Fuzz face schematic | Circuit Bent

Why I publish my circuits schematics (and why you need to perform the same!)

After I made my first commercially accessible pedals, I selected to write the circuit schematic online. Transparency always is a missing factor within the guitar pedal marketing world, therefore it would be a very natural move for me personally.

However, after i spoke about this with buddies or colleagues, all of them stated in my experience: "why can you do that? You undermine your company by publishing everything!"

Here are my solutions about why I believe being transparent is essential when creating guitar pedals, and why I believe you want to do exactly the same should you build guitar pedals.

The different sorts of diodes

Here we are at your blog publish about this!

Exactly what is a diode? How can they work? Which must i use when creating guitar effects?

Univox Superfuzz (in the 70s): history (publish 1/2)

People state that I worship the Univox Superfuzz a little too much, but they’re wrong. Basically could, I’d curently have began a sect relating to this pedal!

It’s just my personal favorite pedal of occasions! First due to its amazingly awesome look using the huge "Super Fuzz" rubber pad, and for its seem that’s crazy loud and high. Seriously, best-fuzz-out-there!

Having seen Fu Manchu reside in March, I possibly could not resist purchasing one. ~~After selling a kidney around the underground community,~~ I had been quite lucky since i found a non-working unit on ebay which i could repair by replacing a couple of electrolytic capacitors.

The Super Fuzz is usually the ultimate fuzz for me personally, and so i made the decision to recognition it by writing probably the most complete article about this. This is actually the first part!

Best capacitors for guitar pedals: which to select?

I love to state that electronics are just like Legos.

Should you board it, it hurts! Just kidding, it seriously works like Legos too! 😃

You need to distinct bricks (the electronic components: resistors, capacitors, diodes, IC. ) and also to assemble these carrying out a schematic.

The only issue is: like there are various colors for that lego bricks, electronic components are declined in a variety of versions, with similar value.

For example, several different capacitors are available with similar capacitance value: Panasonic SMF, Wima MKP2, FKP2, MKT standard. Exactly what a mess! Lets come up with order throughout this, and to determine what capacitors would be best suited to our use (guitar pedals).

The 6 aspects of capacitors

You will find globally 6 primary kinds of capacitors: electrolytic, ceramic, film, tantalum, polystyrene and silver-mica capacitors.

The kind of the capacitor is only a description of what it’s made from.

It’s also wise to lookup for that capacitor working current (more about that inside a bit). The tolerance of the capacitor may be the maximum web site capacitor theoritical value and it is real value. It is best to search for this too some capacitors might have tolerance values the size of 40%!

The smaller sized the tolerance, the greater. 😊

Listed here are a couple of types of through-hole capacitors. From left to right: 150pF ceramic capacitor, 1uF tantalum capacitor, 10nF Panasonic SMF film capacitor, 10uF Panasonic FC electrolytic capacitor along with a .33uF Wima MKP2 film capacitor.

Film capacitors: our favorites! Their value is within a wide range from nF to at least one uF. You’ll use this sort of capacitors a great deal! Furthermore, many of them work great for audio applications: MKP2 from Wima really are a reference within the audio world. Panasonic SMF ECQ will also be great, and also have an simpler-to-work-with shape with lengthy lugs. Finallys, MKT standards will also be quite good, and cheaper.

This is a table to understand which capacitor to make use of:

Except when indicated obviously.

How about the significant current?

The significant current may be the maximum current a capacitor can accept.

Should you exceed this current, your capacitor could be broken! It’s thus necessary for make use of a tolerance which inserts our usage.

In guitar pedal, we rarely make use of a current above 18V. So any capacitor having a tolerance above 18V is nice.

In most cases, the larger the tolerance value, the greater.

Types of capacitors in commercial pedals

Lets review a couple of pedals that a number of you migh curently have in your pedalboard! I will highlight the heart of the couple of commercial pedals, and you’ll see what sort of capacitors they will use.

Mojo Hands Iron Bell (Big Muff inspired fuzz):

Here, we are able to find ceramic capacitors (small yellow-colored ones) and Wima capacitors which are film capacitors too (red squares). There’s also Panasonic SMF (deep red capacitors). Excellent capacitors overall! Keep surprises away out of this excellent brand.

Fulltone Obsessive-compulsive disorder (overd rive / distor tion)

Here, we are able to see plenty of ceramic capacitors (blue "drops" everywhere around the circuit, and brown round caps), and a pair of electrolytic capacitors (black cylinders on top of the circuit).

