Friday 12 July 2013

Keeler Kick

After the heads up from Miro, here's the sites 200th fuzz layout! :o)

The original has a 5K trimmer in between Texture 1 & 2 and the collector of Q3 which I have omitted to keep this 1590B friendly in terms of number of columns.  I think a trimmer there is largely unnecessary as it simply alters the upper and lower setting of the texture pot. It is very much a set and forget and nothing that you couldn't achieve in the single control by using a 15K texture pot (if you can get them, 20K if you can't :o)

If you aren't bothered about saving width and would prefer the same controls then just add a few columns and put the trimmer to the right of the board in a suitable position, or a free floating trimmer daughterboard elsewhere in the box if you prefer.

Info about the original:

The Keeler Designs Kick Fuzz is contemporary take on the classic fuzz tones you love. The Kick Fuzz is completely versatile, and delivers an array of classic fuzz tones in one stompbox. So now in one fuzz pedal, you can go from a spitting vintage fuzz tone to muffish and massive sustaining fuzz madness all with some creative tweaking of the Kick's knobs. The Volume control delivers a serious amount of gain for your signal, and the Fuzz control goes everywhere from gritty clean to massively saturated signals. The Kick Fuzz is an incredibly responsive pedal, and works dynamically with your guitar's volume and tone knobs - so back off the volume for some sweet gritty clean tones. The Texture control gives you a wild variety of fuzz tones, so dial in some spitty vintage tones or massive gain. The Tone control allows you to either boost bass or treble frequencies. The Keeler Designs Kick Fuzz will cover all the fuzz tones you need, and then some.

Keeler Designs Kick Fuzz

The Keeler Designs Kick Fuzz feels like a kick to the chest. This incredibly versatile and sweet fuzz will get you from 1967 all the way to 2010 with some sweeps of the texture control. Feedback nastiness, thick and dirty overdrive, and powerfully sustaining tones are all housed within the Keeler Designs Kick Fuzz. If you think you've heard everything a fuzz pedal can do, think again. The Keeler Designs Kick Fuzz pedal will give you some draw-dropping fuzz goodness.


Keeler Designs Kick Fuzz Features:

    Volume: Controls amount if signal
    Fuzz: Controls amount of fuzz, from dirty clean to saturated signal
    Texture: Controls the type of overdrive signal. Counterclockwise gives vintage tones, while clockwise dials in saturated and modern fuzz.
    Tone: Boosts either bass or treble signals







25 comments:

  1. Congratulations Miro & Mark on the 200th Fuzz. Well Done. The Keeler Kick seems an appropriate Celebration as the Video suggests it is very Versatile. Great Work.

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  2. Wow, congrats Mark & Miro -- and a big thanks to you guys for all the work that you put out here. So killer.

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  3. wow! amazing!!! , any suggestions BC182 replacement?

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    1. You should be able to find them easily enough on eBay, I included the correct type with a BCE layout mainly because I thought people may already have some due to some of the DAM effects using them. But looking at the transistors I've got with a BCE pinout, you could try 2SC1815, 2SC945 and BC184LB. I'm sure there are plenty more but those are the ones off the top of my head.

      Or you could use any of the more common CBE pinout transistors such as thge 2N5088, BC549 etc, but you'll have to twist the base and collector pins over and make sure they're isolated from each other.

      What sounds good is then going to be down to personal preference.

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    2. Thanks IvIark, you are the man

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  4. Hmmm...just built this. Its sounds cool in some settings but the controls are acting funny. Tone control reduces the gain a bunch and gets gated. Texture causes a pretty big volume change throughout the sweep. Volume and fuzz seem fine.

    I don't have too much time to debug at the moment. But I'll take a look more tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for the layout!

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    1. AND CONGRATULATIONS ON THE 200th FUZZ! You guys are LEGENDS!

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  5. VERIFIED (my first)!

    I had some wires in the wrong places. All good now. Sounds fuzzy!

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    1. Excellent, nice one Kinski. I like the quick verifications, congrats on losing your verification virginity! :o)

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  6. Awesome layout!
    Just when I was thinking I will not need another fuzz...
    IvIark, are there any differences between BC182b vs BC182L?

    thanks!

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    1. Yes, the BC182B have a more common CBE pin layout rather than the BCE used with the 182L. I actually checked with the guy who did the schematic on the pinout so I could establish which of the two were used in the original.

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  7. I feel so dumb but I can't find any schematic.
    Someone could help me?
    Thanks

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    1. The schematic was given to me privately by someone who I think will be posting up to the usual places himself at some point soon. I haven't been given permission to share it and so I can't post it or a link to it at this time.

      I'll ask if he's going to post it up somewhere, and if not ask if it is ok to show it here.

      But essentially it's quite similar to a Fuzz Factory. Booster into a Fuzz Face (silicon obviously rather than germanium) but making it a bit more usable for me compared to the Factory, it has a Big Muff tone stack after the booster followed by the clipping diodes.

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  9. I'm pretty new to the pedal building world. In starting to build, I have found sockets for ICs on thaishine and Mammoth electronics. I couldn't find any sockets for 3 pin transistors. Does anyone have a link to a site that sells sockets for transistors?

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    1. I use these:

      http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/130943190027

      You just snap off how ever many you need so they're also great for experimenting with other components to fine tune an effect to your liking. Socket a cap that is important to the amount of bass you get (for instance) and you can try different values to get it sounding just right for you.

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    2. Ahhh, snap them off, you say? Thanks so much! I saw a similar product on the aforementioned websites, but wrote it off because it was so long. I'm learning so much from this site. Thanks, Mark, and everyone else!

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  10. I breadboarded this yesterday, using the layout as a guide in lieu of a proper schematic. It looks to me like a slight variation on Skreddy's Lunar Module, with the body control replaced with a BMP tonestack, and those extra clipping diodes. Weirdly, the diodes don't seem to make an appreciable difference: I tried four Ge 1N270, four Si 1N270 and no diodes using an on-off-on switch and the three sounds were virtually indistinguishable.

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  11. Obviously the silicon diodes were not 1n270, but 1N4148

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    1. Yes very similar to the Lunar Module too, cheers for the info

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  12. As a single-coil player, I love that there is a usable noise gate (texture) on this thing. Gonna stick this in a 1590A!

    I used a 10k for Texture. Are there any benefits to upping it to a 25k? I dont have 15k or 20k on hand.

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    1. I just put a 5.1k resistor in place of where the trimpot would be. Sounds good.

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  13. i've built the lunar module before but it didnt sound anything like a fuzz factory or the demo of this pedal. i see the similarities. is it just the difference in transistors that makes these so much different sounding?

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    1. I wouldn't expect it to sound like a Fuzz Face, but the Q2 and Q3 section of the circuit is basically just that. That little circuit snippet is used ina lot of effects, it's tried and tested and is a useful little stage, but the rest of the circuit can often totally change the character of the pedal. As you say, the Fuzz Factory sounds nothing like a Lunar Module despite them both using variations of the circuit as part of the effect.

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  14. Have built it and during gig play have got a bug/feauture - it has just unbelievable a rise of volume. I can't use it more than on 1/3 of full volume - to much gain/volume in compare with unity level. How to decrease it without changing a tonal character of the tone because it has an impact on it also not just volume.

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