DAM Fuzzsound

Here's four different versions of the DAM Fuzzsound, all of which are a mix of the MKIII & MKIV Tonebender.

From the captain:

Fuzz Sound MKIV (used to be badged as the MKIII) Basically a pimped out version of the Tone Bender MKIII and MKIV but with more tonal scope, more muscle and packing space age features.
First up, a few quick words on the differences between a Tone Bender MKIII and a MKIV. They do both use the same circuit blue print if you will but there are subtle and noticeable differences to each pedal in the tone department. Without over complicating matters, as I do what to get to the point, the Sola Sound made MKIII and the MKIV basically sound of their time. The early MKIII's sound fuzzy and choppy, later MKIV's sound smooth and distorted. Then there's a blurry line in the middle. Basically the biasing evolved to the point that the pedal became more overdriven than fuzzy. Ya know, I guess, to suit the needs of Musicnauts of the day.
The FS-75 is the blurry line in the middle and some. It's not a direct replica of either but the flavour I have gone for is an all out balls to the wall, big hair, big boobs, fat cars, fast food, dirty denim, dirty hippies, 8-track stereo cranking, 3-D glasses rocking fuzz tone. To quote, its: "1970 rollin' in sight"

Btw, yes it does bass

Fuzzsound FS-75 Jr

 Fuzzsound MKIII

Fuzzsound Black on Black

Fuzzsound R&G

DAM Buzzotron

I was just reminded of this one on FSB and although there are already vero layouts available, I thought it was worth adding to the library for the sake of completeness.  Positive ground so watch the daisy chaining or try the voltage inverter.

David Main's words:

"This circuit is a little different to a stock Buzzaround. You can still nail those Crimson tones with ease but this Buzzotron circuit will give you a little extra extension of frequency range and a little more of a tailored fuzz tone. The hand selected original transistors will have very much the same character and tone of the original pedal. Giving you great tonal break-up and control from truly ear splitting high gain to garage-y overblown decay!"

DAM FZ-781 J Type Fuzz

Thanks to beedotman for the schematic on FSB.  This uses a 4 position rotary switch to swap the output cap, but none of the values used in the switch are confirmed, so as usual with anything like this it's a much better idea to use the values which suit your taste and gear better anyway rather than someone elses choice so I'd consider auditioning them and keeping the ones you think are most useful for you.  It is intended that the caps are soldered directly to the rotary switch as shown in the diagram but you could extend the board by a few columns, solder them there and take wires to the switch if you prefer.

With this being a positive ground effect like the FZ-673 posted yesterday, some people may prefer to use a negative voltage inverter for both to provide -9V to allow this to be daisy chained with negative ground effects.

I can't find an official description for this pedal which I'm assuming was one of DAM's limited runs.  But it sounds pretty good in this vid:

DAM FZ-673

Request.  Info about the hugely expensive final price "can only buy in limited numbers from eBay auction" David Main take on the MK1/ Zonk (7 out of 10 of which are probably in glass cases and haven't been plugged in yet).

I am the fuzz box system demon ~ FZ-673

The beginning. I’ve been brewing this thought for a while and a few favours owed made it finally manifest. In fuzz box terms I guess this is an embodiment of old school and new school, or at least an attempt there of. Basically, the FZ-673 circuit is the Zonk Machine/Tone Bender MKI circuit with a few subtle tweaks to try and make what is a pair of clown sized dinosaur shoes into some kind of laser beam driven UFO controlled fuzz device.
The simple new happenings are, the addition of a tone filter, a boost in output volume and gain plus your handy modern day fixtures of an status LED, battery drawer and DC tap.
The one grander thing I’d been messing around with since I was doing the Holy Roller (the D*A*M MKI style fuzz box circa 2004) was to get that particular circuit to yield not only a lot of gain at full-bore but also to be able to deal out some elements of clean-up and ability to lay down a tone that one would almost describe as an overdrive tone. In essence I was scrubbing out all the heavy decay and choppy gated artefacts that generally occur with this circuit type leaving the user with a purer fuzz tone. I would like to boldly declare this is what you get in the FZ-673. The best of everything, High gain, instant clean-up, but, this fucker needs to be stable, as in, warm. Feeling hot hot hot? Its not like you’d need to keep it on a heat mat or have a hot water bottle permanently gaffer taped to the enclosure but you will hear a significant move in gain in colder climates. It’s nothing that would cause any major headaches but it is a common theme with original MKI circuit types, to hear shifts in the output due to heat, and I do need to mention this point.
I’m basically saying, this pedal will give you op-amp quality overdrive like smoothness but with all the complex glory and freaky exhaled responsiveness of a primitive germanium fuzz circuit…but, only when its been let to adjust to its environment. I’m over emphasizing this point I know and I’m mainly talking about when the pedal is either first unpacked or say moved between different climates or environments.

