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If you don't solder, only do the things you should do are those that don't require you to physically alter the circuit:

1) Tape off your battery clip if you aren't using it so that it doesn't short against something. They sell covers for these things if you want it to look pretty, but electrical tape is fine.

2) See how the board is shoved forward in the enclosure, hear the plastic bit inside of the power plug? Good way for something to short. You can affix the board to the back of the potentiometers with double-sided sticky tape or bluetack. If you find that the circuit comes back to life when you do this, toss it around a bit just to be sure and to make sure your sticky tape is holding. Then tell Grant that if he's going to use wire leads instead of board-mounted pots (despite using the board-mounted pot-sized pads on his PCB) that he needs a way to keep the board from moving around in the enclosure, especially in a 125B with short caps, and especially when his power supply jack location is so close to multiple ground pads.

Thanks Midway.  I think you'll be interested to know that when the back plate is screwed on, it pushes against the circuit and probably holds it in place.  I'm not sure if this will maintain safety in the circuit, it's just a fact.  Upon first open one of the components was bent, probably due to this, so I just gently bent it back.

I still check in on your youtube from time to time BTW.  We need some new videos. 

I have tried to contact Big Ear NYC almost 2 weeks ago about my Dead Loaf Fuzz (comes with a lifetime warranty) and haven't gotten a response yet. 

Maybe I can fix it myself even though I've never soldered in my life? I'll try to explain what's happening with My Loaf:)

When I power it on with either my one spot or a battery it gives me a boosted / powered clean signal that's damp and muffled, and either louder / quieter depending on there the volume knob is at.

The tone knob appears to work as well as the volume knob, but the overall tone of this powered clean sound is muffled more than usual.

The problem is the fuzz knob. It's totally clean until the knob is maxed and then suddenly it goes from totally clean to fully maxed fuzz.

Here's a photo of the pedal in question below and thanks to anyone reading this.

Cheers.

Not sure it had been suggested already in the other thread you had but I find that the Colorsound Overdriver gets pretty close to what I hear on that recording, especially going into a slightly overdriven amp (or slightly overdriven overdrive)

BTW I have always loved that performance. Ronnie Lane's singing at beginning in particular always gives me the shivers ...

Thanks.

Yeah, the overdriver has been suggested much in the past.  Here's the scoop on my current situation.  I've moved way out in the sticks where I couldnt even buy a new DS1 without driving possibly 2 1/2 hours.  So when I search for an overdriver on youtube and theres this compressed overdriver video with a guy playing leads on a strat with the pedal cranked (hypothetical) I'm not really hearing the vibe.

There has to be something there though with this suggestion popping up so frequently.

Can attest to the physical impact hand-making large quantities of PCBs has on the body. I used a mask most all the time and still had some issues with dust, etc. The biggest impact for me was actually drilling...it does a serious number on the body when you drill boards many, many hours of the week. I remember clearly at the time I decided to go to manufactured boards I thought - I wonder how much longer until Barry does the same - because I could tell it was deteriorating my own health.

Glad to see you around here Barry, and I'm very sorry to hear about your health concerns. I hope that will turn around on you. The body can heal itself pretty well when given the chance so I hope that comes to pass for you as well.

this seems to be your 6666th post.  just pointing that out.

Can I get an "heck yah" for my two young ones 13 and 14 doing a nice segment of Pink Floyd in the video posted earlier in the thread?
Considering what most average kids love to do these days, as well as the music scene I think that deserves a proper "Atta  Kids".   
I will be sure to share with them....

Well since I am on a new page now, here it is again for viewing ease:

heck yeah.

if you can squeeze a silverface champ into a pedal that's what you'll be looking for. doesn't take long to spot that in the video ... the cost of that jhs pedal would have had you most of the way to buying one. drawback is you play dimed.

Pretty sure that's a NR Princeton.  There is The Silver Bee, it sounds like a Silverface, but nothing like this.  Thanks for chiming in

Responded from my site. Might want to check Junk mail?

i got ziltch, nada, zip.  gmail, gpcb, and here.  your daughter plays, lucky.....

I was wondering what the extra resistor there was for.  I was looking at it a few minutes ago. Love the circuit, I'll have to Troy out your version.

Thanks I should have mentioned we changed some capacitors as well but that is more out of habit than a need. We always keep the audio path free of electrolytic capacitors as a standard and sometimes you just run into things that mathematically do not make sense. Anyway people should try this on Bass as well for that same fuzzed out Bass part in the same song at the beginning. Bu dunna.. ba dunna.. ba dunna.. ba dunna etc...

Thanks all you people for posting.  This place is awesome.  I've sent some PM's, I'm not sure it's working right for I'm pretty lame when it comes to this new forum technique of PM versatile button mashing.  So check those PM's boys, including you Barry  

I just finished a GuitarPCB 4-track Fuzz that might put you in the right territory.  Barry's demo is a little on the heavy handed side and the pedal is capable of much more subtle stuff but the fact that he's playing the same tune isn't coincidence.

I really like it, although I've yet to try it out on my live rig.

OMG.  So glad I made this thread.  Found that video and it seems to be all there.  The focused high-end, that "scratchiness" and articulation.  I've even gone through my own Tascam 4-Track and it sounded horrible.  Of course as you said, in the video, it's played heavy and hard, but I'm very excited and thank you so much. 

