Here's a collection of vero (stripboard) and tagboard guitar and bass effect layouts that we have put together covering many classic and popular effects in growing numbers. Many of these have been posted on freestompboxes.org, so check that site out for great discussions on building your own effect pedals. Enjoy the builds and please also visit us on Facebook and Twitter
Built this last night. Sounds good, good splatty fizzy fuzz (thumbs up), but it's not very loud, slightly quieter than my bypass signal in fact. Is that just a "thing" of this pedal? Everything else seems to function as normal, I can adjust the fuzz & volume pots with correct/desired function, but the volume is just quiet. I used 2N3904 with hfe of around 200. I did also try BC108's but the hfe was slightly too high if following your guideline value (around 400 +/-)
Hi mate. Yes I think it can seem quiet, I've heard people complain about the same thing before. I think the problem is that it's mid scooped anyway which doesn't help with perceived volume, and there are losses caused by the tone stack. I believe a useful mod for this is to take a feed from Fuzz lug 1 to a SPST switch, and the other side of the switch going to Volume 3 (all other wiring remains intact). This bypasses the scooping (and signal diminishing) tone stack and sounds very good in its own right by all accounts.
Hi guys, I just made this one and it works. My question though is, why can't I almost hear the difference between min and max on the fuzz knob? Should it be like that?
Hi guys, I just made this one and it works. My question though is, why can't I almost hear the difference between min and max on the fuzz knob? Should it be like that?
Try any NPN silicon that you have, 2N3904 or 2N5088 may be decent common alternatives (they'll need rotating 180 degrees to those shown in the layout).
General Guitar Gadgets does sell a kit for this, but theirs has what I think is an output boost. It uses a 2N3904, that's all I remember. It might be worth it to slap a mini booster in the box! Aside, the FY-2 is really nasty. Not exactly the fuzz I want for bass, but a good option.
Hi, have finished my fuzzrong clone, with help from Ivlark Cheers! I love it, and want to do the shin-ie next. Unfortunately I cant source 3n caps from my usual suppliers. I have 2n2 or 3n3s would either of these be an ok substitute?
Hi Guys have finished this and put it in an original shin-ie/kimbara enclosure (long story!), had the same problem with volume and did the mod suggested. Now I have plenty of volume, but unfortunately the bypass signal sounds very dull, not a prob with amp (fender deville) or leads etc. Is there anything else I could try? or is this the sacrifice for having more volume, I love the sound, just up my garage street! Pete
Hey guys. making this for a friend, am in need of a little help. got some 3904's measured at around 190 hfe in there and im still not getting ANY gain, the circuit seem to work and so does the volume but the fuzz knob does nothing. Have tried lots of trans in there and the only ones that make any noise are barely fuzzing atall. figure it could be a solder bridge or something. the only values I have changed are the 3n for 3n3 cap and the 1M2 resistor for a 1M as thats the closest I have. thoughts?
have some 2SC536's on their way hoping this will solve the problem. if not. any ideas chaps, really am stumped as everyone elses seemed to work with 3904s.
have noticed that it gets much louder when I take the ground from the pot out of my negative line on my breadboard. have also signal tested the board and when both the grounds are in it is saying there is a connection between the two top rails... but only when the grounds are connected... is this correct....
Hey guy's this is my first vero layout pedal I have checked the offboard tab and it doesn't say anything about using a ground from lug 1. as this layout shows lug 1 to ground I currently have it connected to the output jack sleeve this is ok right?. I used the wiring diagram in the offboard section to wire the 3pdt switch. everything looks good with the board no bridges counted the cuts and links and verified each part is in the right spot. It acts like the wiring from the pots has a short but I have rewired pots twice and tried 4 different ones just to make sure they were not bad. If I hold the pots in my hand I can get a little effect but not much volume actually it is quieter than my bypass signal. It seems like a ground issue to me but I cannot figure it out for the last couple days. the only thing I can think of is that while cutting the vero with my dremel I nicked the first row of holes just a lil but solder doesn't cover the entire hole so where possible I moved the lug wires in 1 hole. Could that be the problem? does anyone have any ideas? any input is appreciated thanks
All the grounds need to be connected together. The simplest way would be to take the volume pot's lug 1 to right hand side bottom row of the board as that is a ground strip. +m
Check that you're getting continuity between every point of ground:
Board Input Output DC socket Switch
The diode test function on your multimeter is good for this.
