Folk Fuzz 3.5% build thread

[jfromel]

Here is a very special folk fuzz I built for Bobby D's daughter, a while back there was a photo contest for a scholarship and it required that a lot of people vote for her picture, long story short I made Jess a Fuzz with the picture she took using a new photo etching process that is making some really cool looking pedals, also using a hidden LED that is just to the left of the stomp. Jess is a Bass Player so I made it a little more bass friendy.

Differences from the FF3.5%

Tone control backwards (as I do most of my pedals with a tone control) it forces you to think about how much tone you actually want to remove.

The extra switch adds a low pass filter and changes the center of the Tone control to be more bass friendly.

C1 is 470n to let more bottom through.

R2 is 3K24 for more potential FUZZ

Diode clipping section is 1n34a germainium diodes for that super warm tone.

[Donner]

very cool john! I see a butterfly for sure ... do you have a copy of the original picture?

[jfromel]

very cool john! I see a butterfly for sure ... do you have a copy of the original picture?

[Donner]

YIKES !!!!!! that is a black and white pic ???

[ibodog]

A couple of things can be done to tame the monster and open things up a bit, try swapping the 914 diodes out with some 1N34A Germainium diodes. Same holds true for T3 and T4, depending on which side you like the least.

to open things up a bit try a larger input cap say .1 or .47 to allow more bass through, change R10 to a 20K trimpot, this will allow you to dial in the bias of T2, Change C7 to a larger cap say .047, .068 or even .1 if you are so brave. To tame some top end put a small cap 100pf to 250pf across pins 2 and 3 of the volume pot.

I built up my Folk Fuzz several months ago with the board John provided, but I sourced all of my own parts. I used all of the same parts specified in the kit, though. From the start it sounded misbiased, but in a generally pleasant way so I've left it. This week I decided to fix it since I received a Peak atlas DCA transistor analyzer and am revisiting my fuzzes. For the 2n1306 transistors I found ones of 100hfe and 140hfe. The voltage on the collector of T2 was 5.2V on a 9V supply - too high. So the R10 change to a 20k trimpot that John mentioned was in order. Now the pedal doesn't sound like it's hitting the wall too early. I also tried a nice pair of OC140's from Small Bear I got a while back. Those sounded good, too, and with the trimmer they could be dialed in correctly. I suspect that if the kits came with 2n1306 that the sound will be misbiased with that 10k resistor at R10.

If you've still haven't put together your kit I have a couple of recommendations to make. Get a strip of the little sockets like these from Small Bear. You can take the little metal pins out of the plastic with a wire cutter so that they'll fit in place on the teeny, tiny Folk Fuzz PCB. Put these in for T1, T2, T3, T4, C1, and C7. Replace R10 with a 20k trimpot as well (you can snip off the extra leg with wire cutters). This will let you play with the EQ a bit, change one of the clipping options, and play with different transistors (trimpot is very helpful here).

This particular PCB is not very friendly to experimentation. Adding the sockets and the trimmer will help but as you can see there is not much room for changing components (or error). Here are some photos that help show these changes. I happen to like to put all the jacks on the top side so my pedals can fit on a smaller pedal board easily.

[mrpicard]

Such a nice enclosure.

[Donner]

nice pic mp !

[the fuhz]

ok, after fixing an elementary mistake with the wiring, I finally got her up an running.

This is a Folk Fuzz BASS edition. I painted it to look like a piece of wood because 'folk' just reminds me of the woods and nature.







soo, is there going to be another project? lets do it!

[Donner]

ok, after fixing an elementary mistake with the wiring, I finally got her up an running.

This is a Folk Fuzz BASS edition. I painted it to look like a piece of wood because 'folk' just reminds me of the woods and nature.







soo, is there going to be another project? lets do it!

Excellent graining ! Ive used that on a few things over the years.... how does the bass version differ ?

[the fuhz]

Excellent graining ! Ive used that on a few things over the years.... how does the bass version differ ?

thanks, it too awhile to figure the 'graining tool' out, next time Im going to paint the enclosure brown first to give it an even more natural look. This time I went for psychedelic wood.

anyway, the bass kit is not too different from the standard. Just a few things with different values:
C1=.47
C7=.068
D4 & D5=1N34A
R2=3.24


I haven't heard a stock Folk Fuzz, so I do not have anything to compare mine to. However, I am curious about a few things...

The volume knob really has a high range, and the higher you go, a fair amount of 'hiss' is added. It can be adjusted by the tone knob, but you have to kill all treble for it to go away. And at that point the sound is too 'muddy'.
Also, the fuzz knob only adds fuzz at the very highest settings. I was told by Fromel to try a rev log pot instead of what I have (B1M).

are these symptoms normal?

many thanks,
tf