You may want to try your PNP trannies that have a little bit of leakage to get this going. I've been pondering the best solution for powering this off a daisy chain, and I'm open to suggestions. You could use a charge pump and diodes in series to drop the voltage, but that's a bit of a complicated solution. Does anyone have a 1.5V regulator that they suggest?
I prefer to use my FZ-1A with humbuckers. Low output single coils don't get a very saturated fuzz
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ReplyDeleteI believe a voltage divider could be used to power it off of 9 volts. It shouldn't be difficult to find the resistor values, since 9 divides perfectly into 1.5
ReplyDeleteVoltage dividers can be unstable when the current draw shifts though, and the attack control on this pedal is a bias control which I think may alter the current draw. I've read that it's not an idea solution, but I'm not an expert on that.
DeleteI would like to find a simple regulator that I could pair up with an inverter to power this, but after all that the diode option may be looking cheaper anyway
By the way AA battery clips are easily available at just about any electronics store. The battery will last a long time and AA batteries are super cheap to replace
DeleteMy bad... that is the wrong one LOL
ReplyDeletebut I am sure you can find the correct one on mouser
For the daisy-chained power issue, couldn't you borrow the power scheme from the Roger Mayer Page fuzz? IIRC, uses an opamp to invert and limit voltage supplied to the Maestro/Tonebender derived part of the circuit.
ReplyDeleteJust built one with SFT323 transistors. It's verified.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Thanks HarmRazorback for my first verification on the blog!
ReplyDeleteHow is your build sounding?
It sounds less gated than I expected, but that probably has something to do with the SFT323s. They have about 200 hfe and a lot of leakage. It is not boxed yet, the transistors are in sockets, and I tested it with single coils. So I am going to try some other PNPs and humbuckers to see what sounds best.
DeleteMy crusty old FZ-1A isn't really gated at all. In fact it, can be a little noisy when it's hot.
ReplyDeleteIt's a really cool sounding pedal though. I get really hooked into playing with it because it's so dynamic and responsive, you can have a lot of fun with pick attack or fingerpicking etc
hope you have fun and dig the fuzz
Do I still connect the negative battery terminal to +ground and the positive battery terminal to -1.5?
ReplyDeleteI'm working on fz-1 .used a little module which is an adjustable step down regulator .I'm getting -3 volt. but it's not working for me. tried to audio probe it. after the input 100k resistor I get lots of noise and a weak signal.I changed the resistor.and the 10n cap after it and checked for shorts between lines with a multimeter. no luck yet.veryconfused now.there is audio signal at first transistor collector where there is -3 volt. any help please
ReplyDeleteStupid question. How can i run this without controls? Basically fully dimed. Where would clean 1 and clean 2 terminate?
ReplyDeleteStupid question. How can i run this without controls? Basically fully dimed. Where would clean 1 and clean 2 terminate?
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ReplyDeleteWhat hFE ranges and leakage are best suited for this?
ReplyDeleteI would like to give you a good answer to this question but I am not 100% sure.
ReplyDeleteThe first set of transistors that I threw in sounded great so I didn't really bother experimenting, because I got what I was looking for sound-wise
Here are my readings
Q1: hfe 56, leakage 100uA
Q2: hfe 100, leakage 320uA
Q3: hfe 85, leakage 150uA
This is pretty dang close to the sound of my original FZ-1A, and could easily pass for an original unit sound-wise
What kind of switch does this use?
ReplyDeleteIt appears the layout photo is no longer working.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up. I will update today
ReplyDeleteIs there still a layout for this?
ReplyDelete@Travis. The layout picture still is displaying an error. We can't see it.
ReplyDeleteDo you have to use electrolytic's on this one? Why are they using electrolytic's? is it to filter out noise?
ReplyDeleteBoth of them are in the signal path, so any type 1µ will be fine.
Delete+m
Thanks!
DeleteI built this and an FZ-1. Sounds great but I still need to experiment with transistors. One problem I am having, with this and the FZ-1, is if I have the fuzz pot below 12 oclock the volume cuts in and out, like a leslie speaker. Why would this be?
ReplyDelete