Quite Shocking Fuzz
This build is the Univox Superfuzz with a blendable octave down. The octave down is provided by the Joe Davisson Shocktave circuit. I tried all sorts of blend circuits but what I liked best in the end is just the Shocktave going into the Superfuzz with gain and volume crancked and Shocktave's Mix knob is my octave down blend actually. Try it, you'll like it guys :)
I rarely label the knobs when I am building stuff for myself, but the controls are Volume, Tone, Octave Down Blend, Fuzz.
I used genuine OA90 Ge diodes, my voltages are spot on, just like the best sounding Superfuzzes have. I implemented just a couple of mods really, a trimpot in the way of diodes to ground, a trimpot for octaveness, a trimpot for tunning the Q4 and Q5 for the best sound, and substituting the tone 1/tone 2 switch with a pot, which makes it highly versatile.
The enclosure is a custom made one, me and my friend went to a local firm and carried with us a Fulltone 69 pedal and said "We want 5 enclosures just like that!" and we got them. Very sturdy, I was impressed.
The graphics is currently just the sticker, I feel a little embarassed by that but hey, I will do something better once this sticker wears off [who has time with so many builds waiting]...
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-tsn4qSS0lEA/USY1rBx4DoI/AAAAAAAAA9c/zRRQdDELhGA/s833/IMG803.jpg)
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-P26DKq4wxtA/USY3_GHFx5I/AAAAAAAAA-E/tYTEcXEY5JA/s1111/IMG811.jpg)
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-rqTaGHTRUDA/USY4P9mYDBI/AAAAAAAAA-M/6ffSTXzj0uo/s833/IMG810.jpg)
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-3pTGsm_D0uQ/USY4cbdvowI/AAAAAAAAA-U/A9wZz38HxJ4/s833/IMG809.jpg)
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-tDDGXO93SU8/USY0euy_g8I/AAAAAAAAA9U/smg8cP_doTM/s833/IMG802.jpg)
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/--8fX1-rSHkc/USYyhrkwGiI/AAAAAAAAA8U/_HDkjbZXUUc/s833/IMG792.jpg)
And, a sound demo
[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/earthless/quite-shocking-fuzz-demo[/soundcloud]
I really haven't been overly inspired while recording this demo, but hey...No other pedals used, just some delay here and there, and maybe a flanger for like a couple of seconds. I used my Tele for a minute I think, and then switched to the SG. I played through the pedal and then straight to the Line 6 UX1 interface and the POD Farm with it's Vox AC30 simulation. I found that this is the best simulation of that kind of sound, people are frequently asking me whether my demos are recorded with a mic in the studio...I don't know, there are a lot of ways to do it, but this one works for me, at least to give an overview of the sounds I am getting with my amp.
Cheers everyone!
That's bad ass man,is that all just you playing? I dig the music
That friggin rocks. Can't stop looking at it. Sweet graphics and custom enclosure? niiiiiice work. love it.
Badass playing, too. Jimilee's right.
@jimilee
Thanks man, yeah it was me. It's pretty much just brainstorming with a guitar in your hands...you press record that play a riff, than play another, and so on...I was embarassed by people asking for a soundclip of this on another forum for a long time so I finally recorded something but wasn't overly inspired. Still, sounds okay I guess...Cheers!
@jubal81
Much apreciated friend, cheers!
That's slicker than snot on a door knob.
Quote from: icecycle66 on February 24, 2013, 11:31:14 PM
That's slicker than snot on a door knob.
Are you from the South? A few of us here are also. Just curious!
Quote from: jimilee on February 24, 2013, 11:55:50 PM
Quote from: icecycle66 on February 24, 2013, 11:31:14 PM
That's slicker than snot on a door knob.
Are you from the South? A few of us here are also. Just curious!
Yeah, once upon a time. I'm from the southwest now.
Killer demo! I really like the sound of that pedal.