Popping buttons

The controls are pretty straight forward but there are a few things that need to be understood. The Swell is basically your volume control but its nature is different to a regular your volume adjuster. At around the noon mark it tames a lot of the high end content you’ll hear when you have the filter set to full treble (fully dialled to the left) Inching past noon, and more obviously in the last quarter of the turn, the Swell will really push the gain and overall saturation levels and deliver you a pretty fierce fuzz tone, once the Fuzz control set wide open. The Fuzz control is a lot more ‘normal’ in its delivery of tones and the amount of sustain it lays down than a stock Zonk Machine Fuzz control would offer you. You have a pretty decent gradual increase from chunkiness to full-on fuzziness and little in the way of dead spots. Zonk’s can be either all on nothing at times in this regard. Temperature extremes will affect this dial usage too. A cold winter’s day and the Fuzz dial will need maximising for the full-on fuzz experience. Baking in a sunnier environment and set at full Fuzz the FZ-673 will be stripping paint.
Filter is just that. Nothing overblown just a very crude, but at times pretty damn effective dial for tuning your guitar and/or amp the FZ-673’s circuit. Pick-up type seems to really come into play here and more obviously so cabinet size. P-90’s respond really well and lay down a healthy jumbo sized thick tone with the Filter pushed open. An open sounding mid gain single coil (P-90’s get my vote) seems to do the do and with spare change.

Made from Stars

The construction style you’ll find somewhat familiar. I dig it so I dug it. Only the second time I’ve used a two layer graphic and I’m pretty stoked with the results. It’s pretty new in that regard. The theme? I was aiming to manifest a sci-fi kinda thing, got pretty close I think. FZ = Fuzz. 67 = 1967, the (guestimated year) of the main study Zonk. 73 = Year of Enter the Dragon…and Black Mama, White Mama…irrelevant shit to finish of the name to be honest. I actually wanted to make the finished item to appear almost toy like, kinda like it was made from Lego or something along those lines. The original plan was to use red chicken heads but I think the boundaries of good taste with a dose of humour had been exceeded in that case.

Transistors. Military shit all the way. The Motorola OC75’s I was told were ex-military stock so I combined those with CV7004’s (the military version of the OC45). The little fat UFO style cans of the Motor 75’s had the tone and looks and I thought it made cool and some what geeky change to the usual suspects. I threw in some old school flavours with the capacitors too as to top that whole vibe off…and of course makes it all tastes betterer.

1-Knob Fuzz Bonanza

Request. This is just to add the requested Black Arts Toneworks Ritual Fuzz to the library, but i just couldn't resist rewriting Dr. Tony Balls' "Universal One-Knob Silicon Fuzz Layout" and adding the Black Arts' version of this classic to it. So here are 5 currently known adaptations of the almighty 1-Knobber. Adventurous minds could swap the values and get theit own flavour in there.. Simple and small. I sense small box fuzzes coming... :P

Edit. Oops.  I made a tiny error on the original layout. Lower electrolytic, the Q2 bypass cap, needs to be minus to ground.. Layout fixed. Should work fine, but the cap will probably die a lot sooner if it is in reverse. Now fixed...

D*A*M Gravity Isolator

D*A*M 1966 compact version

Request. For Vince.

