Just fuzz straight in.  I've used a variety....Fuzz Face, Bazz Fuss, Superfuzz, all sound awful through the Traynor and great in other amps.

OK, I'll stop using fuzz.

I have a 70s Traynor YGM3 valve amplifier.  The clean sound is nice, especially with the reverb.  When I use a fuzz, the sound becomes kind of distant, compressed and buzzy, sounding harsh and unpleasant.  They sound slightly better into the low input but still bad compared to my little single-ended el84 practice amp.  I know the speakers on these amps are supposed to be poor but if the clean sound is good, wouldn't that rule out the speaker as a limiting factor?

Thanks Roly, I see now.

It's 32 ohm though so I went for the N-3....perhaps misguidedly.

Can you say a bit more Roly about how the 'effect' pot is doing something different in the Ge version because it looks the same as in the Si to me. 

I think WEM made 2 versions - a Ge and an Si. That would account for the differences in the circuits, wouldn't it?

I've spoken to Ian at Ghost Effects who has traced an original and he confirms the schematic is correct except for the 56k which can be omitted and the electros which should be 12uf.  He specifies a 500k bias trimmer set around 120k.

I breadboarded one a while ago and it sounded pretty good.

I want to run a few things at 12v - a Ruby amp, a Tiny Giany and a Valvecaster.  I already destroyed one lm386 in the Ruby by accidentally feeding it 14.3v from a faulty transformer so I'm pretty sure it needs 12v max.

Thanks again Roly.

I build all my pedals myself and put a big electro between the rails so that's not a problem.

I've bought a 5Ah Lipo battery on Ebay.  It's a 14.8v model battery so I'll need a charger, something to regulate the voltage to 12v and some kind of housing for it all so it's safe and easy to transport.

Any advice on the 12v regulator would be appreciated.

I'll report back once it's all up and running. 

QuoteYou are in charge instead of being the hapless victim of the compromises forced by some company bean-counter.

Amen!  I'm gonna see if Noam Chomsky will endorse this pedal when it's finished. 

Many thanks once again for your quick and brilliant help Roly.

The schematic actually lives on the Musikding.de forum but I've been using the build documents supplied by Ian Sherwan at Ghost Effects for his Pep Box kit as a reference and he mentions not to set the 500k bias trimmer too low or too high.  I think that resistor in parallel with the volume pot is just there because it was seen in the original pedal which must have been made when the factory only had access to 500k pots?

I'm pleased with myself as I had a go at working out what the pot was doing and reasoned that it was just tapping off signal to ground so the higher the resistance to ground, the higher the volume, the more intense the clipping.  Last night I soldered in a fixed 10k to ground and it turns out I was right.  Haven't tested it yet though.  Was my analysis correct?

I've put these 3 simple circuits on one small perf and now I'm wondering how to implement them.  I'm thinking 3 dpdt toggles like a miniature pedal board and a volume control on each.  I should probably audition all options before deciding on the order they run in.  Or I could use a 2p3t rotary which would be neat but then they wouldn't be stackable.  I'm also thinking a master input attenuator would be a good idea so the overall gain of the pedal can be set.  Any other implementation ideas?  All 3 in parallel with mix pots/sliders? :loco

I'm building a Pep Box but I'm cramming it onto a small perf board with 2 other fuzzes (Jerkulator and Bazz Fuss) so I'm trying to simplify each so it only has a volume control and gain can be set by the guitar's volume.

If I want to lose the 'effect' pot from this (and run it at max gain), would I replace it with a 10k fixed resistor and connect the - of the 25uf cap with the base of Q2 and have the 10k running to ground from that junction?  



Thanks for any help.

Thanks guys and thanks Roly for such a helpful and insightful reply - much appreciated.

I hadn't given the safety aspect of the battery any consideration so that's good to know.  If I go the RC battery route I'll make sure I'm clued up on how not to make it explode....unless I want it to at the end of a set.

There are LiPo batteries that come with chargers and circuitry to prevent all that inconvenient fire and exploding for charging laptops and phones and I've seen them rated (probably bogusly) at 18Ahr for not too much money.  Perhaps that's the way to go.  I can play through my Ruby for 9 solid days on one charge.

What effect might a lithiium battery have on the behaviour of a fuzz circuit?  I know internal impedance can be a factor but I don't understand it.

Hi all,

I'm gonna be doing some busking and I want to be able to power my little rig from a battery.

I'm thinking about something like this since the RC industry take their batteries seriously and their customers can't be easily fooled by false ratings...

http://www.hobbyking.co.uk/hobbyking/store/__9463__Turnigy_4000mAh_4S_20C_Lipo_Pack.html

I'll need 12v for my amps (Ruby and Tiny Giant) and obviously 9v for pedals (all fuzz) and I'd like be able to run for 2-3 hours.

Any advice on how I can accomplish this?

Thanks for any help.

Yep, then add a few pots and you've got a Fuzz Factory.

But when you say you're unhappy with the fuzz control, do you mean there is little actual control or not enough fuzz?  I don't think I've ever run a FF without the fuzz on max.  If I was gonna build one I would lose it altogether.