Quote from: icecycle66 on February 25, 2013, 12:22:27 AM
Quote from: jimilee on February 24, 2013, 11:55:50 PM
Quote from: icecycle66 on February 24, 2013, 11:31:14 PM
That's slicker than snot on a door knob.
Are you from the South? A few of us here are also. Just curious!
Yeah, once upon a time. I'm from the southwest now.
Nice..... /derail
great looking and sounding build! I love the red/white/black theme. It reminds me of my Portland Trailblazers... Where did you pick up that enclosure?
Cortex, that looks VERY VERY nice.
I like it and i dig the enclosure.
Mich P.
Great demo!
Thanks guys, very kind of you all!
Yeah, I tried to vintage-ify this as much as I could, eveything from the enclosure, graphics, to the interiors, I actually think the wiring looks quite vintage :P
I am so glad you like the demo, this pedal [the stock superfuzz as well] is so good with legato runs, it practically plays it self. The sustain is really long, and what I particularly like is [when octave down blended quite a bit if not max] when you bend the note and hold it, the octave down will squeal for a moment and dissolve into a punching octave up, it almost sounds like the octave up is being shot from a very very very long octave down riffle.
I'm gonna build the pasty face next in an enclosure just like this, but a blue one with hammertone finish. I have some bitchin' npn Ge's with just the right hfe's.
As to where I got the enclosure [I think someone asked about that] I would be happy to tell you, but since that store is in Novi Sad, Serbia, and they do not have an online shop nor do they ship anywhere else than Serbia, I don't think that information is highly valuable for anyone here. Still, if you feel adventurous, send me a private message.
Very cool build dude!
Love the enclosure and graphics.
Dude, if I could find someone to make me some enclosures like that, I don't think I would use anything else again, especially for fuzz!
This sounds fantastic--the way the octave is blended in is just more ear-pleasing than most. Love the playing too! I tend to just brainstorm on the guitar as well. My wife always jokes that I never play real songs! ;)
Haha yeah that's exactly the type of stuff I was getting from my girlfriend as well :))) I guess some girls just can't understand infinite shredding :D
That really is some awesome sounds and playing, man.
Question about the circuit: did you just remove the fuzz control from the octave circuit and route it through the other fuzz circuit? I mean the shocktave produces it's own fuzz, right?
Can you tell I want to build this?;D
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
Fantastic build and nice chops to boot. You sir, are talented ;)
That is awesome man! Love the graphics and the build.
I rarely listen to a demo more than once. I'm on the third with yours.
Bravo, bravo.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
That is a really great sounding fuzz! Nice work 8)
You do me so much honor gentlemen!
There's a lot more noodlin' on my Soundcloud channel so ch1naski check it out mate :D
If there's a topic where forum members can post their music I'd like to contribute to that as well, I've been recording a bunch of ideas lately.
Quote from: ch1naski on February 25, 2013, 10:39:14 PM
Question about the circuit: did you just remove the fuzz control from the octave circuit and route it through the other fuzz circuit? I mean the shocktave produces it's own fuzz, right?
Heh, well I tried a million combinations, buff n blend, fet mixers of other kinds, yada yada, but what I ended up doing was just running the Shocktave straight into the Superfuzz and hard-wiring it that way. Now, the volume and fuzz are crancked on the Shocktave ALL THE TIME :) I used trimpots as you could see on the pictures, BUT I made the Shocktave's MIX control an exterior pot. That way I can go clean on the shoctave running into the Superfuzz, , or any amount of octave down I want. Still, having the volume crancked all the way on the Shocktave turned to be too much for the Superfuzz's input, so it's kind of squishy and it has kind of an envelope filtery effect when you play, but that's just when the volume pot on your guitar is on full, put it like on half and the sound turns to a hundred percent Superfuzz. I could make the pedal more versatile by having more knobs on the enclosure but I didn't want that, I hate lots of knobs, 4 is kind of like my limit :D
I use the volume and tone controls on my guitar A LOT, and I like to think of pedals as an extension of that, so a lot of the sounds you've been listening to throughout the demo was made by using different pickup combinations and various volume and tone settings on the guitar.
