# Most Versatile Fuzz Circuit (DIY and Commercial)



## Big Monk (Nov 10, 2021)

Let’s hear your thoughts.

What covers the most ground?


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## Bricksnbeatles (Nov 10, 2021)

A Tonebender mk 2 with a bandaxall tone stack


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## Big Monk (Nov 11, 2021)

I am leaning toward a single fuzz for my board and some sort of a home brew Fuzz factory is likely where I’ll head.


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## Diynot (Nov 11, 2021)

A Big Muff with a mids control is OBVIOUSLY the most versatile FUZZ! Sorry, I couldn’t help myself😂. But really, what instrument are you looking drop this on?


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## Betty Wont (Nov 11, 2021)

Spaceman Gemini IV. Parallel germanium and silicon fuzzes with huge gain and eq ranges. No issues with signal chain placement.


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## andare (Nov 11, 2021)

I'd love to try the Silver Machine by JPTR FX. It does gentle and octave fuzz.
I've seen gut shots of a couple of versions. They went SMD. I'd love a trace.
The originals are too bulky.


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## ADAOCE (Nov 11, 2021)

Dung beetle is one of my favorites. It is never leaving my board. Two tone controls and a bias knob that gives you that splatty velcro sound if you want it or just good old sustaining fuzz tone. You can lower the fuzz control and get some hearty overdriven sounds with it too


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## Big Monk (Nov 11, 2021)

My biggest gripe lately is that I don’t want to deal with placement issues anymore, I want something that plays nice with my Tearjerker and just something that can cover Ge and Si Fuzz Face territory and also Mk II and Mk 1.5 territory. 

I’ve been looking at the Carcosa and Scarab Deluxe recently. 

My big thing in the last few weeks has been looking at my board and trying to consolidate. I’ve been playing a huge lately and even though I love the MK II tone, I’ve been digging my Si Fuzz Face and also my Si MK II on the breadboard right now. 

I know one classic fuzz to rule them all is a tall order but I’d love a Si glow unit that can cover all bases.


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## jjjimi84 (Nov 11, 2021)

The dung beetle is the go to fuzz pedal in this household.

I gotta do a video with that in the title, get all click baity and shit


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## ADAOCE (Nov 11, 2021)

@Big Monk input the dung beetle after a whole bunch of stuff (buffer, wah, comps) and have no issues at all. Not surprising since it’s a high input Z fuzz but it definitely makes it an even more attractive option.


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## ADAOCE (Nov 11, 2021)

jjjimi84 said:


> The dung beetle is the go to fuzz pedal in this household.
> 
> I gotta do a video with that in the title, get all click baity and shit


Is your dung beetle the one that has the copper tone box with the bejeweled looking beetle on it? I saw that on here one day and was like wtf THAT is cool!


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## ADAOCE (Nov 11, 2021)

Board space saver idea if you have room under your board build a thin switcher strip and use it to enable more set and forget type pedals mounted under your board


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## Joshhr (Nov 11, 2021)

I’m a carcosa fan for fuzz range.


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## finebyfine (Nov 11, 2021)

Versatile fuzz? No such thing! I've built like 50, (crying) there can't be just one that does it all!

For my personal tastes the boss hyper fuzz is about as versatile as it gets and the fuzz I'm using 50% of the time.


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## djmiyta (Nov 11, 2021)

Big Monk said:


> I’ve been looking at the Carcosa and Scarab Deluxe recently.


I have built both these pedals out of the 2 the scarab made it to a box although it was a very tough choice I felt with the bias and fat knob gave it just a bit more versatility but really both sound fantastic just a bit more knob fiddling with the scarab dialing in something useful


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## Big Monk (Nov 11, 2021)

finebyfine said:


> Versatile fuzz? No such thing! I've built like 50, (crying) there can't be just one that does it all!
> 
> For my personal tastes the boss hyper fuzz is about as versatile as it gets and the fuzz I'm using 50% of the time.



Let me narrow down my desires here.

I want a device that gets me MK II, MK 1.5, and Fuzz Face tones. 

I want no issues with placement and impedance. I want the ability to tweak parameters that give me classic and higher gain Fuzz Face tones. 

You know what this means, right? Forum Fuzz. We need to design a Classic Fuzz Machine. 

The PedalPCB Vintage Fuzz Machine.


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## jjjimi84 (Nov 11, 2021)

ADAOCE said:


> Is your dung beetle the one that has the copper tone box with the bejeweled looking beetle on it? I saw that on here one day and was like wtf THAT is cool!