DAM FR70 FuzzRong

Info from David Main about his original:

We begin with a re-cap. The FR-69, our take on the early bird Mosrite Fuzzrite. The germanium powered glass shattering freak show. As stated on the page for said pedal my only real interest there was because of the awesomeness of Ron Asheton and the Stooges. In other words, there is no real nerd obsession with the pedal itself. Thanks to a trip to London a visit to a Soho's Original Bookshop and the discovery of Robert Matheu's outstanding book on the Stooges I think it maybe wise to dispel the "Ron used a Fuzzrite" myth once and for all, that is until someone shows me a picture of Ron actually using one.
Robert's fine book has several fine shots that clearly show Ron actually using a Vox Tone Bender. Other photographic material that can be sourced on the internets show Ron with what appears to be a Marshall Supa Fuzz. Either way, it ain't no Fuzzrite. In a nutshell and in my head at least. Dig the early Stooges fuzz tone? Get high, get a Vox. Simple.

So what has this gotta do with the FR-70? Not a damn thing. Just explaining what we ain't doing here. So this new Fuzzrong is...? Outta the whole Ed Sanner family of pedals and the different versions produced the one I always had a genuine soft spot for were those made with the freaky little orange encapsulated Sprague circuits. Louder, chewier and with mightier balls. I've always been fond of the general sickly thickness and the almost psychedelic nature they seem to have. This is basically our salute to the those funky little orange packages of filthy fun.

Operation scratch 'n' sniff

Like with all good workings it began with a sacrifice. An offering to the Fuzz God. The pre-selected healthy young virgin was carefully dissected to reveal the inner workings and the bounteous gifts of the unknown. With much suffering and toil the knowledge of the highest degree was gained. Our dissected orange goddess became the starting block for what you see here. The FR-70 is not a direct clone but and very gentle tuck and re-shape. It's difficult to generalize too much as the Sprague modules were not or at least don't appear to be 100% identical tonally when in use. Like with any discrete fuzz circuit you will always have some play or movement in the delivered fuzz tone. The sacrificial lamb was an example I found particularly pleasing. The gentle refinements then move it into a somewhat more balanced state that aid reproduction for a more modern parts selection.
Constructed like her greasy twin sister the FR-70 uses the same methods of assembly and the same principles of design as the GB-83. Specially selected silicon devices are the foundation to the whole circuit. Very precise gain levels had to be matched and then reproduction to achieve the desired balance in tone. The same detail is then applied to the whole pedal. Basically every component and part is selected for overall sound quality and performance.

Psychedelic goose fat

So the tones from within the tin. The first thing to note compared to the FR-69 is that the overall operation is more stable. The gain spread on the Depth control is much more even with a greater extension of the mid and low frequencies. The general position that the FR-70 takes is an offering of tones that are situated in the low mids with a punched out boost over into the highs. It's not quite scooped as such but a subtle high and low kick is dB boost is apparent. The gain and sustain levels are also more stable and maybe more user friendly. For example, the FR-70 is not a screamer from the get-go. Again something shared with the GB-83 is that you have to put the work in and use the right gear to get to your destination. The FR-70 does have the where with all to get fatty and rancid with some pleasing fuzzed-out compression but the subtleties are also an important factor in my head so the ability to draw pretty flowers with trails of magic dust is there for the taking too. I guess like the GB-83 it is somewhat tool like. It is a fuzz generator but you have to give it the instructions. Not quite a blank canvas as such but fully able to work with and around you. It's sick & rong but only as much as you are, my dears.

Compact layout:

Mojo layout:

DAM Grease Box

Dave's blurb:

So any huw. The Grease Box. It is at heart, a MKIII/MKIV Tone Bender. Its bare bones and the circuit blue print are very Tone Bendery. The idea here was very simple indeed. What if Colorsound still made the Tone Bender MKIV in 1981. What would that sound like?

Okay so, gibberish aside. The Grease Box is a fuzz box that thinks it’s an overdrive. It has a lot of midrange cut and a good amount of clarity. It is responsive to pick attack so comes over as quite dynamic for a fuzz box. You’re not gonna get the transparency of a TS-808 or other such things; it is a fuzz box at heart. Remember that. It’s kinda like a Distortion + and extra gooey Tone Bender MKIV meeting somewhere in the middle. The ‘Level’ control has a linear taper so retains a good dose of the highs as it’s rolled off. The ‘Overdrive’ control will darken the tone somewhat as it’s rolled back. The nature of how both of these controls react will give you a lot more scope than you’d think from a two knob fuzz box. It’s Greasy, ay.

