Sunday 26 February 2012

Mad Professor Fire Red Fuzz

How many Big Muff variants is this now? :o)

Manufacturers info:

BJF design versatile fuzz pedal

Hand-made in Finland premium quality fuzz pedal.  Mad Professor Fire Red Fuzz (FRF) is a fuzz pedal that is easy to play with long sustain and lot of tone variations.  The pedal has a compressed, deep effect to allow equal sustain throughout the fretboard.  Tone control was specifically designed to allow tones from mellow fuzz, through slight midcut to thin bright fuzz

The FRF is not another variation of a classic fuzz design but an unique pedal with its own character and extremely versatile Tone control.  It is great for recording different layers of Fuzz tones from haunting dark to cutting thin bright.  What ever setting you use the tone is always very musical and controllable.

Like all Mad Professor pedals FRF is hand made in Finland using only premium components, to give years of trouble free operation with superb musical tone.

Controls

VOLUME: Sets the level of distorted signal

FUZZ: Controls fuzz depth from just slight to heavy fuzz

TONE: controls EQ of fuzzed sounds: mellow to CCW rotation, slight midcut in mid position and thin fuzz to fully CW rotation.




33 comments:

  1. Well. It works. You can tag this one too.

    There wass one thing that baffled me. To the last minute i misread the Q6 to be 2N5458. There's squeeling and picking up interference all around with 2N5458. Björn's specials once again :) It's 2N5485, which i don't have at hand. I think i'll just stick in a socket to replace 14K7 and up the resistor until i can calm it down using 2N5458 (or J201 or MPF102). I'll let you know.

    Can't say much about the sound as it starts squeeling just above unity.
    +m

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    Replies
    1. Nah. 39K calms the interference, but it sounds bad. Meaning that Q6 doesn't bias right. I just ordered a buch of 2N5485s. So i'll give out my judgement in a month or two :)
      +m

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    2. Email me your address mate and I'll send you some of the 2N5485's

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    3. This one is ok. I finally got my 2N5485s from Polida, and that fixed it up right away. It does get insanely fizzy with tone and fuzz both all the way up, but that gets fixed by replacing 470p with 1n.

      In my opinion, this is the greatest BMP revamp at the moment. The could be some even better ones out there, but currently.. This is the deal. Wilder tone stack and clipping is in the next level. Soundwise, there is much left of the thee olde BMP, but as the variants go..

      So now it's time to call it - Tag it :)

      And it didn't take more than three and a half weeks for my free shipping polida order to get here. Yay!
      +m

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    4. Awesome cheer matey. And only 3 weeks eh! :o) I'm still buying things with the normal free delivery and waiting, but I'm in no rush, plenty to do in the meantime!

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  2. Hey guys, I built this and everything works fine except that there is very little fuzz, very clean. Mine sounds more like a light OD.
    I did just noticed that the transistors I used that were supposed to be BC550C are actually BC550B. Will that make a difference in gain?
    I also notice the schematic at FSB.org shows D1 and D2 being 1N4148. Would using that make a difference in gain?

    Just wanted to get an opinion before I start tearing into it.
    Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. Mine is loud as any BMP, BC550B is lower hFE than BC550C, but i've built big muffs with 2N2369s that are loud, so the transistor model can't be the cause. And i don't think the clipping diodes can cause that either. Have you tried eliminating the usual suspects like solder bridges, reflowing odd looking joints etc...?
      +m

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    2. That's going to be my next step. All my transistors are socketed as well, and some of them feel a little bit loose. I'm wondering if that could be the issue....

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    3. Approximately what hfe should I be reading on the transistors? My BC550B's are reading 004hfe.

      My meter looks like it can only test pnp or npn transistors with a collector base and emmiter, doesn't show where to plug in a GSD transistor.

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    4. 004 can't be right. BC550B should be around 500 hFE. The FETs aren't measured in hfe. Those in the middle are just for clipping, but the on on the upper left side will make a difference.
      m

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    5. So if these transistors are bad, which ones can I use as substitutes?