Bearfoot Pale Eco-friendly compressor

Fuzz face schematic ()” />

Finally, within this Bearfoot pedal, we are able to see one tantalum capacitor (orange drop around the left from the circuit), MKT capacitors, most likely Epcos brand (blue boxes), electrolytic capacitors of various sizes (big and small black and white-colored cylinders). Nutrients here too!

Any queries? Suggestions? Publish a remark!

To visit further

Good publish about capacitors on European circuits blog.
Nice bit of infos on byoc electronics about capacitors (pdf)

Building the first DIY guitar pedal (step-by-step tutorial)

You haven’t designed a guitar pedal before? You’re a bit lost and don’t know how to start?

This is actually the perfect place! I made the decision to create a complete tutorial for novices, to construct an Earthquaker Device Acapulco Gold, step-by-step. No excuse to not get began!

The Acapulco Gold is a straightforward, yet very fun pedal to experience with, and is ideal for beginners. The circuit is easy and simple to mod too. With this particular tutorial, you will be able to construct your first guitar pedal!

If everything goes well, you need to get an instrument pedal such as this within the finish:

Prepared to help make your first guitar pedal? Let us get began!

Debugging DIY guitar effects

Rule #one in guitar pedal building is: "It NEVER works in the first attempt"

So you’ll have to learn quite rapidly how to proceed when your wonderful DIY guitar pedal isn’t functional. Fortunately, beginners or tired experts frequently result in the same common mistakes.

In the following paragraphs, I designed a small listing of items to check whenever your pedal doesn’t work, from the most typical towards the least common errors. This really is absolutely not a complete list, however it includes some common problems and errors that you’ll surely encounter eventually.

Building the Mosrite Fuzzrite Pedal Circuit

Video COMMENTS:

The Guitologist: Crap used in the video:
Circuit Boards: https://goo.gl/R6P3gH
Breadboard; https://goo.gl/kR9Udf
Breadboard Jumper Wires: https://goo.gl/y5Q5nv

Graham Thorpe: thanks Brad as you may recal i use this type of circuit in both my bass and gutar amps very usfull probably in ten years time not unless i buy your fender tweed ha ha of your fender consert or the gibo gn20

emolatur: … what is the song playing during the build? I can't find it anywhere…

Brian Hays: I wonder if covering the connections / components with liquid elec tape or flex seal would help sheild from noise?. Deff suck to ever work on again LMAO but thinking output for shielding.

Dewey Rayburn: Having been a tech and an experimenter, I was waiting for that "DAMN, that's hot" moment. LOL.

Jason Smith: While it was on the power supply, I would have loved to hear it at 6vdc or so. Some fuzzes sound so awesome in "dying battery" mode. Other just sound like ass.

Jack Allen: After the tweak o the pot at 16:25 I think it sounded really good! Thanks for sharing!

Smithii: Just a tip, and only the tip mind you.. try to keep everything as close together as possible. You could have used a perf board half the size. Small board and thick solder traces.

Matthew Jones: NO RECESS!

madelefant05: Classic hits of 1968

Don Rutter: I built 1 and I built another heavier one off of plans, way fuzzier than the mosrite.

Donald Rickert: The guy who used to make these for Mosrite, Ed Sanner, used to repair my amps back in my hometown of Bakersfield, California.

Garfield Kart: NO RECESS!!!

inaki font: Brad do you think 2n5133 transistors could work? I bought a bag of them for less than 7$ im making a rams head big muff but other than that i dont have idea what i could make with them

Raymond Heath: The green boards are far superior to the brown boards because they have plated thru holes.

gregg4164: The music is horrible.

petey twofinger: try a dod 250 with led clippers , you would like that one , with led clippers its very nice low -medium gain type transparent circuit . . if you want a great diy dirtbox there is a pcb for the carl martin plexitone at tayda electronics . thats a great circuit with a charge pumped 18 volt set up for a higher gain distortion , or there is always building your own RAT. . . as far as Germanium goes you cant beat a fuzz factory and i also recommend the baldwin burns uzzaround – the mictester opamp/ge hybrid is really a great circuit .

sareth rikkun: What is that song at 5:48

Jonathan Kosyjana: frijid pink

badavis84: hey, who was the track you played when you were building? fakin rocked.

Sam Jonez: Wow…..brilliant！

Robert Luedeman: Cool stuff. I will look you up when I'm in L-town. I have a sister there that I'm fixing to visit.

