Wednesday 18 November 2015

Mojo Hand Colossus Fuzz

Info about the original:

ALL HAIL THE COLOSSUS!!! Unleashed on an unsuspecting public, the Colossus is THE be all end all Russian/Civil War Muff style fuzz. Ridiculously tweakable, insanely versatile, and packed with 10 tons of Colossal Mojo. Rich harmonic drenched chords, sweet singing leads, sludgy stoner goodness, filthy bluesy mcnasties, Pumpkin flavored raunch…you name it, it does it. It features a 3 way toggle for different EQ voicings, as well as a full range “Mids” control to help you cut through the mix in a live setting.




  Edit: Corrected 2 values. the 2.2nF cap in the tonestack (column k/rows f-h) should be 22nF, and the 5.6nF cap (column b/rows h-l) should be 56nF. This should fix some of the issues with the tone and output of the effect that has been reported.


65 comments:

  1. What is this chart type? I've looked in several places including Creately Diagram Community

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  2. "filthy bluesy mcnasties" may be the worst series of words I've ever seen put together.

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  3. another muff variation. I'm learning Zack ,you see? do you recommend this one or should I try the Green Russian first?
    anyway thanks

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    1. correct, this is just another muff variant, this one being a modded russian civil war muff with an added mids pot, and switch to alter the frequencies that enter the circuit, and "eq" switch so to speak. i've played an original and liked it. it's a nice little twist on the big muff and worth a build.

      there's a lot of muff variants out there like the black arts pharaoh & LSTR, blackout effector musket, frantone sweet, and mojo hand iron bell, just to name a few. so really in the end it's really up to you man. i'm a bassist and really love a massive amount of low end, so i'm a huge fan of the original green russian muff. it's massive and the fuzz is smooth and creamy. nothing else really like it in my opinion, especially in the big muff field. mine has slightly different values to the one in the layout posted here to "better match," i saw that since there was a huge variation in many of the component values, and i used gain matched russain kt3102e transistors and KD521V diodes. it's a monster to say the least.

      but with that in mind, i've got or built one of every muff and each one has their own flavor and i really love each one. it's just what you're in the mood for now, cause you'll eventually build them all. lol

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    2. Der Pharaoh ist meine JAM, suckah. :D

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  4. Shouldnt d1-d4 be 1n4148 instead of 2n4148?

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    1. correct. i must have hit the 2 by mistake and didn't notice. nice catch, and the layout is updated.

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  5. anyone built it ? I built it today and it does not work. Do you have the schematic ?
    Is the 2.2µ capacitor on the switch polarized ?
    Thanks a lot

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. This is the schematic:
      http://www.bigmuffpage.com/images/schematics/Colossus%20Schematic.jpg
      Lugs 2 and 5 need to be connected.

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    3. Thne 2u2 cap is polarized ("+" side on pin 1)

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    4. correct, but i figured you could just use a 2.2uF multilayer ceramic. which is non-polarized and mounts much easier on the switch.

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  6. Building it right now, will test it within the day.

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  7. Seems to me that the middle position of the switch will cut off the input signal if the switch is on-OFF-on. Also the series values between the 10n input and the other two on the switch would only give a value of between 9n-10n.

    If it were me I'd remove the 10n from the board and put a 5.6n on lugs 2-5, a 4.7n on 1-4 and then a much higher value on 3-6.

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    1. you're correct. i took a look at the schematic again, and i drew the layout to how it's shown, but it should put the caps in parallel, rather then in series. it's an easy fix from how it was on on the last layout. i've updated the layout to put the caps in parallel.

      also, you can change the caps to match your preference, it's essentially taking the focus control from the musket and instead of a pot sweeping between 2 input caps it's a 3 position switch.

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    2. Yeah a parallel cap switch makes better sense to me...a more noticeable effect with the given values but also a really obvious place to tweak to your own liking. Top job!

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    3. thanks man. it's funny that i didn't catch it when i made the layout, cause it does make more sense that it would be parallel rather then in series. even looking at the schematic it still doesn't really look as though the switch is parallel, but whatever it's part of the joy of diy.

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  8. Well... I may have not built one fuzz pedal but I surely created one of a kind signal killer (LOL). When the battery is connected signal is killed!!! Plus I have 9V reading on my guitar's cable... Any ideas???

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    1. I forgot to mention that when baterry is disconnected I get clean guitar signal on my amp

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  9. Post some pics in the debugging section of the forum. There's no way you should have DC on your jack cables so there must be some serious build issues.

