Build Your Own Clone Message Board

This is a dirty octave down, powered by the classic Bazz Fuss on the input. I mucked around with that and Joe Davisson's "Shocktave" circuit. My goal was to get a similar sound to the Shocktave, but with better fuzz, fewer parts, and more options. I believe I have succeeded in that goal. I like the fuzz tones much better, and the octave down still tracks pretty good, especially with bass-heavy inputs. I imagine this thing would KILL on bass, but I don't have one to test.

There is a Mix control that blends the octave down in with the fuzz (same as on the Shocktave). I also added a switch that kills the octave down and adds a slight hint of octave up (check the clip below). With the mix at half way or less, chording still sounds pretty good. But with the mix higher, it's basically a monophonic type thing.

I do believe this is the most simple (yet still useful) octave down fuzz there is (so far). Probably not the most useful thing for a lot of people, but it works well in certain situations.

Here is a clip of it:
http://soundcloud.com/effdub/downbox-fuzz-demo

First is clean, then straight fuzz, and then the octave down starts getting mixed in around 0:45 (ranging from a hint to 100% wet). Then I flip the kinda-octave-up switch at around 3:50.

I will be getting at least a small run of these made as proper PCBs. Details on that to follow early in January.



Here's the schematic:

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TightCamera - Gear Reviews

If anyone's willing to do a vero-layout before january, I'm all down building it and record some sub-basement bass with it!
And CJ, save a board for me will ya?

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looks and sounds good.

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Everyone likes sausage. Nobody wants to see how it's made.

I'll be down for a pcb...

Sounds cool man! I may be down for a PCB or two ... I'm just not usually a fuzz guy, you know!

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- Robert ...

Was bored tonight. This is my attempt to make a vero outta this fuzz. Unverified. If someone can take a 2nd look that'd be great. After that I can build it up and attempt to verify it. Would 5088's work for this?
Cheers

edit:
The layout is verified from what I can tell. I'm getting a nice fuzz low octave. The toggle switch is a nice addition if you dont want the octave down. I don't find the mix knob very useful though. Also, is there a way to make this louder? Perhaps change the 100k volume pot to a 500k?

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BH4RJ

how would one make this circuit louder? I've tried increasing the output pot to 500k then 1M, but not getting substantial volume increase.

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BH4RJ

Mix should allow you to dial in how much octave down you're getting (vs just straight fuzz).

I'm not recalling any volume issues with my build. As I recall, it was not super loud, but definitely a fair bit more than unity gain.

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TightCamera - Gear Reviews

yea, I'm getting slighly past unity gain when volume is maxed.

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BH4RJ

CJ, u used 5089s right?
My stupidness tells me that that can be your vol-issue Zappa, cuz you used the lower gained 5088s.

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Yes, I used 2N5089. Also, you might switch up Q1 to MPSA13 and R2 to 10K. That will give a bit more output as well.

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TightCamera - Gear Reviews

I think I found the issue that is plaguing mafew's build.

I had some prototype boards made a while back and just fired one up. I got fuzz (and loud) but no octave down. I went over everything several times, and figure it must just be that the bazz isn't putting out a big enough signal to make the flip-flip oscillate.

So here' the quick-and-dirty fix: For D1, use a high-forward-voltage LED (water clear) instead of silicon diode. This ups the output quite a bit and makes some nasty octave down happen. And the output volume is definitely more than unity at max (maybe 30% louder than unity).

I think I make rework that front-end a bit for more output. It works fine on my breadboard, but obviously it's not quite right.

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TightCamera - Gear Reviews

Socket D1 then, and experiment til octadawn. Noted Forrest, cheers!

Just wondering what the status on this is. I'm extremely hooked by that soundcloud sample! I'd love to get this boxed up
Do you have any PCBs?

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I think I might have one purple one left. I'll check when I get home. It definitely works right if you use a water-clear LED.

The only issue people might have with it is that the non-octave fuzz is considerably louder than the octave fuzz. So if you were to switch quickly from octave to non-octave (or less octave) between songs at a gig, you'd also have to adjust volume. If you do not foresee this as a likely scenario, then it will work fine for you as is.

I suspect most people will just dial in however much octave down they want, set the volume, and then just use it as is. There are better straight fuzz circuits out there (for sure). The fun part of this one is the funky octave down.

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TightCamera - Gear Reviews