Wednesday 11 December 2013

Sam Ash Fuzztainer

MOARRRR FUZZ!! :o)

Here is the Sam Ash Fuzztainer.  It is slightly modded from the original, the transistors suggested are more modern 2N5088 instead of the original 2N5172, power filtering and polarity protection has been added, the bias trimmer has been taken external because of the different tones this will give you, and the output resistor was reduced from 68K to 1K.

These mods were suggested by Jon Patton (midwayfair on our usual forums) and here is his vid of what to me is a great sounding pedal:





26 comments:

  1. what are the 'usual' forums?

    ReplyDelete
  2. The usual ones like the ones mentioned in the text of the site at the top of the page. Freestompboxes, diystompboxes and similar.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow, that was fast! Anytime you need another distraction, let me know, I'll lob something more complicated at you! :D

    ReplyDelete
  4. *whew* I was hoping I'd see another layout before Christmas. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great video and a great sounding pedal, man. Thx

    ReplyDelete
  6. I just built it and it sounds really good so you can tag it verified.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don't you just love quick verifications :) Cheers John!
      +m

      Delete
    2. Do a layout, go to bed, wake up and it's verified. Love it! :o)

      Delete
  7. Great vid and nice sounding fuzz, i'll give it a try
    Thanks for the layout

    ReplyDelete
  8. Built it. Sounds great. I'll add this to my out of control, ever growing pile of fuzzes.Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Also built one, quite a nice sounding easy build. Sounds slightly big muff like at certain settings, and the bias knob can make it sound spitty, at extreme settings I get a very weird effect where there is a small silent pause after each note, very weird. As such, I think this might be a seller, doesn't strike me as particularly interesting.
    Cheers for the layouts as usual, a sterling job chaps.
    Dave

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hallo, I've built this fx but I don't get the sounds from the video, that sustain and attack.. Someone can point me in the right direction? I think problem is the hFe transistors, which hfe gain amount has worked well for you?
    Thank you for these layouts and help!
    Cheers!
    Sergio

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, Sergio, might be easier to trouble shoot on a forum post, but anything with hfe of about 200-600 should be fine, which is most silicon common transistors, but 5088 should all fall in that range. The range of the bias may be a little different depending on the transistors used. If you're not getting any good sounds anywhere on the trimpot, you need to check your voltages and connections.

      Delete
  11. I built one of these and it sounds great but I'm getting some oscillation at the extremes of the tone pot. Time to figure out what I did wrong.,

    ReplyDelete
  12. Well I swapped the 5088s with 3904 and the oscillation has gone away. It sounds great, the decay is interesting and it has good clarity with chords

    ReplyDelete
  13. http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/zz176/Dub-T-123/Mobile%20Uploads/photo_zps02a44893.jpg
    http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/zz176/Dub-T-123/Mobile%20Uploads/photo_zps6470a252.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  14. My pleasure, thanks for the layout. I'll have to start posting more pics here, I've done a LOT of builds from this site

    ReplyDelete
  15. I built this and it sounds like the transistors are improperly biased--it makes a blatty sound if I hit the strings really hard, but otherwise... nothing. It makes some sound when the transistor is just touching the socket, but not pushed in; it's still not the right sound, but its more than before. Any ideas? I don't understand how the bias could be off when the bias knob doesn't seem to do anything. I'm using A10k for the bias pot, I've verified the layout a million times (of course I could still be missing something), I've tried flipping the transistors and putting in new ones, etc. Is there a specific component I should be looking at on the board that could be causing this? I'm new to building so I still don't fully understand what each specific component in a schematic is doing. Could it just be a bad solder joint? Thanks!!

    ReplyDelete
  16. I ended up rebuilding the board and it works great now. Still not sure what was wrong with the old board, but I'm guessing a bad solder joint. This pedal sounds great. I'm glad I didn't give up on it.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Just finished building this and again another great sounding fuzz to add to my collection.

    ReplyDelete
  18. This is a great sounding fuzz!!
    But can anyone enlighten me what the best way would be to reduce minimum gain.
    (I use fuzzes as boosts mostly and mine has a little too much gain at minimum)
    Thanks!
    FZ

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. FernantZeste, the only way would be by lowering the 4k7 resistor that connects the fuzz1 to ground, try something like 1k. It will not be as clean as a clean boost, and the pedal should still not clean up with the volume knob like a fuzz face, as it normaly doesnt do. But this will reduce the signal going into the circuit in the minimum position, woth a try! Sorry about some possible bad english, im brazilian!

      Delete
  19. Im in love with this fuzz!! I have built it with the schematics posted in a blog, i think the same Mark used! and did some mods my self, tested several transistors, 5088s, 3904, 2n222a, but the best to my ears, and guitar and amp of course, was the bc549B! Fucking great!! the bc549Cs or As didnt sound to good as well, the HFE range for this circuit is something in between 200 and 350, it prefers the low gain silicon, i think that was the range the original 2n5172 had back in the day.

    ReplyDelete