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  10. Not sure if you noticed or not but the switch routing and labels are different on the bare board diagram. Hoping to build this one soon. Thanks!

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    1. thanks man, and good catch. i did some flipping around of the switch and must have forgot to make the same changes on the board with cuts and jumpers. it's been updated. if you started on it already, just follow the complete board and you should be good to go.

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  11. Should it really be a 104r resistor from input to gnd? And a 33k going to the input-caps? Almost all the signal should die in gnd right?

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    1. Hey bro. Not quite. It's exactly as laid out in the schematic, so it should be good to go.

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  12. Btw. My first footprint on this site. Although I've been using it for a while now. Just want to let all of you know that I'm grateful for all your work! Thanks!

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  13. Verified this today. Fired up straight away with no issues. Nice muff variant. Cheers Zach.

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    1. great man. thanks for verifying and glad you're digging it.

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  14. The link in the down/right corner is in different places on the layout and the "cutout/link-layout". The one who connect cap+resistor between base and collector on q2.

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    1. odd. something really strange must have happened, cause i checked the original file and it's fine. thanks for the heads up, i re-uploaded the layout and it looks all good again.

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  15. If you built this and it doesn't work also note that the 2n5088's from tayda have a reversed pinout to the layout picture. Rock on!

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    1. hey ryan. nice catch, surprised it wasn't caught before. i updated the layout so the transistor image is facing the right way. i didn't realize since i made this off my russian big muff layout, which uses transistors that face the other direction.

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  16. Also The 5.6nf and 2.2nf are 22nf and 56nf according the the kit rae schematic. Thanks for the layout. you guys make them so much smaller than the ones I do.

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    1. layout has been updated to fix 2 cap values. those that built it may want to make the changes.

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  18. Definitely like to know if I can use the 100R, I can't find 104r's anywhere, unless I order 500 of them.

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    1. One more... any more available resistor than the 140? I can get a 150 in with my Mammoth order, but if I need 140, I need to order separate and pay extra for the shipping. Thanks again, Zach.

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    2. found these on ebay, cheap and you get 100

      http://www.ebay.com/itm/140K-Ohm-1-4-Watt-1-Metal-Film-Resistor-Lot-of-100-Pieces-271-140K-RC-/161394888484?hash=item2593e28f24:g:JFwAAOSwPe1T7Rxe

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    3. no problem. remember a lot of times you can sub parts that are fairly close if you don't have the right value, or you can combine parts to get the exact value if need be.

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    4. Putting this together now, I'm just realizing the ones I got at that ebay link above are 140k, not 140r. So, I guess my question is still useful... what would be the best available substitute for the 140r? thanks.

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    5. 100R will be just fine. 120R even better if you have those.
      +m

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    6. I have some 100's and some 102's.

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  19. That 104R is definitely wrong, it's supposed to be a 1M pop protector. I know it shows 104R in the schematic on Big Muff Page, but it's just a case of someone misreading resistor codes. I'm guessing someone saw brown-black-green and read 105 when they should have read 1M, and went with 104 because it's close and I guess more common. Who knows?

    Anyway, I stuck a 100 in there for sanity check and as expected got almost no signal though the circuit. Replacing it with a 1M of course fixed it, making for a pretty awesome muff!

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    1. Oh, this is interesting, and it actually makes sense. I was wondering why killing almost all of the signal input to ground and, on the other side, I build the Colossus but had almost no gain and low volume, tho I checked everything. I was going to unsolder the transistors, put sockets and check, but I'll try this first. The brown-black-green intuition is clever! :-)

      Only... how is it possible that someone build it before, verified it, without having problems?

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    2. well since someone has now swapped the 104r for a 1M and it works as it should. i've corrected the layout. we are officially good to go for sure. great job benagro

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    3. Thank you, actually the great job has been done by T!
      I'm glad I can fix that one, I was sad about having a case of failure in making one of the circuit on this wonderful site!
      Although I still have problems with the Galileo... :-)
      Thx a lot for your work people! And thanks to T!

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    4. i hear you man, it happens to us all. sadly enough you'll find that there will be one pedal that you just cant get to work or work right. mine happens to be the catalinbread manx loagthan. i've built it 3x with 2 different layouts and nothing. one of these days i'm going to go back to it and get it to work.

      in any event i'm glad this one working for you and you're happy with it.