Ronnie Ravenhill: what song is that around the 6:30 mark

TheSickassmick: Hell yeah. That was awesome!

Al Bore: Listen to the BLUE CHEER version of Summertime Blues for an example of that classic 60's fuzz tone that few can match: https://youtu.be/KKT0Kz5VGhw

good ‘un: hmmm, okay, an interesting discussion topic. what's the craziest, nastiest, ballsiest and or most outrageous fuzzbox or Distortion box you've ever played through? Conversely, what's the least impressive or most disappointing one that you ever played through?
myself, the scariest fuzzbox or distortion pedal I ever played through was a vintage LRE, Lafayette Radio Electronics, Super Fuzz, which I found out was made by Shin-Ei and marketed under several different brand names which unfortunately I don't recall. That thing was scary! the wimpiest fuzzbox I ever tried was a Gibson Maestro fuzz, which had a thin 3D mosquito like buzz masquerading as tone, although in truth it's possible that maybe it wasn't working correctly.

Damion Hill: whos the band playing during the montage?

Suterudo: To me is a great sounding pedal!! Simple, dirty, edgy. 🙂 For enclousure and labels i suggest to try some parts on laser cutting under plexiglass.

HeyBulldog2010: Well I never! Brad, so talented. Is that a mix of Nirvana mixed with a tinge of Shins? So many albums!

twinsmm1: Brad, you’re an awesome player. You should post more of that side of your guitology.

Zen Jenga: Great as usual. Always learn a heap of stuff watching your videos.

Tony J: WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE ARTIST THATS PERFORMING THE SONG ON THIS VIDEO. AND WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE SONG.PLEASE.

Mal-2 KSC: I cringed a bit when you clipped the leads off the pot. All you had to do was desolder all the crap off of them, and then straighten them out. It would have saved you probably 15 minutes.
The Banggood prototyping boards look really good. I still miss being able to pick things like that up from any local Radio Shack.

James Lewis: That is actually a pretty good sounding fuzz effect. It seemed perfect for the Satisfaction riff. I would suggest installing it into a metal case that you could then earth to create a fariday cage in order to fight some of that interference this thing is susceptible to. Something like a cigarette box could be ideal. Another possible project pedal could be a noise gate.

Mark Nash: Hey Brad, Love the Mosrite Fuzzrite. Goes back to what must have influenced Hendrix. Nice… Smoking those strings !
Thought I would re-comment on latest post on microphones to capture what you are doing. I think a Mic tube preamp would be a great project to contrast tone stacks for vocals vs guitar. It would be in your interest to capture more of the amplifier tone and nuances of your playing.

Lets design a Mic preamp for a very good microphone that doesn't cost a fortune. What would that be?? One of the best mics ever designed for far field recording ( as a substitute for camera mic) is the Nakamichis CM300 or CM700. Actually they would probably meet cabinet micing at a 2- 3 ft niceley. The 300's can be had at about $100 apiece now if you buy 2 or more with capsules) on ebay Although your influence will change that). As a live recording audiophile fanatic and archivist I can assure you I speak with credibility. Get ya some! Ask me about batteries for them.

Lets Do it!

Norm Jacques: Brad…What was the music playing during the build?? Nice stuff!

Joe Carson: Kinda reminds me of Robin Trower.

Peete N/A: For a first time fuzz pedal build Brad I think you nailed it. That thing sounds awesome. Might be worth going a little further and adding an octave element to it. Might just be the best Octa-Fuzz ever.

DuoGlassix: Nice, I heard Frijid Pinks version of the house of the rising sun in there
!

Steven Jozefik: Converted the fluoro's over my bench with LED tubes recently .. Recommend !
Loved the Riffery ! .. Theres a thing with Fuzzers , they're all different .
Best thing i built was a Garnet Herzog clone . Its a re wired champ kind of thing , that you slam into your amp .

thePsychoDuddy: Sorry if I missed it, song on the assembly part? That was cool. Shout out for whoever!

Francis Skundaliny: hey brad! this song is great! the name of this song please! fine vid as ever! thx!!! rockn rolly brad!-the guitologist nr.1!!!

Chris: Hey Brad, Love your videos man. I've been to Kentucky and played at Cowboys back in late to mid 2004. Love Kentucky. Anywho, I'm interested in breadboarding and learning to read schematics. Could you do a video of reading the schematic and breadboarding it in real time. I think it help me understand things better. thanks

August Stone: I am never let down listening and watching your videos! What a great sound!

