a pretty comfortable fit in a 1590BB, but if you're unlike me and don't mind playing with hookup wire, you could probably fit it in a 125B. Essentially, this is a modded Ross Compressor/DynaComp based off the BYOC 5-Knob Compressor and with a charge pump. I know a lot of you like to do charge pumps differently, so I've left that off the board so you can pick your preferred charge pump daughter board. And if you want to just run it at 9v instead of 18, that totally works as well.

And here's the updated schematic for references:

JangleBox

Here's a cool variation on the MXR DynaComp. Apparently it's well loved by Rickenbacker players for adding even more Byrd-like jangle to their tone. It's laid out for board mounted pots and you should be able to squeeze it into a 1590B.

Ampeg Scrambler

It's Fuzz Friday time again, and this week I give you the Ampeg Scrambler. This one's a pretty rare one, even back when it was originally made in the late 60s. It's a pretty crazy octave fuzz with a clean blend. Originals used 2N5306 for Q1, 3, and 4, and a BC169 for Q2, but those could be difficult to source, and it works fine with modern equivalents (mind the pinouts if using original transistors). If you want to add a master volume control, use a 100k pot (adjust to taste) and wire lug 3 to the Out pad of the board. Lug 2 is now your output, and lug 1 goes to ground. This sounds pretty cool on bass as well as guitar.

Smallsound/Bigsound Mini

Here's a pretty versatile and unique overdrive from Smallsound/Bigsound. The designer, Brian, was kind enough to share his schematic over on FSB, so a big thanks to him! I've laid this out for board mounted pots and added trimmers to help bias Q1 and Q3. I posted the layout on FSB and JohnK has already verified it, so thanks John!

Nobels ODR-1

Got a request for this one. It's an interesting variation of the Tube Screamer circuit, but with a lot of changes and modifications. There's an optional boost switch you can include if you like that's not apart of the original. If you don't want to include it, just don't populate the 270Ω resistor and 2.2uF connected to the Boost Switch 1 pad. Here's the schematic for reference.

Death by Audio Fuzz War

For Fuzz Friday, here's the original Fuzz War from Death by Audio. It's essentially 5 gain stages going into a Big Muff-esque tone stack, into a clipping stage and a final gain stage. Here's the schematic for reference. Original models have the Fuzz control as a trimmer internally, but I've laid that out as an external control for more versatility. Pots can be board mounted using right angle PCB mount pots and it should fit in a 1590B (though personally I'd put it in a 125B).

Roger Mayer Voodoo-Bass

Got a request for this one. It's the bass version of the Voodoo distortion. It's a very popular bass effect, especially in Japan apparently, but also sounds great with guitar too. A transistor stage at the input pushes a Rat-like LM308 distortion section, followed by a Big Muff-style tone stack and a simple output buffer. Here's the schematic.

Harmonic Percolator

Here's the mythical Interfax Harmonic Percolator for Fuzz Friday. It's a pretty unique circuit design and uses germanium and silicon transistors. Here's the schematic for reference.