A quick tube (valve) fuzz box

[lawry]

Hi Scott.
Firstly:
Yep, got the noise sorted but can't honestly say which bit was the culprit. Once I tidied up the wiring and mounted everything properly it quietened down a lot. Theres still a bit of noise but no worse than any OD pedal I reckon.

Secondly:
9V will be fine but you'll end up with less HV (about 50V instead of 80V). It'll just fuzz-out a bit sooner for you. The only thing you'll have to alter is the heater wiring. Instead of going through the heaters in series (pins 4 & 5) you'll have to run them in parallel (pins 4 & 5 shorted together and out on pin 9). You'll also have to drop the 9 volts down to 6v by using a 6 volt regulator. You can buy an LM7806 and a couple of caps at Jaycar for about $3.00 I reckon. The heaters will draw about 300mA so you may need a small heat sink on the reg. I imagine you're OK with LM78XX series regulators so won't need a schematic. But if anyone else wants to do this please see the schematic below. It's a bit fuzzy because I took it without putting my glasses on. It's a bugger getting old!
Have fun.

[Gavin1393]

Still waiting for my valves and transformers to arrive.......

[dingobass]

Still bemused by the amazing hieroglyphics..

[WeirdBits]

Thanks Lawry, that's sort of the path I was heading, much appreciated.

[lawry]

@Gav & Weirdy. Really looking forward to your builds, men. Should be very cool!
@DB. LOL. Hieroglyphics huh? Sorta like electronics as a second language . Hehehe.

[WeirdBits]

Lawry, regarding your Purgatory V2...

On the schematic C8 is listed as a 47uF electro, but appears to be marked as 10uF on the layout pic. I'm guessing 100v 47uF is the correct value? Also, do you have a preference for type of caps in the power section vs audio section? Thanks.

[lawry]

Hi Scott,
I'd forgotten all about this thread. I ended up using a 47u but a 10u would work just as well. It's just the final smoothing and storage cap that feeds the HV section. Consequently it does have to be 100V or higher because you end up with around 70V from the multiplier. As for the audio caps, you can use common old greencaps (metalised polyester) from Jaycar cos they're rated at 100V (you need to block the HV DC). Feel free to use any swanky ones you like, but these work OK in my opinion.

[WeirdBits]

Thanks.

[DrNomis_44]

This looks like an interesting little project, I'll have to have a go at making one of these, I'm a member of Freestompboxes.org, a forum for those interested in building their own fx pedals, one member with the username bajaman designed a Tube overdrive pedal based on a well known Tube overdrive pedal, I thought I would post a pic of my build of bajaman's Tube overdrive pedal, note that I have since changed the knobs to some blue ones, anyway, here's a pic of it:



Just in case you want to hear what it sounds like, here's a link to a clip I uploaded to soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/drnomis_44/lespaulrecord

[DrNomis_44]

Still bemused by the amazing hieroglyphics..

You're not the only one mate, I've been doing electronics since I was 13 years old and I still get confused by those hieroglyphics, and we all know just how easy it is to confuse me....lol.