Monday, 17 July 2023

Fuzzhead Fx Barbarian Fuzz

 I dug out my breadboard to clear some thoughts and played around a bit. Well, I ended up with one of my top 3 fuzz circuits, Roland Double Beat. It is perfect as is, just added some minor filtering here and there. But the stock Double Beat rotary switch tonestack sucked IMO so I just tacked on the tonestack from Apocalypse Audio H Fuzz which very versitale and simple. Now this is a angry doom machine.

Got no name for it but listened to some Electric Wizard tune Barbarian the other day so...let's call it Barabarian Fuzz, ok?

ATM, the MOJO layout is verified but not the small one.




 

 


 


30 comments:

  1. Hm I built the compact layout but with flipped 2N3904's and all I get is a quiet and slightly distorted signal. I noticed the input is missing on the top layout but I stuck it on the 100nf like in the mojo layout.

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    1. Uh oh, sorry to say I made a fuck up with the small layout. I'll upload a corrected one tonight. Sorry for causing a mess...x-/

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    2. The layout is updated. Once again, sorry for the mess...

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    3. No need to apologize, I have you to thank for around a dozen builds that all work, accidents happen. I might come back and build this one from scratch in a few months. Cheers for the layouts though man!

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  2. I'll definitely try this when I'm back in the game!

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  3. Cool! I also LOVE the double beat so I'll be happy to take a swing at this one.

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  4. Greetings, Fuzzhead! Can you please take a look at Aion FX Argus Fuzz, a clone of DB.

    https://youtu.be/DWyi7I3KNkk
    Sounds gut-grinding, it will be so great if you can find a free time and a will for making this one on vero.

    Schematics is here: https://aionfx.com/app/files/docs/argus_documentation.pdf
    Another one settings suggestion is here:
    https://forum.pedalpcb.com/threads/aion-fx-argus-fuzz-roland-double-beat.17902/

    Thanks!

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    1. Thanks for the headsup about the Aion project!

      Ok, that will be the fourth Double Beat project on this blog. I will post a layout for it next week,

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    2. Hi, Fuzzhead! Any success with Aion Argus on vero?
      Your take on DB gained my interest to this fuzz, it would be great if you give us a chance to try another one. Thanks!

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  5. Any chance you could post a schematic drawing of this thing? I built the small board and it sounds great .

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    1. Thanks for verifying the small board!

      I will upload a schematic in a couple of days...

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  6. Thanks for all of this work you do on this site, I really appreciate it. O\This is likely a dumb question, on the compact version, where is gain 1, volume 1, and input? Thanks again.

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    1. Nah, not a dumb question at all!
      Input connection and Volume co 1 connection is added. See the updated layout.

      However, Gain 1 should be left empty since it is wired as a rheostat.

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  7. this looks rad, cant wait. is there a schematic so i can breadboard it?

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    1. Quick correction on the schematic: The 470k touches base on q1, not emitter. Got it rolling now though! Jud jud jud.......

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    2. I changed the tone stack to a 2 knob bone ray and it absolutely rips.

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    3. @J Fontaine hey man where do I connect input of bone stack to the schematic ?


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    4. After the 220nf/1m. The end of the bone ray goes straight into volume.

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  8. Thanks for posting another awesome build, fuzzhead! I'd never heard of the Double Beat prior to this post but every one of your designs has been great so I thought I'd give it a shot. I built the compact layout and it melted my face off. I'm ordering an enclosure to box this up...and a new face. Awesome work & thanks for all you do!

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  9. Built the little guy! Harmonically rich ripper, for sure! Nicely done!!!

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  10. Built it. In general - sounds killer.
    But level of noise in pauses is almost equal to useful signal. It doesn't seem like it should be.
    I used 2n2222a in to-92 package, but I don't think it changes things that much. Values ​​of the remaining components meet the requirements.
    Where did I go wrong?

    Also, it has kinda clipping, as when transistor is overloaded by output of the
    hot pickup, although I use a low output pickup. When the attack is soft, the distortion clarity is quite good. Is this a design feature?

    Thanks!

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    1. Hey dm! I used 2n2222a (TO-92) and not sure if I'm seeing the same clipping issue. It can get really loud max'ing out the Volume & Tone controls - as they really seem to drive this one and there is a nice hum/sustain depending on the settings (I don't know how the rheostat is supposed to function but the "Gain" seems to act more like depth/shape on mine). I just boxed mine up and am playing around with it this afternoon. I thought about swapping Q1-Q3 values but it sounds so good I'm hesitant to mess with it.

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  11. Snuck this one in tonight. I almost blew up my little tester amp with this thing. Perfect weapon for sacking Rome. Thanks for sharing this A. Hope sis is doing okay.

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    1. Thank you for the kind words. Glad you like it. Sis is doing ok since she is clever and calm fighter.

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  12. Hello Fuzzhead, I built the small board and it sounds great, but I notice that it is missing a 1M resistor between 220nf and ground, does it affect the sound?

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  13. Yes, it does look like both layouts don't have that 1m to ground resistor.

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  14. I built the small layout, and it's working fine, however it is already ransacking and pillaging neighboring countries with gain at 0, and if I turn gain up, it mostly just starts to get more blown out - and not in a nice way necessarily, more like it's just a sine wave when I play on the low E string. I use a Fender Vintera with stock pickups, so quite low output.

    It's plugged into a Quad Cortex so there could be some impedance weirdness going on there, but it's not an issue with level.

    Like someone else said, I could consider switching Q1-3 to something with lower gain, maybe, but it does sound so nice as it is that I don't really feel like messing with it. I guess it's partially on me - what did I expect from something named the Barbarian Fuzz? Although if you ask me, the gain control could be omitted completely and just have it set to 0 all of the time.

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