Usually when you are getting the effect at a low volume, and the build is otherwise correct, the thing responsible is an unwanted short somewhere or more likely a poor solder joint somewhere. Reflow your solder, including the pots to make sure the connections are good.
just breadboarded this and it works great! don't know what I did wrong the first time. did the mod between fuzz 1 and volume three. changes the sound completely! equally as awesome. also tried a 10k resistor in there and that sounded awesome but different. is there an easy way to wire up a pot as a variable resistor in its place so I can get a a scoop knob? have looked at a few things but when I use the Pot the way they say it just gives me the same sound as if they were directly connected with no change when turning the knob.
ok managed the variable resistor, must have been connecting the wrong lugs. sounds awesome with the ability to change the scoop/fizz. will send a link to the video when its done processing.
i read Thom's post about adding a pot in place of the 10k resistor to use as a scoop knob, but wanted to know do i do this? where do i need to make connections? what size pot? i'm looking at building this with a mid scoop and add a switchable booster too.
Used this layout and added a daughter board with the boost from the GGG schematic. Loud. Found 536 transistors in an old radio- they are super buzzy. I like BC108s too- less buzz & great bloom of sustained notes.
It's a big build, that's for sure. I built mine on PCB so not a problem. This is one build that may be worth getting a PCB for depending on your skill and/or confidence - especially if you intend to try to fit it into a 1590B.
Hi, I built this one. It works fine. Thanks for the layout.
I also wired lugs of fuzz 1 and volume 3 together. Sounds awesome. I understand you can leave the fuzz pot out by replacing them with resistors and add another pot as a scoop knob. But how would I do that? Could anyone help me out?
I didn't know whose they were because I saved them from an eBay post, but credit and link added. Oh and I loved my Meistersinger, so thanks for that too :o)
i don't believe that, and going to call bs. the pictures of the pedals above clearly say Shin-ie on them and have , not to mention when i just searched "JACQUES PEDALS", not one pedal is even remotely similar to the Shin-ie Companion Fuzz in visual or circuit design.
I put one of the guitar gadgets ones together years ago and it sounded like 8-bit crud so I threw it in a box. I pulled it out again the other day and suddenly it had so much more hair on it. It sounded amazing and became my favourite pedal. Somehow at some point it’s gone back to sounding like crud again. I know this is a punt in the dark but does anyone have any ideas on why this is? I build by pictures, can’t read schematics. I put the spdt between f1 and v3 as someone suggested above, but that only solved the perceived vol, it didn’t bring back that lovely fuzz hair... please help!
Built this last night. Sounds good, good splatty fizzy fuzz (thumbs up), but it's not very loud, slightly quieter than my bypass signal in fact. Is that just a "thing" of this pedal? Everything else seems to function as normal, I can adjust the fuzz & volume pots with correct/desired function, but the volume is just quiet. I used 2N3904 with hfe of around 200. I did also try BC108's but the hfe was slightly too high if following your guideline value (around 400 +/-)
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Matt
Hi mate. Yes I think it can seem quiet, I've heard people complain about the same thing before. I think the problem is that it's mid scooped anyway which doesn't help with perceived volume, and there are losses caused by the tone stack. I believe a useful mod for this is to take a feed from Fuzz lug 1 to a SPST switch, and the other side of the switch going to Volume 3 (all other wiring remains intact). This bypasses the scooping (and signal diminishing) tone stack and sounds very good in its own right by all accounts.
DeleteAwesome, I'll try that then buddy, thanks Mark.