Compact layout:

 

Mojo layout:

DAM Meathead with switchable caps

This was a request from one of our members.  I wondered what the best method would be to do this, maybe using a 3 position 4 pole rotary switch, but I think this method by far gives you the most versatility.

With both 3 position switches in the centre off position, the Meathead stock values (10n & 22n) will be in circuit.  When selections are made, the selected cap value is summed with the stock value to give a wide variety of stock up to Meathead Dark tones.  You will have 10n, 22n or 43n for the input switch, and 22n, 69n or 122n for the output switch.  Swap the caps to suit your own tastes if you like things a bit more or a bit less dark.  It may be worth building the board and then breadboarding the cap selection part to make it ideal for you.

With the board only being 10 columns wide this is totally do-able in a 1590A.  Let's see who's brave enough! :o)

After a conversation below it and doing a few calculations, it seems that the change of output cap for the Meathead Dark was irrelevant as the frequency cut by the standard 22n output cap was already lower than the lowest frequency on the guitar.  With that in mind, this version may be more useful offering a post gain bass cut.  In the centre position with just the 220p in circuit it will be a very lo-fi effect because much of the mids and all the bass will be cut.  In the 22n position you will get a full bass output, and in the 1n position there will be some bass cut which may be useful for cleaning things up a bit.

DAM Ezekiel 25-17

David Main's description:

"And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you."

Be afraid....be very afraid! This monstrosity has so much bottom end it will surely move the planets from their celestial homes! 

Cool!

More appropriately spaced diodes and LEDs as requested :o)

 

Rotary wiring:

 

DAM Drag'n'Fly

Another one requested by a few people.  I did a tagboard layout a couple of years ago but it was based on an incorrect schematic so I pulled it and have been meaning to do this one for a while now.

Compact version

Customary mojo version

DAM Sonic Titan with modified tone stack

A few people don't like the tone control on the Sonic Titan, so this is a modification based on Skinpimp's Sonic Samurai.  Apart from the tone stack modifications, all the other Titan components and values remain true to the original.

DAM Sonic Titan

I did a mojo axial layout for this a while ago and wanted a more compact layout too, so here it is.  If anyone wants the axial version let me know and I'll dig it out and post it as well.

 

And one for DSG pinout JFETs such as the 2N5457, 2N5458 or J201

DAM Meathead Deluxe

A few people have requested this so I thought I'd get one put together.  Based on my previous layout but with some obvious differences due to component changes.

And a mojo version for those who prefer it

Video of Geiri's build:

DAM Super Bee

One requested by fx40b and including two layouts, one compact and one for DAM type axial mojo goodness!  This isn't yet verified and so if you make it successfully then please let us know.

DAM Red Rooster vero layout

For fx40b, one of the sites senior testers! :o)

This one is confirmed, enjoy

DAM Meathead

Info about the original:

The Meathead. Often imitated, never surpassed. Little box, big idea. Caveman style fuzz tones for killing dinosaurs. Crank it up and hit that switch. Ka-pow! The flavour is thick and raw with a throaty woody bark. Optimum clarity and saturation are delivered with a long syrupy sustain at mountainous volumes. The bass to treble response is perfectly balanced for a heavy but dynamic fuzz tone that will project as well as it can saturate. A most excellently low background noise is achieved through careful transistor selection and biasing which further enforces the Meathead's fluid and articulate sonic capabilities.

Control

Just the one. Even through the Meathead has only one control different tones can be achieved. As the Dirt control is increased the signal not only becomes louder but slightly more saturated. Unity with your clean tone will be reached around noon thus giving you a great deal of volume boosting and drive capabilities. Lowering the guitars volume control will make the overall tone fizzier and increase the treble response.
Start out the Dirt control set at noon and increase or decrease as necessary. The greater headroom your amplifier has the greater the amount of volume boost the Meathead will deal out. The Meathead will also respond well to dirty or driven amplifiers. Used like this the Meathead will increase in intensity as the Dirt control is increased.

More compact version:

 
(kit is for the larger layout with an axial filter cap)

DAM Fleshhead

.. and a few more

9 to 18V (ish) converter

DAM 1966

LofoMofo




Rangemaster NPN