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Sweet job, this was my first build a long time ago and spawned a pretty crazy addiction to building fuzz boxes. I've probably made 5 of them and tried a billion different combinations of everything. It is a great little circuit and is really fun to play around with. Makes it easy to learn what components do.
I added a fixed resistor (30k) between the 9v supply and the transistor to change the bias and let more of the treble through and eliminate the need for that boost.
A 50K or 100K trimmer works too. If your using the 2n5088 or MPSA13 you can straight wire the collector to supply and eliminate the resistor all together the result is really high gain.
Built 2 same ones with a pair of 2N4401s as homemade darlington circuits, 1N914 diodes and .047uf input caps. When I fired up the first one, the sound coming out from it was pure bliss, so excited that I had a 2nd one built with a gain knob added. Can't thank you enough for the video guide, man! I'm currently waiting for my 3PDT switches to arrive and I'm off to build a 3rd one with LEDs instead of 1N914.
just wanted to say thanks for the experiment kit, been tweaking and adding switches to it. The learning curve was steep, its been gutted and thrown in a box for a while. took it out and started over, really enjoyed mixing things up and try stuff out. But it took me a few tries to get it right. Now its my favorite, made a switch for Silicon/Germanium Diode and a switch for Bass/Treble. Its a simple raw fuzz versatile for Classic rock to Rip your heart out metal riffs. :D
no problem mate, we all start somewhere! Ground is connected to the negative of the power source (battery - terminal or negative on a dc power jack for example).
Just wanted to say how much I love your videos! After some previously failed attempts, your videos have made me try again and with this time using a breadboard to check everything before solder! But building this this week with the MPSA13 and 1n914 because thats what I happen to have on me. Absolutely love hearing the comparisons between the diodes and transistors! Any advice on where to find a CD2A? Thanks! -Ethan
Never had an LED as bright as this, its crazy lol I figured thats why the 2n5088 sounded gated -> not enough voltage to the transistor. Good tip with that the resistor! Changing it to a pot would act similar to a 'fuzz' knob. I think thats what the boost is doing, increasing the input signal, which is increasing the transistors voltage -> out of saturation into the normal operation.
I did the same thing and had the same result...until I tried stringing two of the2n2222's together via a diagram for a "homemade darlington" (look it up on google images, it's about the 5th one that comes up) Now it sounds really good with no quick decay or muted treble. It's a super easy mod to the circuit you have there.
google mpsa13 substitute you should find some alternatives. Probably any darlington transistor with a similar hfe and the same pinout will work, you'd have to try it out though.
Hey Paul, another good video! What I've found with a couple of things you mentioned on here are: Those blue LED's - they still light with as much as a 50k resistor in series. I found that 20k gave me a comparable brightness to a regular red one. LOL'ed at "as bright as a 100 suns! ;-) Different transistors need different resistors to work best. I've put a 100k pot in there to get at the gated/smoother effect. I haven't tried 2n5088's in mine but 2n3906's and 2N2222's worked better with 50-100k.
No problem. I have a video on adding a boost to your guitars output signal, but i've been told its not the best way to wire it up, so i have no idea lol sorry
You can improve note decay with the 2n5088 by reducing the value of the input coupling cap. It will allow the pedal to sustain better when you lower the guitar volume to clean up the sound.
If you can't get hold of the mpsa13, have a look at the BC517, its got a ton more gain to it though so it will give less of a gating effect :) sweet video dude!
By changing the transistor, any diode looks good. Just vary the resistance that goes to the base depending on the datasheets. But with the germanium sounds very good
Hi there! Thanks for your very useful videos!!! One quick question please: what kind of potentiometer did you use in this pedal? Size and value? Thanks!!!
I don't know much about electronics, but recently I've been getting into the general guitar gadgets thing. Trying to learn. I found on a site how to combine 2 2n5088s to make a darlington. I put it in a bazz fuss. Sounds better. I will still look into getting a mpsa13.
Hi. I was just wondering if you've ever tried a N4001 diode in this circuit or is the CD2A the equivalent of a N4001? Good stuff mate. You've got me wanting to get my soldering iron out - LOL. :)
I was also thinking what the circuit would be like with an op amp the drive the input signal a bit more especially when using 2n5088, mpsa18s etc, it would be intresting to know how that might sound, I dont like that note decay you can get on the 5 and sixth strings, it would be lovely to find a way to get more input single in without having to use darlington types and it would also be great to be able to have more transistor options at the flick of a switch as well!!
You should combine the the last setup into one 2n5088+CD2a+boost into one effect. The fuzz sounds terrible by itself, but when you added that boost it was filthy(good) imo. If you chassis-ed those together with just the boost's pot, that would be awesome!
Hi Paul, you can use a higher value resistor, say 1K to limit the current to the LED. Sound's great! I'm hooked on building pedals. I've been doing hobby electronics since the early 80's, so , these are a fun Saturday build. I always bread board my circuits first, then perf. Thank you for sharing. Take care, C.
