Over-tweaking those fuzzes - when is enough?

[Cortexturizer]

There's a pattern I've been under for quite some time.

I build a fuzz. Whether it is a fuzz face [some of you know that I am a giant sucker for those], a muff, a superfuzz, a colorsound of some sort, it doesn't matter.

Then that fuzz starts sounding AMAZING.

After a while, and that can be anywhere between a couple of seconds to a couple of weeks, I start tweaking the fuzz. I try all sorts of biasing, capacitor mods, different transistors, the desoldering at this stage is destroying my board [which is always vero for fuzzes or a self-etched PCB sometimes], I start burning components.

Next stage is - dissatisfaction with the "tweaked" sound. Now I want that first sound to re-appear and I want my board to be tidy and clean like it was in the first place.

Final stage - fuzz death and abandonment. I cannot get the sound I was getting in the first place without tweaking no matter what I do. At this stage I am not sure what I have burned, and is the returning to ground zero even worth it, or should I make and populate the board again. Then I get sick of the tweaking and decide that I need a break from the circuit. Urge to kill, rising.

Last time it happened was last night.

I built this Sola Sound Tone Bender MK IV [it's strange that I was never into benders, and fuzz faces go hand in hand with those]



I wasn't aware that I ordered a 600V 220nF cap, so I left it in there, just for laughs haha.

And for a moment the Bender sounded like the craziest, lushest, gainiest Ge overdrive/fuzz that I have ever heard.
Now, it sounds like ****. And I am sick of it. The rage is even bigger because this is such a simple circuit right. Will take a couple of days away from it and then return.
I destroyed it partially because I tried to get the voltages that no one can get out of a MK IV    It was only later, after I already went through all the stages, that I realized that I got fantastic voltages in the first place.

Do any of you go through a similar scenario? 

[DutchMF]

I've got a Mudbunny board with nothing but sockets, thinking I would, in time and with loads of experimenting, end up with the perfect Muff..... Needless to say that didn't happen, so I feel your pain! Still a lot of fun though, and very educational! I did learn a lot about transistors, diodes, and the Muff tone control, but still haven't decided what is the best Muff for me. And don't let my wife hear that....

Paul

[GermanCdn]

I had/have the same problem, so what I've ended up doing is building one stock (the control unit), and one with sockets on all of the most common moddable parts.   Little more expensive way of doing it, but results in at least one workable solution.  Once I find the arrangement I like best I tack solder the components into the sockets.

[DutchMF]

That's exactly the way I intended to do it! Didn't work out though...

[midwayfair]

Wait, you mod them instead of just building more?

Anyway, the GermanCdn's solution is an excellent one. Socket the important stuff on a secondary build (transistors, critical bias resistors, and filtering caps), and you can tinker to your heart's content, all the while having a great one to compare the changes with.

[juansolo]

Yup, always build a second if you want to tweak, then you have a baseline to compare your tweakage to.

[selfdestroyer]

Wait, you mod them instead of just building more?

That is exactly my problem.. I end up making doubles or triples. lol

[Cortexturizer]

Haha no I always build only one, I mean...so much projects on the to-do list who has the time and the means to build so much stuff?!?
This Bender that I am building it really behaves...I mean one second it sounds like a beast that cleans up better than any Bender I have ever heard, and the next moment it sounds like crap. That was from a testing session last night.
I bought the parts to do a secondary build today, will report on progress.

[Cortexturizer]

Haven't done a secondary build, but completed this one.
Brought much more tonal options to the table, and did some huge twists on the sound, I like it so much that I think it's the best OD/Fuzz I have built so far. Works equally well with buckers and single coils into a super clean amp. The only fuzz that to me sounded good into a super clean amp was and still is the Pharaoh.

This pedal utilizes a two stage cap blending solution, the controls are Bass and Grit. By crancking the Grit control this can sound like a Big Muff.
I have never heard a bender circuit that could clean up this nicely. This cleans as well as my FF circuits do.

I am over the moon with this as you can see, as soon as I box it up, you can expect a build report, a schematic including my tweaks, and a full demo on several guitars.

Cheers!