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Friday, 28 August 2015

Mosrite Fuzzrite germanium

Hello folks! Travis here and I'm very excited to join the tagboardeffects squad. Thanks to Mark and Miro for the opportunity, and thanks to Zach, Javi, and Alex for joining along as well. I'm sure we're gonna have a great time, so without further adieu, here's my first contribution to the main site!

As some of you may know, I was lucky enough to pick up an original germanium transistor equipped Mosrite Fuzzrite earlier this year. It has without a doubt been my favorite pedal I've ever owned, and I traced the circuit to share with you fine folks.

EDIT: There were some mistakes in my initial trace due to a couple hidden links and an oddity with one cap connection. I have updated the layout, and this is your standard Ge Fuzzrite with component values matching mine, and an added voltage inverter for easy daisy chaining





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36 comments:

  1. Doron Barness28 August 2015 at 06:45

    Welcome Travis.
    Glad to see the action's back!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Piltdown Man28 August 2015 at 16:12

    Is there a suitable sub for the 350k reverse pot?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Travis28 August 2015 at 17:20

      As Miro stated in Mark's Ge Fuzzrite post, you can use a C500K pot with a 1M2 resistor between lugs 1 and 3

      By the way, I just noticed a mistake I must have made when shifting things around on the layout. The cut to the right of Q1 base needs to be moved so that it's between the 2n cap and Q2 collector. I will edit this when I get back from work. Sorry!

      Delete
    2. Piltdown Man28 August 2015 at 18:17

      Thanks

      Delete
  3. Jimijam28 August 2015 at 16:52

    Congrats Travis!
    Looking forward to the new direction of this fantastic blog.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jimijam28 August 2015 at 16:53

    Congrats Travis!
    Looking forward to the new direction of this fantastic blog.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Travis29 August 2015 at 01:04

    Holy shite! I made a couple serious errors in my trace as a result of being too careful when I took the pedal apart to trace.

    I built it up and it wasn't working right, so I tore open my Fuzzrite, and this time I bent everything out of the way and disconnected wires to get a better look.

    Well, I missed two links on the board, and totally biffed it up in general. Sorry guys, I feel like a total fool for messing up my first post like this! But I'll post an updated layout so you can at least have a nice Fuzzrite with inverter layout. It is still my favorite fuzz after all.

    The most confusing part on my Fuzzrite is the 25uf cap. That really mislead me into thinking it was an emitter bypass cap on Q2, but after finding one more link, I now see this cap seems to be doing nothing at all in my pedal. Both legs are actually connected to ground.

    I have no idea why they would do this, unless maybe if the pedal didn't have enough gain maybe they would snip the link that would turn this into an emitter bypass cap on Q2

    It's a little strange, and I'm sorry for my confusion! Please hold off on building this until I post an update

    ReplyDelete
  6. Neil mcNasty29 August 2015 at 11:39

    Welcome Travis and thanks for your contribution!

    Just one but very important thing:
    Your layouts (uploaded picture files) are not supposed to be called "MGFESbcxjasol25663" and stuff like that.
    They are supposed to have a logical name, so that we can find it again after downloading it to our harddrive.
    Remember:
    Nothing is more annoying than searching trough over 1000 files, just because someone did not name the file properly/logically. Don´t be one of those guys...!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. EddieB29 August 2015 at 21:32

    Besides the funky naming of the image file, I find that I can't open the file once I save it. I get a message saying it's corrupted or too large. I've tried this on Windows and Linux with no luck. I didn't have this problem with the original images you posted. I noticed those were .jpg and the new one is .png.

    And regarding the 25uF cap, I think you'll find that it's connected between power and ground. It might measure as 0 ohms with a meter, but that's because it's discharged. Hold the probes there long enough and the cap will start to charge and the resistance will increase.

    Please don't take this as a negative comment. I'm really happy to see some activity here again, and I'm sure you'll get the swing of it soon.

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  8. Travis29 August 2015 at 22:07

    One side of the 25uf cap is connected to the emitter of Q2, which is also connected to ground. The other side is connected to the positive (ground) battery lead which is tied back to another ground connection on the switch. So both legs of the cap appear to be grounded.

    I'm not sure why you can't save the image though. I'm uploading the images through the site with a photobucket URL. It's .PNG which works on the site

    I would upload the images directly from my computer but I'm having issues logging on the site with my computer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. EddieB29 August 2015 at 22:39

      I tried saving the image again, for the fourth time, and now I'm able to open it. Go figure. Maybe Photobucket went haywire for a while.

      I take it your Fuzzrite is hand built. I bet somebody at the factory screwed up, the negative side of the cap really ought to connect to the negative battery lead, not the positive lead. This cap just filters the power and batteries don't really need filtering, so you probably wouldn't hear any difference even if you connected it correctly. A lot of early stompbox circuits didn't include a filter cap, but they can be noisy when powered by an external supply.

