Here Come the Hot Pink Jets: A V Fuzz build report

[lincolnic]

Ever since I heard Brian Eno's "Here Come the Warm Jets" for the first time, I've been on a quest for that guitar tone. I'd occasionally forget about it, but after a few years I stumbled upon the info that he had used the WEM Project V for that song (and all the fuzz parts on his early records). I knew I had to have one. I tried building the vero layout from FSB, but it failed to properly fire up and I haven't gotten around to fixing it yet.

Enter twin1965 and his V Fuzz boards. I'd been hoping someone would make a PCB for this circuit, and since my vero build was in sitting in dry dock, I jumped on the chance when he offered the boards for sale.

Luckily for me, this build fired up without any issues at all. I used some NOS BC108Bs from Small Bear, because that's what was in the original (and also because they look cool). I put it into a hot pink enclosure, because an effect this intense needs an equally intense box.

Two gaffes: my footswitch hole accidentally got drilled just slightly off-center, and I melted the corner of a trimmer while soldering in the attack pot. Whoops.

I will say that this pedal features my best wiring to date. It's not impressive by the standards of this forum, but I took my time to keep it clean and organized, and I got results. It's not often that you get to see noticeable progress in your own skills, but this feels like a good step forward for me. The input sleeve wiring was inspired by Juan and Cleggy.

Here it is, in all its pink glory:





After years of searching, I've finally got a sound I've been chasing. It's very, very satisfying. I was so excited that I went and recorded a quick clip of the riff that inspired the whole tone quest. It's sloppily played, and recorded DI into Pro Tools, but I A/B'd it against the record and it's actually pretty damn close. (I also triple-tracked it to get closer to the album, which sounds like it has at least two or three guitars playing the riff.)

Dropbox link because I couldn't get SoundCloud working, sorry: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/33143162/HCTWJ.mp3

Massive thanks to twin1965 for making these PCBs and helping me put this thing to bed. Sometimes, if you're lucky, you really can get what you want.

[jubal81]

Tight build! Sounds really great, too - very unique!

[kothoma]

Always wondered, too. He fuzz, U fuzz, V Fuzz. Fine demo.

[twin1965]

Nice build  Got to get myself a pink enclosure!

Good demo too. I think you nailed the sound on that track.

I'm so glad that you liked the PCB and that it helped you achieve the 'sound' that you were after. It certainly is a unique fuzz. Glitchy - almost synthy - but quite versatile.

And don't worry, build accidents do happen. I managed to destroy one of the switches whilst tightening the nut 

[lincolnic]

Thanks so much, everyone! Let me say again how happy I am with this sound.

Nice build  Got to get myself a pink enclosure!

Good demo too. I think you nailed the sound on that track.

In case anyone's curious, the settings for that demo were volume around 2 o'clock, attack around 4-4:30, both switches down.

I'm so glad that you liked the PCB and that it helped you achieve the 'sound' that you were after. It certainly is a unique fuzz. Glitchy - almost synthy - but quite versatile.

And don't worry, build accidents do happen. I managed to destroy one of the switches whilst tightening the nut 

Tough break! Nothing like having to desolder a whole switch to inspire extreme care next time. For better or worse, most of my build accidents are drilling errors...I haven't had to scrap an entire enclosure yet, but I have had to save a few by doing some creative filing. And I'll occasionally melt the corner of a box cap like I did with the trimpot here. But yeah, I was surprised at how versatile this fuzz turned out to be. There are a number of useful sounds in there!

Thank you again for making these PCBs! If you ever do another run of them, I'll gladly buy another.

[Bret608]

I've been away on vacation for a couple of weeks so didn't see this until now. Congrats! It looks and sounds great. Pink was the right choice. I still need to get mine built up and hope to do so soon.

[lincolnic]

I've been away on vacation for a couple of weeks so didn't see this until now. Congrats! It looks and sounds great. Pink was the right choice. I still need to get mine built up and hope to do so soon.

Thanks Bret, can't wait to see yours!