Sunday, 14 August 2016

Carlsbro Fuzzbox

I came across this on FSB forum last night and it peaked my interest and seems to be a unique part of the fuzz history. As the emperor of the Germanium Deathstar, and as a loyal follower of fuzz I couldn't not make a layout for this. And come on, who doesn't love dirty, nasty vintage fuzzes, especially of the Germanium kind.

Note: this is PNP, do NOT daisy chain.

And one with onboard inverter so you can daisy chain it without any worry.


Posted by at 23:07
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18 comments:

  1. cjonesplay16 August 2016 at 04:48

    I'm curious as to whether the 4.7k tied from the Q1 emitter to ground is what the schematic calls for. It looks like 47k and the ohm sign isn't clear. I don't have any 4.7p caps (who does?) so I just used a link there and this doesn't work with 3x ~50 hfe trannys.

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    1. Zach16 August 2016 at 06:15

      if you look in between the 4 & 7 there's a dot, which means it's 4.7k. that cap is a 47pF cap, so replace the link with the cap made. caught some stupid mistakes, and rechecked some of the cap values, which when i zoomed in appear to be missing a ".", so the caps are 25uF not 2.5uF, and 47uF instead of 4.7uF. the new board should be good to go.

      Delete
  2. Squirrels17 August 2016 at 15:34

    How does this one sound? Couldn't find any demo but I do have a few MP21As that would probably work nicely.

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  3. cjonesplay20 August 2016 at 09:28

    Went back and built this from scratch and it still doesn't work. No sound. I did switch the electros for NPN's, and I got about 1v on the collector of Q1, 3.6v on Q2, and .3v on Q3. As I turned down the attack knob it actually increased the voltage on Q3 collector. Not sure what's going on here.

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  4. Travis20 August 2016 at 18:05

    The cap from Q2 collector to Q3 base should be 47nf instead of 47pf. It looks good to me otherwise, I'll take a closer look

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  5. Travis20 August 2016 at 18:08

    The cap from Q2 base to ground should be 47nf instead of uf

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    1. Ciaran Haslett20 August 2016 at 20:21

      All those caps are labelled kpf. Does the k stand for 1000 x pf? So the input cap would be 10n instead of the veeeeery small 10pf. That makes more sense than all those small values.

      Delete
    2. Zach20 August 2016 at 21:16

      Well ain't that a kick in the old manbits. I thought the idea that those were all straight pf was oddly small. Whelp looks like I'll make those corrections when I get home. At a small psych rock festival at the moment.

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    3. Travis20 August 2016 at 22:50

      Ehh swapping a couple caps is really easy as far as corrections, so it's not bad. The schem is really difficult to read, the only reason I can tell is from looking at a different schem and then of course it's obvious

      Who's playin?

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    4. Zach20 August 2016 at 23:47

      Heavy temple, King buffalo, eye, Kings destroy, snail, Mars red sky, funeral horse, and death alley.

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  6. Travis20 August 2016 at 18:11

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. cjonesplay6 September 2016 at 18:56

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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    1. cjonesplay6 September 2016 at 18:58

      Didn't see Travis's comment about the 47u changed to 47n, maybe that'll kick it into high gear? Will try this later when I get a chance.

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  8. Travis6 September 2016 at 20:11

    Yeah I see Zach changed all of the pf values to nf which is correct, just change that 47uf to 47nf and you'll be good to go

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  9. cjonesplay7 September 2016 at 07:07

    Ok, you can definitely call this verified now. After changing out the cap as Travis mentioned, this one really came to life with the 50 hfe transistors. I'm very pleased because I've never seen a better build that ultilizes these low-hfe guys. I haven't experimented much, either. The first three I put in there sounded fine. Christmas presents for everybody!

    It's a solid fuzz; less smooth than a Tonebender II, more articulate than a Fuzz Face, and some nice sustain and full sound make this a good all-arounder. If you added a BMP tonestack you'd still have enough volume and add some more versatility.

    Check out this video demo I made real quickly:) https://youtu.be/25Ppy-VfoS4

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  10. Travis7 September 2016 at 13:43

    Yo Zach, still gotta change that 47u to 47n :)

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  11. Simon K6 February 2017 at 12:45

    Built this NPN (reversed electrolytics) with some low gain Sanyo 2SD187 transistors, including a super leaky 20hfe for Q1 and it sounds.... pretty good! tried it with MP38's & sounds tight but i kind of prefer the raggedy edge of the Sanyos.
    As stated above, Q2 Base to Ground cap should be 47nF, and I reversed the Attack pot because it made more sense.
    Thank you

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  12. Benoit Meulle-Stef9 January 2022 at 13:11

    worked great with only changing the 47uF to 47nF...

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