Fuzz
GRETSCH: Expandafuzz
The Gretsch Expandafuzz is a bit of an odd-ball guitar effect from the late sixties / early seventies. Not much out there on these in terms of information and video demos. First oddity: Apart from having a switch and a knob for almost everything, the one switch it doesn’t have is for bypassing the entire effect – it’s … Read more
COLORSOUND: Jumbo Tone Bender
Surprised that I hadn’t done a standard vero layout for this earlier… The Colorsound Jumbo Tone Bender is just a Big Muff missing some diode clipping and the last boost stage (the lack of diodes in the first clipping stage makes up for the lack of boost). They share nothing in common with their predecessors of the … Read more
EARTHQUAKER DEVICES: Erupter
So it’s another Fuzz Face variant – but no doubt. good one. The Earthquaker Devices Erupted is a one-knob Fuzz Face with a single-knob controlling bias. Quite a few layouts included volume pots; if you prefer to have one, I’m sure you can work out how to do it. Signal path: buffer > pickup simulator (transformer) > … Read more
Fjord Fuzz Freia
A BIG thank you to Chris of Capitalist Death Cult for digging this one up!. And also a big thank you to Daniel of Fjord Fuzz for sharing the information how to build a clone. So, what is it, then? It is basically the preamp section of the mighty Shin Ei/Honey Univibe. Some minor changes … Read more
AMPEG: Scrambler
I haven’t looked at an Ampeg Scrambler in a long time – in fact, my first attempt a few years ago went nowhere and ended up in the bin. It’s a pretty wild octave fuzz from the late sixties; not a huge number were produced so the originals are expensive now. Scramblers were designed … Read more
SELMER: Buzz Tone, Point to Point Layout
The Selmer Buzz Tone – three volts of nasty sixties guitar fuzz. I’d strongly recommend reading this first before committing to a build. If you don’t, disappointment will most likely follow. Most mid-sixties three transistors fuzzes are notoriously fussy about transistors / biasing. Plenty of discussion in all of the usual places regarding what works and what doesn’t. SELMER BUZZ TONE … Read more
21th Century Big Muff
A pretty cool lookin¨take on the ol¨Big Muff. The first and the last stage is replaced by a dual op amp, a diode lift switch at the the first clipping stage, a Gain control that biases both of the clipping stages and for the tonestack, a James control network is used for invidual bass and … Read more
SPACEMAN EFFECTS: Titan II Fuzz Machine
Hope you like standing resistors… chances are the ferrite beads might have to stand too. SPACEMAN EFFECTS TITAN II FUZZ MACHINE – VERO LAYOUT