As I said, I'm not handy with a solder iron, any suggestions on finding a completed GuitarPCB 4-track Fuzz (that sounds like that) or having one commissioned without being too intrusive?

And thanks again for your post.  It's mighty appreciated  

Hi,

I started a thread here 3 years ago about achieving Ron Woods gain type (in this live video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrOPJXrUWII) with a pedal. 

JakeFuzz, midwayfair, pedalman, jubal81, alanp, and other had all generously chimed in and were very helpful with suggestions, but the reality is that I've tried many different things and I don't feel I've nailed it.  I know the main factor in his sound is his right hand.  The pedal shop is currently all out of Ron Wood's right hand, but I have a very similar playing style, my songs may be different, but the rhythm is all there and I have that attack. 

Right now I'm playing a Greco Zemaitis (Japan) Gen2 into a Tungsten Buckwheat going first into a EHX Germanium OD with volts and bias set low, fed into a JHS Colour Box (taken me years to save up for this crap while working at a gas station) and I just crank the master and treble on colour box while keeping the gain stage / type pretty low and adding bass to taste.

This gets pretty damn close.  There's quite a few threads started by people on the net inquiring on how to achieve this sound with no real solid conclusions that I can see (and I've read them ALL).  So hopefully this thread, in the future can serve to at least give people the EXH GE OD/ Colour Box Formula (I know....  JHS).  I'm quite confident this recipe will come closer to this sound than perhaps what they're looking into at the moment.

So....  It's been 3 years since posting here asking for help.  I figure maybe somethings popped up of somethings been discovered.  I must admit here that I've never even touched a solder gun.  I posted here because I have this idea that pedal builders may have a more finely tuned ear when it comes to gain type, sustain (or lack of) and EQ.  Pretty sure I'm right.

NOTE*  I have yet to try a GE Fuzz Face as was suggested 3 years ago.

Anyways, thanks to all fore being here and letting me chime in.

EDIT*  Just because it's too good not to post:

     

thanks mattlee.  i just shot out an email asking somebody to do just this. 

I got a great dirt pedal here and have never worked on a pedal in my life.  I thought I would ask you guys exactly what needs to be done and ask somebody local to do it for me.  I'm hoping different pots for the dirt and volume may do the trick...  All I want to be able to do is dial the gain back another 50% and increase the volume by 50% to compensate.  I would like not to change the tonal characteristics too much if possible.  Thanks.

The 9N3 Pot is the Gain Pot.

Being a rhythm player who uses fuzz is a nightmare.  Everything that sounds good to me has too much gain on tap for my needs.

Picture link below:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/theholdsteady/12482484983/

Thanks Paul:

fet drive:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YV5e2S27tL4

scratchy snatch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1Ohs_9rFPo

Behold The Ron Wood RW-F Treble Booster:  http://www.treblebooster.net/rwf.html

And the one video (one guy, 2 videos) on youtube of it, and it ain't pretty:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtmoY-jbPvA

I emailed the builder, see what happens....

That is definitely the fuzzy drive that comes from a cranked champ. My clone can get me that sound but it is always loud as hell 

To me that sound is a little more ragged and bright than what you will get out of a fuzz face and has much less gain than what you would get out of a MKII bender. As Jon mentioned there are a few tweaks you could make to the FF to get you closer to that sound. I would also recommend trying a small (10nF to 1uF) capacitor in parallel with the Q2 emitter resistor (1K). This rolls off low end as the fuzz knob is turned down to prevent the normal dulling you get with the gain below max. A full Ge FF may have too much bottom end and you may want to try a hybrid with a Ge in Q1 and an Si in Q2. You could also build a MKII and run it with the volume knob on your guitar turned down (or an input volume control). This has that bright overdriven fuzz sort of sound you might be looking for.

It does sound to me like you are looking for more of an FET preamp model tone (as has been mentioned). I cannot recommend the SFT (@ 18V of course) enough. Ive built 3 and they all sound great. There are many different FET drives out there but I have only built four of them so someone may have a better overall idea of the whole range. I think the Tweed 57 is going to be the closest for what you are going for as far as the EQ goes but you may want to test different ones through your amp.

You could go and build a low (or full  ) plate voltage tube drive but I feel like a lot of THAT sound comes from non-linearities after the preamp. Especially that fuzziness in my small single ended amps (which is why it is always blasting loud when it sounds so cool).

Two other recommendations I can make are the Les Lius and the Blackstone MOSFET overdrive. The les lius has that lower gain ragged drive sound (it was marketed by Lovepedal as a Tweed amp emulator). It might be a little less gain than you are looking for but it is definitely worth a try IMO if you can find one (it is super simple to build too though). The MOSFET OD has a really interesting sound that sounds similar to preamp overdrive but darker. It was a little more smooth IIRC than what you may be going for but I think a few EQ tweaks could get you there.

I think I've made it more confusing now  sorry about that! And sorry for the delay; i've been on vacation and away from a computer these last two weeks.

Thanks again Paul,

After soaking in your post and going off in that direction, I stumbled onto Richard from Monsterpiece who has some interesting things that are very similar to what you're talking about.  Very interesting FF builds and so fourth.  I went ahead and dropped him a line and eagerly awaiting his response. 

I just hope it's nothing along the lines of "You want that sound?......." followed by, "the only thing to do is to get your hands on a '68 SF Princeton and a '69 Dan Armstrong".