Folk Fuzz 3.5% build thread

[Strat-o-lux]

Regarding the drop in volume, my pedal does the same thing.
I figure that it´s due to the heavier clipping/compression, and with a slight adjustment of the volume knob one is back in business again.

I thought that might be the case. But, wanted to make sure it wasn't because I had some component in backward. Thanks for the reassurance.

I expect the FF 3.5 will end up spending a fair amount of time on the pedalboard. Seems to fall nicely in between the HB and PPF. I'm eager to see how it stacks with HB, DRD, etc.

Thanks again to John, Donner, and Bjorn for making this happen. I intend to spend some time, now that the build is done, studying the schematic and trying to better understand how the circuit works. Perhaps some discussion of that can follow.

[polifemo]

wanted to make sure it wasn't because I had some component in backward.

IMPOSSIBLE

We don´t make mistakes, do we

[jfromel]

polifemo:
Victory

Cheers!


I'm also pleased to report that Folk Fuzz XII is complete and all systems are go. I've only had a few minutes to play it but I will say in agreement with Polifemo that it seems quite versatile, and probably useful on all settings. In basic fuzz mode, with the gain backed off it does indeed, as someone commented on an earlier build thread, sound rather HB-like. I like this thing. Very cool!


A question: when the diodes (or whatever) are switched on (haven't had time to figure out which position of the switch does what), in the one position of the switch there's a noticeable volume drop. Nothing crazy, but enough to require an adjustment. Is this "normal" for the circuit or is something screwed up?

Yes the volume drop is normal, the switch functions as follows, when in the middle position the LED's are doing the clipping when its to one side T3 and T4 are doing the clipping and when to the other side the antiparallel diodes are clipping.

[polifemo]

The dynamic duo:



Great combo!

They will go onto my smallest board dedicated to TONE:
Omega Booster/Folk Fuzz/Sweet Honey/Dyna Red/Honey Bee.
Last in chain I´ve been running a Timmy as tone shaper but I´ve just ordered a Shape EQ from John that I believe will be perfect in this position. (The Timmy will go back on to another board, beeing "slight breakup pedal" again.)

Regarding the Folk Fuzz someone said that it sounds a bit like a Honey Bee on lower gain settings, but personally I don´t hear that connection.
The Folk Fuzz doesn´t handle chords as good as the HB, and it´s not intended to do so!
Low gain yes, but still it´s a Fuzz, and I love it


Edit: I stand corrected.
The Folk Fuzz gain on 10 o´clock sounds close to that "Supro break up tone", and kicked with the booster I get fantastic bluesy tones with my 335.
Very cool indeed!

[Strat-o-lux]

The Folk Fuzz gain on 10 o´clock sounds close to that "Supro break up tone", and kicked with the booster I get fantastic bluesy tones with my 335.
Very cool indeed!

Yeah, not to beat the low-gain thing to death (and of course this is supposed to be a fuzz pedal), but on even lower settings I'm finding some excellent 'nearly clean' boost action. At 9:00 with the toggle in middle position, bit of slap-back echo and into a clean amp, I get an excellent Scotty Moore/rockabilly tone - slightly emphasized harmonics and an extra bit of edge to the tone. Sweet! Oddly, this is not unlike sounds I got with an Orange Squeezer clone I used to use as a boost in a Funk band (well, without the slap-back) but with significantly less noise from the Folk Fuzz.

I'm repeating myself here, but I've gotta say, this is promising to be an extremely versatile pedal.

Perhaps we should start a new thread if we're going to have discussion of Folk Fuzz performance and usage tips, and not fill the build-thread with stuff that isn't build related...

[polifemo]

Perhaps we should start a new thread if we're going to have discussion of Folk Fuzz performance and usage tips, and not fill the build-thread with stuff that isn't build related...

My fault

Some advice after building this one:

- If you intend to build the pedal "if one go" make sure that you are IN NO HURRY!
You should have ONE ENTIRE DAY for this as you need something like 6 hours to do it. (If unexperienced that is)

- Use a soldering iron with a thin/narrow tip. (When I built the pedal the tip of my soldering iron had become quite thick and blunt. Today I bought a new tip (0,5mm) and things would have been much easier with this one...)


- Make sure that all wires are soldered to the board before adding the pots.


- Regarding the pots, I personally found it easier to solder the resistor legs to the pots first and then solder the legs to the circuit board.

- Think at least twice before soldeing a component as desoldering is tricky on this board!!!! (The reason for this is that the board is of an exeptionally high quality, NOT the opposite!)

- If you need to desolder, use the MacGyver method invented by yours truly

Have fun!

[Donner]

Yeah you guys are welcome to start a Folk Fuzz thread over on the BJF Discussion board ....that might be fun ..... it might also be fun to have a Folk Fuzz Tourbox between some of the builders....

... and with all of BJs designs be sure and try the whole range of the knobs - he is a master at tapering the whole range to be useful in context..... AND of course stacking experimentation is mandatory

[JoBro]

Success!! I received the new parts (I blew it on T3 and T4) and now I've got my pedal up and running. It sounds pretty rad. It seems to have almost no compression and a wide range of tones available. Comparing it to my other BJF pedals it has much less of the low mid range thing that makes the real ones so special. Also the clipping is harsher - more static-y than the real ones. So I have two questions for you experienced builders:

1. Is the harsh clipping part of the design - after all its a fuzz - or is it sloppy soldering or something? Can it be tamed?

2. Is there any modification that can be done to bring in that rich low end that I so love?


Thanks everyone this is an awesome project!

[jfromel]

Success!! I received the new parts (I blew it on T3 and T4) and now I've got my pedal up and running. It sounds pretty rad. It seems to have almost no compression and a wide range of tones available. Comparing it to my other BJF pedals it has much less of the low mid range thing that makes the real ones so special. Also the clipping is harsher - more static-y than the real ones. So I have two questions for you experienced builders:

1. Is the harsh clipping part of the design - after all its a fuzz - or is it sloppy soldering or something? Can it be tamed?

2. Is there any modification that can be done to bring in that rich low end that I so love?


Thanks everyone this is an awesome project!

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.

As Bjorn would say
Have Fun

[JoBro]

Thanks thats exactly the info I wanted! I have heard of people socketing transistors and stuff - is that something that would work here? I'm pretty sure I'll end up destroying the components in the process of taking them off the board. If these sockets do exist where can I get them?