      Delete
  9. Travis29 August 2015 at 22:50

    Yes I know. What threw me off is that I missed the link connecting the Q2 emitter to ground, which would have made sense as the cap would then be an emitter bypass cap boosting the gain of Q2. I also made a couple other mistakes which should all be corrected in this update, though it is currently unverified. Sorry for the inconvenience!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Unknown3 September 2015 at 07:40

    Hi! A Fazz face transistor set it would be usable in this circuit. Which range of Hfe for Q1 and Q2?
    Thanks
    Daniele

    ReplyDelete
  11. Travis3 September 2015 at 14:06

    Typically people will use a higher hfe for Q1 and lower for Q2

    I thing generally something like 100-150 for Q1 and 40-60 for Q2

    ReplyDelete
  12. superferrite8 September 2015 at 22:21

    Hey Travis! Welcome and thank you!
    Is the layout updated? I was just thinking of resurrecting my Ge FuzzRITE project last night and you have come through in the clutch!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Travis9 September 2015 at 19:11

    Thanks bud. This has been updated but not verified

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous23 September 2015 at 10:37

    Bottom right cut (near 22K resistor) is useless i think...

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous23 September 2015 at 12:28

    1 and 8 IC's legs are shorted - is it ok?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Travis23 September 2015 at 14:02

    Oops yeah that cut was left there by accident. It won't matter if it's there or not.

    Pins 1 and 8 of the IC need to linked

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous24 September 2015 at 19:16

    I builded this and it works. Thanks for the scheme! I changed some elements (because a didn't have the right parts): 2 nF caps to 2.2 nF and 40 nF to 47 nF. Also I dont have 2N2613 & 2N408 and I try to use some different - soviet МП42Б with different hFE (~100 & 50), 2N5087 (much more gain) and 2N3906 (much much more gain) - all sound good, but pedal have a very low output level compared to bypassed signal. What can be the reason of this?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous24 September 2015 at 19:39

      I forgot something else to say: both pots are 500K.

      Delete
  18. Travis25 September 2015 at 01:18

    The cap subs are fine

    Solder a 1M2 resistor across lugs 1 and 3 of the depth pot to turn 500K into ~350K. For the volume pot 500K is fine

    The higher resistance of the depth pot may be cutting the output, but this thing should be pretty loud. My Fuzzrite in the picture is wayyyy louder than unity, so there seems to be some problem either with my layout or your build.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous25 September 2015 at 13:22

      Thank you for your help, Travis! It's my mistake. I soldered 5000 Ohm volume pot instead 500K. Now its work very loud and good!

      Delete
  19. Unknown2 June 2016 at 13:40

    I there !
    Thanks for this layout !
    I wonder if I can replace the Ge transistors, since 2n2616 & 2n408 are really expensive ( something like 20$ on the bay just for 1 )

    thanks

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    Replies
    1. Zach2 June 2016 at 21:42

      as long as they are PNP Ge transistors with in the right gains you'll be fine. travis made the layout based on the Ge fuzzrite he actually owns, which i can tell you from playing through it myself, it sounds particularly amazing. that's not to say other Ge transistors won't sound as good.

      Delete
    2. Unknown6 June 2016 at 08:47

      Hello Zach
      Thanks for your reply !
      I saw in earlier response on this thread Travis used PNp Ge with hfe "like 100-150 for Q1 and 40-60 for Q2"
      I will try to find them :)

      Many thanks !

      Delete
  20. Travis6 June 2016 at 14:01

    Believe it or not I haven't even built this thing yet! That was just a suggestion based on the common info online.

    I thought my pedal had some difference from the main schem that is floating around, but it is totally standard except for the 25uf cap being soldered literally from one ground pad to another making it completely useless

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  21. Unknown3 August 2017 at 18:51

    Please repost pics.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Unknown11 August 2017 at 19:21

    Photobucket is killing the DIY pedal hobby!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. mirosol12 August 2017 at 09:35

      I personally don't get it why anyone in their right mind would have ever used photobucket for anything. This is quite a mess we're facing right now...
      +m

      Delete
  23. Travis12 August 2017 at 14:01

    Now that I have switched to Imgur I don't know why I was using Photobucket either. The ads were terrible, but when I first got the account like 10 years ago it wasn't like that

    Anyway, the reason I haven't updated this is that I seem to have lost this file when I transferred it back in the day. Bear with me please, I'm not really a computer guy and haven't had the time to redo the layouts yet

    ReplyDelete
  24. Travis24 September 2017 at 17:56

    Finally got the layout files back and updated a couple posts. Apologies for the delay

    ReplyDelete
  25. aircraft of the aces18 June 2021 at 17:48

    I'm late but really appreciate...

    ReplyDelete
  26. Unknown26 September 2021 at 17:26

    Is this Layout good? I have the original transistors and want to try this as my first Build

    ReplyDelete
  27. Don Baker29 March 2023 at 19:13

    Awesome layout! Built with ECG102 and ECG 158. What's cool about this PNP Germanium Fuzzrite is that is sounds good through the full range of gain and volume. Oddly enough, it has a big, fat, musical sound at some of the lowest gain and lower volume settings. And of course it rips at full gain and volume. Thanks Travis!

    ReplyDelete