"Lord of the Naga" fuzz-drive (irmcdermott Fuzzball content!)

[Bret608]

This is my first build report in a long time. I figured I better make it a good one!

So, I give you the "Lord of the Nagas" fuzz-drive ("Phayaa Naak" in Thai). This is irmcdermott's Fuzzball circuit. This build has the stamp of this great community all over it. First off, it was Ian himself who responded to my post in the Requests section. But not only did he take a crack at the layout; he also etched a board and sent it to me to verify! Next, eldanko was a tremendous help in helping me realize my vision for the graphics, taking a good half-day of emails back and forth to help me with some finer points of Illustrator. Also, the color scheme was very much jacked from his Tri-Force Chorus! It was me who brought the language skills to the table, though.    Lastly, I seem to remember Pickdropper helping me figure out how to render a diode symbol in a vector format.

Anyway, this is a loud, explosive overdrive/fuzz that you will find is very much in the same sonic universe as the Cosmopolitan. I used a 2n1306 with an hfe of 147 for the germanium (low leakage). I went with a 1n270 and a 1n4148 for the diodes. I think it has a livelier upper midrange attack than the Cosmo, but it can't get as much bass due to a lack of something like the shape control. I hope some other folks will try this build--it's very worth the time! Feel free to hit me with questions.

For background, the name doesn't refer to the Naga chili pepper like the Catalinbread pedal. Rather, it's the Naga water serpent of Thai/Lao/Khmer folk religion. I guess this build was a way to bring some less-commonly-used parts of my skill set into conversation with one another.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us



Uploaded with ImageShack.us



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[jkokura]

You're going to have to translate that pedal for anyone who ever looks at your pedalboard in the future.

Jacob

[Bret608]

No way, dude! Foreign language mystery=mojo 

Just teasing, of course. This was actually somewhat of a challenge, since even in Thailand there aren't exactly locally made pedals with Thai script on them.

So for volume, I went with "dang" (loud), and for distortion I did "sokaprok" (dirty). Incidentally, this last one is one of the best words from any language, ever.

For the diode switch, I did "pit" and "pert", literally closed and open. These are the colloquial terms used for off and on switches.

[Bret608]

Jacob, I forgot to say--I noticed you've done a Keeley layout or two in the past. This might be one to think about for a fabbed board if you like the sound.

[jkokura]

Closed and open are common outside western cultures. I remember the first time I heard someone (from Africa I believe) tell me to close the lights. I was like, "wha?"

Jacob

[Bret608]

That's funny, I had thought it was just a Lao/Thai thing or something. My wife says open and close the lights that way all the time even though she grew up in the states. Codeswitching is some fascinating stuff.

[eldanko]

This thing came out GREAT. Excellent execution all around!!

[Bret608]

Thanks Dane! Couldn't have realized my vision for this as fully without your help.