Coconut Monkey Electronics: Well, the wife didn't appreciate me blasting a fuzz pedal demo early in the morning on her day off (go figure) but I sure did. Awesome stuff. I'm excited to see what you come up with for the housing!

Scott Waters: Nicely done Brad…. think I will give it a whirl. Ive been wanting a fuzz for awhile now and that one is pretty darn cool

MyNameIsMud: https://youtu.be/WQPfQvLIseA

MyNameIsMud: Should have played Wires by Red Fang

Buddysimo Simonetta: Cool ! When it comes to petals trem and verb in the amp is best. Then a fuzz,wah , a delay and your good. Some,most, young guys get crazy with pedals to find their sound. The greats are very selective about adding tge petals

codfury: the best way to get rid of the noise is to put it in a metal box. you have a high gain amp out in the open

Mooseteets: love videos like this, ive experimented myself making fuzz pedals, my favourite circuit is the colorsound one knob fuzz (its so simple). the circuits ive built myself are just boosters with diodes to cause clipping, they don't sound like proper fuzzes but they do sound gritty.

Michael Mitchell: U could be the next Dave Friedman Brad!…..

Виталий Безенчук: Well this is a complete perversion =}You could make the right PCB yourself with transfer paper, textolite with a copper base, a hot iron and a printer. Make a layout in the program p-cad. I can try to make subtitles for one video, where the author tells how to do it. It is in Russian. I hope that it will be clear. English is not my native language, so I apologize for the mistakes. I also have germanium transistors. If possible, I could send them to you.

All Out Of Bubblegum: I think i heard a little bit of Ram Jam Black Betty in there… awesome.

Alan W: So, I think the battery actually made a difference in the fuzz, am I crazy? It sounds better on the battery.

Hal Pecher: I used to have a Mosrite amp head with the speaker cab sawed off. It had a Fuzzrite built in with a relay circuit to switch it in and out.

Jameson White: Never saw the 'School' riff from the Bleach album coming.. glad to see you snuck it in.

Mike R: Makes me want to hear a little N.I.B.

Dennis Dew: Man your pedal sounds great. I would like to have one of those myself. It`s out of this world.

Brandonio Granger: Somewhere out there Davie Allan is smiling ?

g mat: Board sounds awesome. Holding back on us, huh??? Ripping bit there. Don't apologize for the Tele. SC's seem to work best for Fuzzes.

g mat: Gift from Jimi to Eric Braun. Fuzz history.

Mart McCanny: Completely new to all this haha, I have been watching your videos for a while now and I really enjoy them. If I was to build along with this where would I place an led to indicate on/off in the circuit? Silly question I know but pedal sounds great and you have to start somewhere! Thanks, Marty.

JopesTV: I want one! can u make me one? look out dude, you just might turn into the next Mike Matthews. God bless you, your family & great daughters and all the cool stuff you've turned me (and everyone) on to. Someday if I can afford to find a diamond in the rough, you'll be my go-to guy to turn it into a monster

kyordie: No receeeeeesssss!

Rusty Shackleford: how bout a distortion, or a phaser, or a delay pedal? i like our fuzz pedal. sounds great.

blkjckgtrnut: Very cool Brad sounds great,and home growned as well,Cheers

J D: have you used and lithium 9 volts?

Operator: Brad…you're a bloody legend. It may be a simple feat for a man such as yourself, but I tell you what man. Even with a room mic, that sounds freakin' amazeballs 🙂

David Perkins: May I suggest using coax cable instead of the twisted pairs?

Dylan sabbath: school nirvana?

George Paxson: Nice fuzz sound. I need to get one.

Robert Frias: Lots of square wave goodness right there.

Randall Parker: Sounds like my old Pignose. Great video!

John Hedigan: Excellent video Brad, I might have a go at this one. I really love your channel. Your editing is really great, especially the funny little eye protection tips today. I'm wondering, do you use a fan to avoid those toxic solder fumes?

Ken Allen: Bet that made you all warm and fuzzy. Great video bro

Malcolm Wolfe: "DAM YOUR EYES!" "too late o_o" … hahahaha! Gene Wilder/Marty Feldman. plinking those leads off can put one out.

Satch Boogie: I would love to see a side by side comparison between a pedal (off the shelf) and the same but home made.