ReplyDeleteWith that in mind, you can consider this one verified dude! :0)
Top man, cheers. Status updated! :o)
DeleteThis is ugly SOB.. real nasty spit in your face fuzz... It's so horrible I find myself strangely addicted to it ;o)
ReplyDeleteHi guys,
ReplyDeleteI just made this one and it works. My question though is, why can't I almost hear the difference between min and max on the fuzz knob?
Should it be like that?
Hi, The fuzz knob doesn't adjust the amount of fuzz, it just changes the 'flavour'. If that makes any sense.
DeleteHi guys,
ReplyDeleteI just made this one and it works. My question though is, why can't I almost hear the difference between min and max on the fuzz knob?
Should it be like that?
Hi guys...sorry, i need just an equivalent transistor for these 2sc536...
DeleteCan you give me an idea?
Thanks a lot!
Try any NPN silicon that you have, 2N3904 or 2N5088 may be decent common alternatives (they'll need rotating 180 degrees to those shown in the layout).
DeleteGeneral Guitar Gadgets does sell a kit for this, but theirs has what I think is an output boost. It uses a 2N3904, that's all I remember. It might be worth it to slap a mini booster in the box!
ReplyDeleteAside, the FY-2 is really nasty. Not exactly the fuzz I want for bass, but a good option.
Hi, have finished my fuzzrong clone, with help from Ivlark Cheers! I love it, and want to do the shin-ie next. Unfortunately I cant source 3n caps from my usual suppliers. I have 2n2 or 3n3s would either of these be an ok substitute?
DeleteEverytime I've tried to buy 3n I ended up receiving 3n3 so that seems to be the closest thing in current production and is what I would use.
DeleteHi, again thanks for that, getting a bit obsessed with Fuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz! Cheers
DeleteHi Guys
ReplyDeletehave finished this and put it in an original shin-ie/kimbara enclosure (long story!), had the same problem with volume and did the mod suggested. Now I have plenty of volume, but unfortunately the bypass signal sounds very dull, not a prob with amp (fender deville) or leads etc. Is there anything else I could try? or is this the sacrifice for having more volume, I love the sound, just up my garage street! Pete
Hi again,
ReplyDeleteI seem to have solved this problem simply by the connecting wires together instead of to the the footswitch,bypass restored! Cheers Pete.
Hey guys. making this for a friend, am in need of a little help. got some 3904's measured at around 190 hfe in there and im still not getting ANY gain, the circuit seem to work and so does the volume but the fuzz knob does nothing. Have tried lots of trans in there and the only ones that make any noise are barely fuzzing atall. figure it could be a solder bridge or something. the only values I have changed are the 3n for 3n3 cap and the 1M2 resistor for a 1M as thats the closest I have. thoughts?
ReplyDeletehave some 2SC536's on their way hoping this will solve the problem. if not. any ideas chaps, really am stumped as everyone elses seemed to work with 3904s.
Deletehave noticed that it gets much louder when I take the ground from the pot out of my negative line on my breadboard. have also signal tested the board and when both the grounds are in it is saying there is a connection between the two top rails... but only when the grounds are connected... is this correct....
Sometimes it's easier just to rebuild than troubleshoot, man. Especially with smaller circuits like this.
Deleteyeah I suppose just want to make sure it isn't anything obvious. like the values of the components I've changed or just a broken fuzz pot
DeleteHey guy's this is my first vero layout pedal I have checked the offboard tab and it doesn't say anything about using a ground from lug 1. as this layout shows lug 1 to ground I currently have it connected to the output jack sleeve this is ok right?. I used the wiring diagram in the offboard section to wire the 3pdt switch. everything looks good with the board no bridges counted the cuts and links and verified each part is in the right spot. It acts like the wiring from the pots has a short but I have rewired pots twice and tried 4 different ones just to make sure they were not bad. If I hold the pots in my hand I can get a little effect but not much volume actually it is quieter than my bypass signal. It seems like a ground issue to me but I cannot figure it out for the last couple days. the only thing I can think of is that while cutting the vero with my dremel I nicked the first row of holes just a lil but solder doesn't cover the entire hole so where possible I moved the lug wires in 1 hole. Could that be the problem? does anyone have any ideas? any input is appreciated thanks
ReplyDeleteAll the grounds need to be connected together. The simplest way would be to take the volume pot's lug 1 to right hand side bottom row of the board as that is a ground strip.