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    6. Try turning Q1 to Q3 round 180 degrees. I'm showing them in the wrong orientation in the layout, so when you're testing them it should be:

      C
      B
      E

      with the flat side to the left.

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    7. Awesome! It sounds great now! I'm assuming Q3 is correct even though the flat side is facing right. It sounds ok facing left but has less gain and doesn't sound quite like the video.

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    8. Q1 and Q2 should be flat side to left, Q3 flat side to right. The layout above is now correct

      Delete
  3. Built it, works like a dream. Finally a pedal for our Queens Of The Stone Age cover :D Thanks a lot!

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  4. just finished building and testing this one today. it sounds great. I didn't find it to be too fizzy at all (i.e. need a 1n in place of the 470p. thanks for posting it Mark!

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  5. Completed!

    pics

    http://johnkvintageguitars.homestead.com/Effects/Fuzz-ODs/BJFE/FRF-01.jpg

    http://johnkvintageguitars.homestead.com/Effects/Fuzz-ODs/BJFE/FRF-02.jpg

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  6. Wow John that's pretty! You sure do finish them well!

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  7. god damn ,after two weeks here, my to do list grows and grows ....

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  8. I know that is "just" another BMP clone, but, holy shit, it sounds really fine, it will get boxed for sure!

    The only thing I didn't like was the 2N5485 prices, 1,20 euros /piece, sheer daylight robbery!

    BR

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    Replies
    1. I know it is late for you, but Tayda has them for 28 cent each. I had mine from there. Plus they have now cheap (relatively...) 2n5457 too from Vishay for 29 cent.

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    2. Yeah, tahnk you, I was at the local store to get some caps and asked for this trannie. So I purchesed one piece to get the board finished, as Miro told that this trannie is critical for the sound. But I'll order a bunch for Tayda on my next order for sure :P

      Funny enough, at my local store purchased too a bunch of 2n5457 (Fairchild) at 11 cents / piece and a load (100 pcs) of 2N3819 at 8 cents / piece.

      BR

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  9. Gonna shoot for this later on this month. Does it fit a B-box or should just go for BB?

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  10. it fits easily in a B as shown in pics of mine:

    http://johnkvintageguitars.homestead.com/Effects/Fuzz-ODs/BJFE/FRF-01.jpg

    http://johnkvintageguitars.homestead.com/Effects/Fuzz-ODs/BJFE/FRF-02.jpg

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  11. Oh, I saw your pics (which are amazing btw) and still went on and asked. Well.. Thank you :D

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  12. This one sounds great. Especially after adding the 1u cap that I forgot to install on first pass :)...

    I had a MP Golden Cello before I sold it. Under certain settings, this pedal sounds very similar. You can cop that EJ violin tone. Nobody has cracked one yet at FSB yet, but it wouldn't surprise me if it weren't a BMP variant after owning a golden cello and then building this.

    I built with the 470p but may try the 1n on the next one as John suggested. I do get a bit of fizz on my Vox but it just sounds big and thick on any of my other amps.

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  13. Sounds great! Is there some way I can boost the output signal? My input differs alot from the output.

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  14. Great layout!!!
    Same goes for me, the Fuzz sounds great but the output is pretty low, basicly have to crank the volume to match the dry signal. Any ideas?

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  15. hello there! I just built the layout but my problem is that the tone control is not working corect.I mean that i don't hear a big difference when i turn it all the way down.Any modifications?

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  16. Like many others I´m having too low output, anybody found a solution?

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  17. Hi to everybody. I build this pedal, it work fine but I have low output level and low gain. I make a comparison with the original. The tone is the same but the output and the gain no. Any solutions?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I changed the 14k7 resitor with a 33k, in this way I have more output volume. Now I'll try to search more gain... ;)

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  18. Any ideas what component could cause low gain in this pedal? I built one of these is the past that worked ok, now built another one, but it lacks some gain + volume goes to zero when gain pot is turned down. Could not find any build error so I made a new one from scratch, but that ended up working just the same, no gain. In the first defect one I swapped all transistors with no help and used new components in the second one. Where should I start now swapping components?

    ReplyDelete