I gotta start taking stuff out of frame, yeah it is one of a few I have made but that one is MINE. Black matte enclosure with Bronze knobs and a painted dung beetle


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## Big Monk (Nov 11, 2021)

jjjimi84 said:


> The dung beetle is the go to fuzz pedal in this household.
> 
> I gotta do a video with that in the title, get all click baity and shit



I’ve heard great things about the Scarab.


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## Dan M (Nov 11, 2021)

I swap between a Carcosa, Behringer SF300, diy Pharoah, Ultra Stoner, Arkaim, and a Death Cap.

From that list, the Carcosa is definitely the most versatile with the most range.  It can’t quite get all the way down in the mud like my muff variants, but I don’t think that’s what you want anyway.  On the other hand, you can tweak it to ripping velcro, splatter, all the way to a buzz box sound.
The controls are interactive.  It’s not difficult to dial in, but there’s a lot of fiddling to be done if you want to sit and look for new sounds.

I don’t have a scarab/beetle, but it seems to have a wide span also.


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## Big Monk (Nov 11, 2021)

Dan M said:


> I swap between a Carcosa, Behringer SF300, diy Pharoah, Ultra Stoner, Arkaim, and a Death Cap.
> 
> From that list, the Carcosa is definitely the most versatile with the most range.  It can’t quite get all the way down in the mud like my muff variants, but I don’t think that’s what you want anyway.  On the other hand, you can tweak it to ripping velcro, splatter, all the way to a buzz box sound.
> The controls are interactive.  It’s not difficult to dial in, but there’s a lot of fiddling to be done if you want to sit and look for new sounds.
> ...



Will the Carcosa do the more refined MK II and Fuzz Face tones as well?


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## Big Monk (Nov 11, 2021)

Thanks for tolerating my stream of consciousness rants gang!

Maybe what I need is to take a look at my MK II and Fuzz Face designs and make some tweaks for performance. 

I’ve been thinking about this all day. 

The MK II architecture doesn’t have any impedance issues when going after wah. Either way, I think Q1 would be better suited as Silicon with a traditional base to power and base to ground biasing arrangement. Also, I think I’d like to have external bias pots for Q1 and Q3. Also, a foot switch to go to a 1.5 mode would be useful. 

For the Fuzz Face, I think a pickup simulator at the input would be what I need. Also, I think Silicon Q1 and Q2 is the way forward. I’m also thinking that a foot switch that switches in emitter resistance on Q1 and Q2 would allow you to use higher gain transistors for that classic Si FF sound while being able to drop the effective gain for a more classic Ge type sound. 

Those changes would alleviate some of my concerns, allow me to keep the classic circuit architecture but also increase versatility. 

I’m also going to breadboard some of the circuits you guys suggested. 

In short I’m still open to ideas! My goal is to keep 2 slots for fuzzers on the board.


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## Dan M (Nov 11, 2021)

Big Monk said:


> Will the Carcosa do the more refined MK II and Fuzz Face tones as well?



I’m not sure.  It has some smooth tones in it as you sweep the knobs.  But I’m not a connoisseur of the mkii or fuzz face.  

I don’t like the splatty stuff so I usually keep the bias knob pretty low.  

The carcass and dung beetle might be good breadboard projects, I don’t think either have any rare parts.  2N5088’s and 89’s and a pile of common resistors and caps.


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## djmiyta (Nov 11, 2021)

Big Monk said:


> Let me narrow down my desires here.
> 
> I want a device that gets me MK II, MK 1.5, and Fuzz Face tones.
> 
> ...


Ahh what you want is the “Classic Vintage MAGIC Fuzz Machine” probably the most elusive of it’s species. From what I know they rarely mate (which is probably why they’re so very ultra rare), hardly ever seen in pubic, practically untraceable, but such a unique sound you definitely know you’re getting close to one. Or so I’ve read


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## Kroars (Nov 11, 2021)

I really like both the AionFX Osiris (BAT Pharaoh) as well as the Deep Trip BOG (PedalPCB Marsh).  Both are pretty darn versatile (BOG is your FF variant) and both play nicely anywhere on your board.


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## Harry Klippton (Nov 11, 2021)

Kroars said:


> I really like both the AionFX Osiris (BAT Pharaoh) as well as the Deep Trip BOG (PedalPCB Marsh).  Both are pretty darn versatile (BOG is your FF variant) and both play nicely anywhere on your board.