Delete+m
Check that you're getting continuity between every point of ground:
DeleteBoard
Input
Output
DC socket
Switch
The diode test function on your multimeter is good for this.
Usually when you are getting the effect at a low volume, and the build is otherwise correct, the thing responsible is an unwanted short somewhere or more likely a poor solder joint somewhere. Reflow your solder, including the pots to make sure the connections are good.
Thanks Gents I will give er a go as soon as I have some spare time. I truly appreciate the help thanks again
ReplyDeletejust breadboarded this and it works great! don't know what I did wrong the first time. did the mod between fuzz 1 and volume three. changes the sound completely! equally as awesome. also tried a 10k resistor in there and that sounded awesome but different. is there an easy way to wire up a pot as a variable resistor in its place so I can get a a scoop knob? have looked at a few things but when I use the Pot the way they say it just gives me the same sound as if they were directly connected with no change when turning the knob.
ReplyDeleteok managed the variable resistor, must have been connecting the wrong lugs. sounds awesome with the ability to change the scoop/fizz. will send a link to the video when its done processing.
Deletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcMplcKE6I0
Deletei read Thom's post about adding a pot in place of the 10k resistor to use as a scoop knob, but wanted to know do i do this? where do i need to make connections? what size pot? i'm looking at building this with a mid scoop and add a switchable booster too.
ReplyDeleteUsed this layout and added a daughter board with the boost from the GGG schematic. Loud. Found 536 transistors in an old radio- they are super buzzy. I like BC108s too- less buzz & great bloom of sustained notes.
ReplyDeleteAny chance of doing a vero layout for the FY6 Companion fuzz?
ReplyDeleteI have a copy of the schematic, if it's of any use.
Alan I think you have your FY-2's and FY-6's confused.
DeleteThey are named and numbered as follows:
FY-2 Companion Fuzz
FY-6 Super Fuzz
The good news is the FY-6 already has a layout up on here under one of it's aliases - the Univox Super Fuzz.
http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/univox-super-fuzz.html
Thanks for that Beaker - it looks like quite a temperamental build!
ReplyDeleteIt's a big build, that's for sure. I built mine on PCB so not a problem. This is one build that may be worth getting a PCB for depending on your skill and/or confidence - especially if you intend to try to fit it into a 1590B.
ReplyDeleteHi, I built this one. It works fine. Thanks for the layout.
ReplyDeleteI also wired lugs of fuzz 1 and volume 3 together. Sounds awesome. I understand you can leave the fuzz pot out by replacing them with resistors and add another pot as a scoop knob. But how would I do that? Could anyone help me out?
Thanks!
hi from Jacques Pedals : these are my pictures . Please give me credit .... I think they are quite good and that I somehow deserve it..... thank you
ReplyDeleteI didn't know whose they were because I saved them from an eBay post, but credit and link added. Oh and I loved my Meistersinger, so thanks for that too :o)
Deletei don't believe that, and going to call bs. the pictures of the pedals above clearly say Shin-ie on them and have , not to mention when i just searched "JACQUES PEDALS", not one pedal is even remotely similar to the Shin-ie Companion Fuzz in visual or circuit design.
DeleteI took it that he was talking about the photos, the pedal is definitely not a Jacques
DeleteI put one of the guitar gadgets ones together years ago and it sounded like 8-bit crud so I threw it in a box. I pulled it out again the other day and suddenly it had so much more hair on it. It sounded amazing and became my favourite pedal. Somehow at some point it’s gone back to sounding like crud again. I know this is a punt in the dark but does anyone have any ideas on why this is? I build by pictures, can’t read schematics. I put the spdt between f1 and v3 as someone suggested above, but that only solved the perceived vol, it didn’t bring back that lovely fuzz hair... please help!
ReplyDelete