Thursday 16 March 2017

Shin Ei 6TR Fuzz Wah

From Retro-Tone Junkie:

This is a very cool and underrated offering from the king of nasty vintage fuzz. This one is Kent branded but has the shin-ei stamp inside. It is widely known that the wah in these is less than desired. This is definitely not a funk machine and you will not channel your inner Hendrix here, but the fuzz really makes up for it. These are 2 transistors short of being an exact superfuzz circuit (TR-8) and in my opinion lie somewhere between the fy-2 and the fy-6. 

It has 2 knobs for volume and fuzz adjust, as well as a fuzz tone selector switch that changes from hard to soft. Very much like the superfuzz it basically goes from a scooped, darker sounding tone (soft) to a cutting midrange sound (hard). It also has 2 stomp switches, one of which will turn the fuzz on or off. And one that works just like a standard wah would, employed by the treadle.


I got this pedal for (what I would call) a steal, and these (non-superfuzz) versions can be had for very cheap on ebay or the forums. They are well worth it in my opinion, even though this version is known for a severe volume drop and doesn't meet unity gain in most situations (very much like the fy-2) it sounds really great. This is the chainsaw fuzz your friends warned you about, to me its like the superfuzz without the octave up. I'm glad I chose not to follow the hype and took a chance on this one.


This is supposedly the fuzz tone used by Jesus and the Mary Chain back in the day on Psychocandy.





Quick note about the wiring. The fuzz comes before the wah, so you'll wire it up according to the dual effect wiring as shown in the offboard wiring tab. You'll notice instead of making this on 1 massive board I opted for 2 separate boards. This will give you more options for placement in an enclosure, by preventing it from being 1 massive board.

27 comments:

  1. I have probably 9 or so original C828 Panasonic transistors...might have to build one of these one day. I found the transistors in some old photography analyzer equipment from decades ago... haven't found a permanent use for them, as they don't sound too great in most applications.

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  2. I just grabbed some on ebay, probably fake but for $2 who cares?

    Going to breadboard this with 5088's tonight.

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  4. Vol 1 to ground, not 3 of course I'm thinking. Interested to hear this one.

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    1. Yep. I'll fix it later. Sometimes I feel like my fingers go on autopilot and hit the wrong numbers. Lol

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  5. I think i might build just the fuzz. How would i go about increasing the output volume to get closer to unity gain?

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    1. I would just add on an EH LPB-1 circuit right after it. Nice and simple.

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  6. Any plans to do the 8TR version? I imagine it's just a Super Fuzz with the wah circuit above, can you confirm and save us the time? I was borrowing one for a while and really liked how you could use the wah to notch the fuzz tones on the normally-boring thin tone setting.

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    1. Yea that's basically what it is, looks to me to be a few component value changes. The wah component is different then this one or the one posted with all the vintage wahs. I've got it almost done and it'll be posted later today, so hold on. I'm also going to do the box stereo fuzz wah and the colorsound fuzz wah, which I plan on getting done later today too. March is like a month of wah. Lol

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    2. Rad!! Next people will want you to take on the Shin Ei Wah-Hurricane-Siren-Surf, that one's a beast!!

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    3. +1 on the Wah-Hurricane-Siren-Surf. ;)

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  7. Nice one Zach. This is like the one Superfuzz variant that I haven't tried, in other words, it's a must build!

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    1. Damn straight. From the clips it's gnarly and I may just build the fuzz as a stand alone too. It's an oddball variant, and I found 2 more the 10TR, but can't find any real info on it and looks completely different.

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  8. Does anyone know where to buy inductors like the one needed for this build? cheers :)

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    1. Personally, and I've said this in I think all the wah builds, but look on eBay for the tonetank by joe gagan. He makes them all, can customize the inductance if need be, amazing quality, will help you out if you have questions, and they're the best sounding inductor in my opinion. Not to mention they're not really expensive. I have the link posted in the other wah threads, and can't post it now cause I'm mobile.

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  9. I'm pretty new when it comes to inductors.. but is this one used in this build a certain type like a dual inductor? As it has 4 pins? Would a 2 pin one work fine? As these are easier to find for cheap. A little confused. Also does the value of the inductor affect the tone or the circuit drastically at all?
    I'll look back at previous wah posts though. Cheers

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    1. Only 2 pins are used. I just forgot to remove the other 2 from some of the layouts. Some inductors come with 4, as the 2 pins are just repeated.

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    2. And the inductor value has a huge affect on the tone.

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  10. Wow! Thanks for posting this! I used to have this exact model. (the Kent Fuzz-Wah) Sold mine to John Otway back in '79. (along with a Monacor Fuzzder! What was I thinking?) Definitely going to give the fuzz section a go.

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  11. Hello there. I've built this, correcting the slight errors in the layout (100k to ground in the wah section, Vol 1 not 3 to ground) . I used 5088 as my 828s never seemed to work. It was very low in volume, so I added on, as suggested, an LPB-1 circuit right after it. It works now, it's quite wild. Thank you for the layout.

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  12. I haven’t built the wah section but the fuzz section sounds great. I know this an old layout but a few changes to the layout are needed before it can be tagged as verified. The aforementioned Vol 1 to ground and Vol 3 change. The transistor at the bottom right of the layout needs to be flipped 180 degrees. Also, the series connection between the 10uf cap and the 1K resistor that connects to the base of that transistor needs to be dropped down one row. At the moment the series connection between the cap and the resistor is on the 9V power rail.
    Removing the diodes gives a lot of the volume back. A fun circuit for sure!

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    1. cheers man. changes made and updated

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    2. Awesome! Thanks for all the hard work preparing these layouts.

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  13. Hey Zach just looked over the layout again and it looks like the 1K resistor that connects the 10uf to the bottom right transistor is connected to the emitter of the transistor. The resistor needs to connect to the base of the transistor.

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  14. Hi Zach, I've got a question that might sound a bit geeky. Is there some particular reason you say that The Jesus and Mary Chain used this TR6 pedal and not the TR8?

    The reason I ask is because Fredric Effects borrowed two of William Reid's pedals to copy and both were TR8's, also Tim from Tyms Guitars saw 4 pedals that he claims were TR8s at a JAMC gig some years ago.

    Having said that I struggle to get the right sound with a wah after a Superfuzz, the octave seems to ruin the arpeggios, which is what lead me to the TR6 and this schematic.

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    1. honestly no clue. many times bands use different gear when performing live then in the studio. my guess is this is what was in the studio at the time, but they didn't have one out of the studio.

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    2. yeah of course, and with all the variation in components it's a fouls errand to try to recreate an exact sound. I was just curious if you had some particular reason to believe it was a 6TR and not a 8TR.

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