I think I did use a very high (3k+) CLR for this one but for some reason still ended up bright. Maybe I grabbed the wrong resistor. Whoops :) Thanks Cass.
When I use water-clear super-bright blues or whites I tend to need CLRs in the 20k+ range to get below retinal damaging brightness. My first pedal, from before learning that lesson, practically works as a room lamp.
The forward voltage drop of the diode should make a difference...perhaps check for errors in your circuit (including values). Also, the diode may make no difference if you used a different transistor to the mpsa13 (like the 2n5088). Infact, just use the mpsa13. Trust me, its miles apart.
Is there any possibility that i can buy one of those bass fuzz'es of you? Like the one u made there in the minipedal enclosure? I have had bad experiences with soldering and do not dare to try again. It sounds supergood, and its awesome to have it in that minipedal format! :D
ever tought of building a booster into the same enclosure? Maybe something with internal trimmer potentiometer? I have a shematic for 26x27 mm opamp booster with on board 6mm potentiomer and MAX1044 for getting +-9V for better headroom. I´m sure it would fit into that little box left or right to the Bass Fuzz PCB .
Hi i made a bazz fuzz pedal for my bass with your 10 min tutorial which sounds great . I've put in a metal enclosure which just looks like yours in the video. But sometimes the pedal seems to pick up radio signals. Do you have any solutions to fix that? :)
Haha, thanks. Excited to get going, waiting on parts from china is annoying though. know anywhere i can get parts near as cheap but dont have to wait as long?
i built my own using your design on your 10 min fuzz video, but instead I used a 2N2222 transistor. The effect sounds good except for one problem, for some reason it sounds like its "whaing" when the notes are drawn out and on the higher notes such as the high B and E the sound is practically mute except for what small amount of sound that comes from the speaker. Would this be caused by the transistor of my choosing? I'm new to this kind of thing.
i've tried various diodes including LEDs and it doesn't seem to work, I was going to try the resistor just a bit ago before i read this. May very well just do that and see what happens, and if all else fails I'll purchase that mpsa13...or your kit lol. Thanks for the quick response.
Cool. Tone is subjective of course, but personally I reckon the mpsa13 (with its huge hfe) blows away the 2n5088. (Its a darlington, whereas the 2n5088 is not)
would putting a 0.1 uf cap on the input help the effect cut through better without to much bass making the effect to mushy to hear on a louder amp/rig?
My bazzfuss sounds a bit like 3:33 on the high notes. if i put a ressistor between the collector and base, would i make it more sensetive so that more of the guitar sound would come through?
Hi there! I just finished my Bazz Fuzz using your guides and videos. Everything works but the Fuzz sucks my tone when in Bypass mode. I can switch between clean and Fuzz but my clean has way less clarity and volume with the Bazz Fuzz between my guitar and amp. Is it normal? I guess not. Any clue about what went wrong and what I should be looking for?
I guess simple fuzz but it seems that since has not low gain out put stage that it gain suffers because transistor can either put high current or hight gain.
I culdnt find the cd2a diode :( is there another one that i can use? Is the same thing if i use some "common" type of diode? Plz help and tell some altermative diodes options because i loved the proyect but dont know about electronic component's functions and posibles changes in diagrams
I think the mpsa13 would be the best on a technical piont because its a darlington,it would suit the circuit best because theres more gain as its two transistors in one with a diode built to stop shorts.not too sure if the 1n914 diode works inconjection with the internal one in the darlington a bit like one of the clipping stages in a big muff or its just a gain thing but i think they are best, ive seen schematics for this on the web using 2n3904s, and 2n5088s etc and although it works you can end up with quite bad note decay issues when you use single npn types.
I culdnt find the cd2a diode :( is there another one that i can use? Is the same thing if i use some "common" type of diode? Plz help because i loved the proyect but dont know about electronic component's functions and posibles changes in diagrams
Also I looked on your site but it doesnt show the stomp switch. I am newbie is there directions how to add this to the 7 min fuzz. I ordered the pcb and the parts minus the 9m pot.
I've built this 4 times using the schematic from your site and from home wrecker and it works, but there is a constant very loud crackling popping noise thats always there... I don't get what I'm doing wrong! I thought it was the transistor so I bought the ones recommended still does it. I thought it was the beadboard so I put it in a metal case and I built it inside a faraday cage. No matter what it's all crackly when I'm not playing. I found someone else in a message board with the same problem, but no one could explain.
So, I had this ridiculous idea of fitting the 7 minute fuzz circuitry directly in to my guitar. 1) is this possible and 2)how could I go about doing it. The idea would be to use the existing cavity on my Les Paul copy, ditch the tone controls and have the true bypass switch in one of the holes and the fuzz control coming out of the other . Any thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated.
