BJFE / BearFoot fx Guitar Effects Community

Finished mine! Took me over 6 hours. I've never soldered a circuit board before, so it was a learning process. However, as I soon found out, the board was the easy part. Wiring up this thing was a PAIN. After several solder burns, and failing to even pass signal a few times, I finally got my folk fuzz to work! Unfortunately its 3:20 am, so I can't crank it, but am I mistaken in saying the FF is very low gain/hazy for a fuzz? Just want to make sure I didn't do anything wrong (what I heard sounds perfect though, seeing I was in the market for a low gain hazy fuzz).

Oh, also I melted out one of the 3 way switch's lugs by accident. Luckily I just squeezed it back in, and it seems to work fine. I'll have to replace that some time, and completely re do the wiring. I'd consider this experience a success though, albeit the frustration!

Finally, did the kits come with that big silver washer for the switch, John? I'm stuck with this ugly white one!

Thanks a lot for this experience. Hopefully others experience less trouble than I did, but learn as much.


edit: also, are the boxes not drilled for the screws? had trouble putting my bottom plate on and realized there are no treads (right word?)

aussy wrote: are the boxes not drilled for the screws? had trouble putting my bottom plate on and realized there are no treads (right word?)

The kits did not come with the Silver washer, I had that one lying around from a Fender amp mod I did.

Bud Boxes are not threaded from the factory, but the screws are self threading. Give it some gusto and a bit of 3-in-one will not hurt either.

Few questions for a newbie.

1. Does it matter which way the green leds are installed on the board? I did not see a square side on the board for the 2 green leds.

2. For those people that can not read a layout ( sorry a newbie here ) is this correct?



Many thanks

minty fresh,

The shorter legs of the LEDs (negative lead) goes in to the flatter side of the LED pad. LED2 is flat on the bottom, LED3 is flat on the top.

For the 3 way, here's what corksniffer said in the last build thread.

Corksniffer wrote:With the SPDT switch youll only have three lugs. The middle lug has to go to the middle pad for the switch but the other two lugs can be connected to either side because the switch is just choosing between one connection or the other. If you use a Center-Off SPDT youll have a middle position for the LEDs too and get three sounds.

Thanks John, I'll have to find an appropriate washer somewhere. Is that a washer under the 3 way switch too? Right now I just have nothing between the nut and enclosure. Also, guess I'll put a little bit more effort into getting this thing closed up properly. It was 3 in the morning and I just gave up, happy enough that it worked.

that's pretty close. The pink line goes from the Tip on the Jack to PIN 4 jumped to PIN 9 on the stomp switch.

The ground wire (green in your pic) goes from the largest lug on the DCJack to the sleeve on the input jack, Pin 2 on the stomp and to the ground on the board.

Thanks guys

So this should be the way wiring to the 9V & switch goes:



and the LEDs ( the blacked out areas are for the negative side of the led )



Just to confirm the wiring for the top switch looks OK ( I am going to start into this mofo and with limited exp. want to make sure it is good to go )

and one last thing ( fingers crossed this is all )

Pots

Vol = A100K
Tone = B50k
Fuzz = C1M

Once again many thanks and have a happy new year guys

argh! I've misplaced my green leds. I checked at radio shack and they've got:

3mm low intensity t1 size 3 volt 15 ma 2.5 mcd
or 5mm 2.1vdc 25ma 6.3 mcd

Will either of these work for the leds? If not where can I get a suitable replacement?

JoBro wrote:argh! I've misplaced my green leds. I checked at radio shack and they've got:

3mm low intensity t1 size 3 volt 15 ma 2.5 mcd
or 5mm 2.1vdc 25ma 6.3 mcd

Will either of these work for the leds? If not where can I get a suitable replacement?

a 3mm red led will work just fine, get one that looks like it came out of a boss pedal.

The shorter legs of the LEDs (negative lead) goes in to the flatter side of the LED pad. LED2 is flat on the bottom, LED3 is flat on the top

This seems contrary to John's instruction accompanying the photo: "long lead goes closest to the band". What's described above as the "flatter side" is closest to the band. So I'm confused. Which is correct?

Strat-o-lux wrote:

The shorter legs of the LEDs (negative lead) goes in to the flatter side of the LED pad. LED2 is flat on the bottom, LED3 is flat on the top

This seems contrary to John's instruction accompanying the photo: "long lead goes closest to the band". What's described above as the "flatter side" is closest to the band. So I'm confused. Which is correct?

If you look at the schematic you will see that the LED's are anti-parallel so as long as you are consitant the result will sound the same. You can put them both in the right way or put them both in backwards, it makes no difference, just don't put one in correct and the other backwards.