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  20. Why a on Off on switch? Does it mean that you have 2 diffrent sounds?

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    1. check the video, there are 3 different settings. the middle position is off meaning that the switch is essentially not connected.

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  21. hey there,
    built this one and its sounding great. thanks for the work.
    one little problem though...
    when turning the mids knob all the way up, the signal cuts completely out at the last position. do you guys have any idea, what could be the problem? i checked all the parts and wire connections and also did continuity check a million times now and couldn't find a problem...mh.
    cheerio

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  22. Hello everybody,
    I post another comment because I'm having a little problem with this.
    When I build it, some month ago, I tested it quite rapidly and everithing seemd fine to me, but now I took it out from the closet to use it and I noticed it sounds... muddy! I have to use it with tone and mid all the way up to obtain a barely usable sound. Lot's of gain and volume really loud, but really "closed" sound.
    I think it might be a cap problem, I double checked everything and all the values are correct, so maybe some component is not working properly somewhere, but I'm too ignorant to understand where I should start to check.
    Could anyone give me a help? Thanks in advance.

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  23. Hi to everybody. I made this pedal and it sounds good. But I have a question... I can't ear big differences in mid regulation... what can I try? Change pot.... change caps 22nF e 56nF

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    1. Check your wiring. It should be noticable. I know the first muff I built I had the same issue, turned out I had put one of the switch wires in the wrong place.

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    2. Thank you Zach for your answer. I'll check wiring. But... I don't understand... how the wires of the switch can influence mid regulation? Thanks again!

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    3. Hi guys! Wich caps can I change for try to change mid pot range? Thanks in advance. This site is amazing!😆

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    4. if you take a look at the schematic:

      http://www.bigmuffpage.com/images/schematics/Colossus%20Schematic.jpg

      you'll want to play with the tonestack values. try changing the 22nF connected to mids 1&2 and/or the 56nF connected to mids 3.

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    5. hello friend the problem I think is that the scheme is wrong, you should change the capacitor of 22nf to one of 3n3 to 10nf if you look at some BMF schemes you will see that the tone section only has 3n3

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    6. I also change the capacitor to ground of 10nf by one of 47nf following the scheme

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  24. Dear Rocket88, Zach and all others involved,

    I would like to thank you all for this amazing layout. I've build it and have enjoyed it more than i would have ever imagined! I've got some original muffs around....and this one knockes them ALL out of the park.

    The Civil war ones have always been my favorites. But this one has the mids control that makes it so much more usable. The tone control to die for. And the gain that can be really saturated, but also singing leads without having to crank the gain....WAUW!

    I've build mine with some 2n5089's. Q1-4 hfe 675 and Q2-3 hfe 720.

    But one tiny thing. The volume knob...is it really a 100k linear? Because mine gets unity gain at like 9 o'clock, and the real one has unity at like 1-2 o'clock. Any thoughts?

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  25. Just finishing one of these now, in the process of hooking up the led for the footswitch. It sounds absolutely badass. The mid switch is more subtle than I expected, so I have to double check I didn't make a mistake, but the mid knob is quite nice. I changed the clipping diodes to red and green LED's, and also added two switches to select led/silicon/germanium diodes for each clipping stage.

    There is an enormous volume difference, the LED's are massively louder, and have a killer, raw tone. The silicon diodes and germaniums have a very significant change in tone too. The EQ settings that you need are quite different for all three. I like having all the options though, the range of sounds is very, very wide.

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  26. Has anyone dabbled in other diodes? I'm asking mainly because I'm down to my last 2 1N4148s and was curious what I could try for the other pair.

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  27. Mine is up and running, like a few comments, the mids pot appears to do nothing. I tried 5089s in Q1 and Q4, then moved them to Q2 and Q3 (I only have 2 of them). Both trials made the sound a bit mushy. Red LEDs in D1 - 4 sound ripper. Waiting for 1n4148s in the mail to hear if there is much difference. Infra red LEDs in D1 & D2 pushed the clipping over the edge I thought.

    Various other diodes all sounded a bit less focused than the originals or the red LEDs. Good fun to socket and play though.

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  28. My mids pot was doing nothing until I swapped the 22nf for a 3.3nf. Now it's working well.
    Also the tone pot weird until I changed the 10nf cap to ground for a 47nf.
    I'm also not hearing a difference on the dpdt switch between the 2u2 and 100nf caps

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