I'd love to know how you're using your pharaoh. I could never find a sound I liked out of the one I built


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## Kroars (Nov 12, 2021)

Harry Klippton said:


> I'd love to know how you're using your pharaoh. I could never find a sound I liked out of the one I built


I think just like anything it all depends on personal taste and what your set up is.  I’m running a PRS CE-24 into an Orange TH30.  With the hotter 85/15’s and the darker TH30 it just works for me.  I just use the Pharaoh on the clean channel and it sounds great.


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## Betty Wont (Nov 12, 2021)

EVA
					

Extra Vehicular Activity. Send your tone for a space walk. This is a clone board for the Spaceman Gemini IV. Everything that the Gemini III wishes...




					www.deadendfx.com
				



I'm telling you, this guy does all the things.


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## Big Monk (Nov 12, 2021)

Kroars said:


> I just use the Pharaoh on the clean channel...



Key point. Big Muffs and their variants tend to sound best with amp gain dialed back or into a clean amp. I had to specially modified my little single-ended EL84 amp with a faux drive control to be able to knock the input signal down to sound good with my Ram's Head.


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## Big Monk (Nov 12, 2021)

Betty Wont said:


> EVA
> 
> 
> Extra Vehicular Activity. Send your tone for a space walk. This is a clone board for the Spaceman Gemini IV. Everything that the Gemini III wishes...
> ...



Could just be me but I watched the ProGuitarShop demo of that pedal and it sound very spitty and velcroey the whole time. It might have been how he set it.

I'll keep this one on my radar.


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## Harry Klippton (Nov 12, 2021)

Betty Wont said:


> EVA
> 
> 
> Extra Vehicular Activity. Send your tone for a space walk. This is a clone board for the Spaceman Gemini IV. Everything that the Gemini III wishes...
> ...


I promised myself not to buy any more pcbs right now. 🥵🥵


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## Kroars (Nov 12, 2021)

Harry Klippton said:


> I promised myself not to buy any more pcbs right now. 🥵🥵


Never make promises you can’t keep


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## Harry Klippton (Nov 12, 2021)

Kroars said:


> Never make promises you can’t keep


I've resisted several rounds of pedalpcb discount codes since making that promise so I'm doing ok so far


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## Popnfreshbass (Nov 12, 2021)

My guitar player uses a Lovepedal Super Sic Tone. He says it does the fuzz face, mk2 and big muff all in one pedal. I haven’t really played around with it but he seems to like it, and it sounds good in the mix(bass player talking)


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## Harry Klippton (Nov 12, 2021)

The crazy tube circuits constellation fuzz might be what you're looking for


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## Big Monk (Nov 12, 2021)

Harry Klippton said:


> The crazy tube circuits constellation fuzz might be what you're looking for



That sounds pretty damn good to me.


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## Harry Klippton (Nov 12, 2021)

Big Monk said:


> That sounds pretty damn good to me.


Yeah I keep getting tempted by it, see the price, change my mind, forget about it, remember again, see demos, repeat


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## Big Monk (Nov 12, 2021)

Harry Klippton said:


> Yeah I keep getting tempted by it, see the price, change my mind, forget about it, remember again, see demos, repeat



Well, what troubles me is the cost compared to what that Rotary switch does. It seems like frequency shaping elements. I can't pay > $300 for a Fuzz I could make myself.


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## Harry Klippton (Nov 12, 2021)

Big Monk said:


> Well, what troubles me is the cost compared to what that Rotary switch does. It seems like frequency shaping elements. I can't pay > $300 for a Fuzz I could make myself.


If your project sounds as good as that demo, I'll be interested


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## Big Monk (Nov 12, 2021)

Harry Klippton said:


> If your project sounds as good as that demo, I'll be interested



I'm gonna start designing sometime next week.


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## Big Monk (Nov 12, 2021)

Harry Klippton said:


> If your project sounds as good as that demo, I'll be interested



The more I research the Constellation in it's various forms, the more I think the rotary is simply a frequency shaping tool. All the modes seem to have the same amount of gain on tap but with altered tonal response. Basically, at it's core it's a 3 transistor circuit. Since we know that's the basic architecture it stands to reason that switching caps in and out and changing frequency constitutes the major novel move here.

Something to add to the mod queue for this super fuzz machine design.


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## Big Monk (Nov 12, 2021)

Just got done watching some Skreddy Lunar Module demos.

Then I pulled the schematic down for the Fuzz Aldrin.

Seems very versatile. It has that 3 transistor MK II tone with the Range up but also those classic Fuzz Face tones.


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