Matt Fleming: Love the video BUT you didn't talk us thru the circuit. I've been around guitars, amps and effects for over 35 yrs and I'm finally starting to get with HowThingsWork and Why Things Work the Way They Do. It's the simplest circuit- I could build this, but you're leaving out all the information, all the experience. Why'd you put components where you put them? What does each component do? The reason we watch guys like you, Dave, Ben Crowe, Michael Cthulu is that you guys are masters at what you do. You have decades of experience and it comes thru as you do things. I'd love to hear the commentary or a voice over as you solder it together(the tune was awesome!). What you might consider boring is what I'm looking for. Please consider releasing a version like that. Thanks, Brad! Killer setlist!

pcbullets: Great video Brad, I may have to try and build this circuit. What a great raw sound !

ChrisBuck66JTM45: Sounds great Brad. Nailed a whole bunch of 60's70's tones (love the Ritchie B riff). Just shows how a bargain set up could do very well in a recording studio setting. For example Billy Gibbons and his use some years ago of a Marshall Lead 12 combo pcb solid state in the studio.

Bigyin.: Hi Brad, have you had high winds over there? Just noticed the tash had gone. ?

Norm Jacques: Wow! Reading some of the comments gave me a popsicle headache!! Not getting involved in THAT whole discussion!!
Bottom line: That little pedal/project is seriously trick!! I Love it! Just the type of fuzz I've been looking for. How do you think it would translate to bass without major modification? The math involved to arrive at the proper cap values threatens another of those headaches! 🙂 (Either way, I'm building one!)

Fred Hoffman: kool

Achilles: That's a hot fuzz.

Jay Sims: Fuzzy… and the noise isn't bad. All pedals are noisy.

Dave D: Jumpers on top!!!! 🙂

Steve Stewart: How much ill take one…. I got a mod tone fuzz and I cant get it off one on the dial its just to much fuzz…

NIKKI REAGAN: You mean your not doing a review of the revv g3 purple pedal like every one and their brother and mother on you tube lol thank god lol:)

decsnspace: Brad, as a suggestion when soldering extension leads onto a pot, use the helping hands to align the pot so that the shaft is parallel with the ground and lugs are facing straight down. That way you can just use gravity to keep them in place and perfectly straight while soldering them.

Erlannd Errantem: Do you know when you will work on the nutube again?

NotMarkKnopfler: Actually, that fuzz sounded fucking terrific. Yeah, it's noisy, but they all are. It just goes to show how much wine-sniffery bollocks there is in the pedal world. "Oh yes, these germanium transistors were pulled from the control panel of a u-boat at the bottom of the atlantic in 1946. We spent 8 hours finding the very best balanced pair of germaniums for the ultimate in fuzz tone. Then we point-to-point wired it, because, you know… Boards sound shit… or something…"
Ah just fuck off. Build 'em out of any old crap and they sound fine most of the time. I built one about 3 years ago and I was so impressed it's still on my board. It's the most outrageously offensive fuzz you ever heard. Well, that's because I run it flat out, but it's highly offensive in a kind of "Hey honey, I really fuckin' fancy yer sister" kind of way offensive. That's how offensive it is. Think Gary Clark Jnr, after fucking his sister. And his mother*. Very, very offensive indeed. You get the picture.

FWIW: I just ordered those boards, and fuck it, ordered the bread-board too via your links.

Rock the fuck on, brother.

*FWIW: I Haven't shagged Gary Clark Junior's mum. Honest. If Gary Clark Junior reads this: Honest, I'm sure she's a very nice lady indeed.

Yer sister's a dirty bitch though!

Allen Woody: That was interesting, would love to see more builds. Also would like to see this one when completed. WooHoo.

DAVID GREGORY KERR: Far to much clipping later on in the video, had the unit been implemented in DSP you could have got rid of the mains noise.

Mark Passell: Inna Gadda Da Vida Baby..

boggsty: Is it just me or is something way off with the guitar harmony part playing during the fast forward assembly?

J J: Am I the only one who got the ."…you will shoot your eye out…" reference?
Sounded srangled to me… skinny maybe is a better word. Bring out the tone with some reverb. That will fatting it up a bit. Give the sound some weight.
Thank you for posting cause it is cool!

crush537: I was hoping for this. Thanks, dude.

Brian Ullmark: No association with them but you may want to go over to http://effectslayouts.blogspot.com/ as well – – MANY pedal clones there as well as perf board and PCB board layouts available. Great site if you want to go full DIY.

Joe Munsinger: Sounds great!