Oh no its the Fuzz!

[Brendan]

Pfaffing around on the internet the other day and came across diyguitarpedals.com.au - bloke from Vic who's set up a small online shop selling cheap DIY pedal kits... So... decided to have a small play and for less than $20 delivered got a PCB for a simple fuzz pedal, most of the components (just needs need 2 x jacks (got already), a 3PDT footswitch, case (got already) and a LED(got already)). Photo below. Bloke behind it seems pretty cool - have emailed him twice with dumb questions and he's got back to me twice - another company like PBG that does a good job with customer service!
Will keep you updated. Just needed something that I could play with quietly while Wudtone and NCR oil is curing! Also picked up an experiementer's kit, 9V jack, Alpha pot and a couple of extra caps to try and see if I could make it a bass fuzz.

I have visions of a blue / white themed pedal - maybe hi vis?

[lawry]

Cool, Brendan. You should be able to knock it up in no time. Can you post some audio when you're done?

[Brendan]

I'll try - musicianship skills are quite limited... Maybe that's why I've turned to lutherie . Other thing is that the Experimenter's kit came with 3 different types of caps (and I've added a 4th), 4 different transistors, a couple of different resistors and 3 different diodes, including a germanium one to play with and try out on the PCB. For me what's better is there's a page on what each thing does and how changing it out will change the sound.

[Brendan]

Early wiring done. Using sockets - not sure how to keep the resistors, etc in the holes, but apparently it's the done thing for experimenting...



Circuit board with sockets installed. Apparently lets you change resistors / caps, etc to try out different ones and see which one you like.


Side on.

PS. Yes it is that small. Found the helping hands and magnifying glass invaluable.

[gavinturner]

Nice one Brendan. Thanks for the info in this site. Looks very interesting! Gonna have to try a couple...

Cheers,
Gav.

[lawry]

Hey Brendan. Have you fired up this cracker yet?

[Brendan]

Had a play with it - in the end gave up with the sockets - great idea, but lacking in my execution. So Wed night ended up pulling out all the sockets and taking a stab with some caps and transistors, etc. Currently only thing I haven't soldered in is a resistor, so will play around with that one. Will have a better look at it tomorrow - want to make sure I haven't left a solder bridge or ground it out somewhere before I give it a good go.

[DrNomis_44]

@ Brendan Awesome to see you getting into D.I.Y. pedals mate, I've got two pedals I built myself, a Tonebender Mk I and a Tonebender Mk II, I've also got a red Jim Dunlop JD-F2 Fuzz Face pedal that I have converted from Germanium to Silicon transistors in order to get it working and more temperature-stable, it uses two BC108C transistors, I've got it sounding pretty good now, sounds great through my new Boss Katana 100 Mk II amp.