I'm really glad you all like this so much. Really enjoying the forum so far, and I have seen some CRAZY builds out there, that are nothing like mine, just waaaay more professional and better looking.
Cheers mates!
Quote from: Cortexturizer on February 26, 2013, 10:14:57 AM
You do me so much honor gentlemen!
There's a lot more noodlin' on my Soundcloud channel so ch1naski check it out mate :D
If there's a topic where forum members can post their music I'd like to contribute to that as well, I've been recording a bunch of ideas lately.
Quote from: ch1naski on February 25, 2013, 10:39:14 PM
Question about the circuit: did you just remove the fuzz control from the octave circuit and route it through the other fuzz circuit? I mean the shocktave produces it's own fuzz, right?
Heh, well I tried a million combinations, buff n blend, fet mixers of other kinds, yada yada, but what I ended up doing was just running the Shocktave straight into the Superfuzz and hard-wiring it that way. Now, the volume and fuzz are crancked on the Shocktave ALL THE TIME :) I used trimpots as you could see on the pictures, BUT I made the Shocktave's MIX control an exterior pot. That way I can go clean on the shoctave running into the Superfuzz, , or any amount of octave down I want. Still, having the volume crancked all the way on the Shocktave turned to be too much for the Superfuzz's input, so it's kind of squishy and it has kind of an envelope filtery effect when you play, but that's just when the volume pot on your guitar is on full, put it like on half and the sound turns to a hundred percent Superfuzz. I could make the pedal more versatile by having more knobs on the enclosure but I didn't want that, I hate lots of knobs, 4 is kind of like my limit :D
I use the volume and tone controls on my guitar A LOT, and I like to think of pedals as an extension of that, so a lot of the sounds you've been listening to throughout the demo was made by using different pickup combinations and various volume and tone settings on the guitar.
I'm really glad you all like this so much. Really enjoying the forum so far, and I have seen some CRAZY builds out there, that are nothing like mine, just waaaay more professional and better looking.
Cheers mates!
some of your playing and sounds reminds me of Jeff Beck on his later albums and live shows (my favorite guitar player, next to Hendrix, tied with Page).
pretty nifty:)
Did you build the Shocktave off of a layout and modify it, or go from a schematic?
Well you sure know how to choose a player to be your favorite ;) I LOVE Jeff Beck.
I used Derringer's Shocktave vero layout, no modifications really, I just subbed R6 or was it R5? for a trimpot so that I could get EXACTLY 4.5V on the collector of Q2 [?] so yeah, that gives you the best octave. You should match the transistors as closely as you can but some people say it's not really necessary...I used transistor that have about 440 hfe. I used a mixture of 2n5088's and BC550C's, but you can use anything really.
Other than that, I subbed Volume and Gain with 1M and 2,5K trimpots, respectively. I left the volume almost all the way [maybe 75%] and the gain on full. That's about it :) Cheers!
I love this pedal.
The octaves sound amazing and the enclosure is perfect. I'm looking forward to your pasty face.
Thank you friend! Parts arriving these days for the bender, and I thought of some really cool finish ideas so I expect it to come out really great. Can't wait!
So, I let my son listen to your demo, he really dug it. So I'm gonna build him one, but do you think a standard fuzz face circuit has enough gusto to make the octave noticeable? I think the super fuzz puts puts a bit more signal through, no?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
Hm, it's Shocktave INTO the Superfuzz, not the other way around, so making a fuzz face instead of the superfuzz will result in no upper octave tones. That, and if I were you, I would wire a dpdt toggle switch on the way of the Shocktave towards the Superfuzz in a true bypass sort of manner, so that your boy could have superfuzz-only tones. Now as to why I haven't done that to my build...well, I don't like to many knobs, switches, and everything, and this sounded good and usable to me, as someone that can pretty much get straight superfuzz tones by fiddlin' with guitar controls anyway.
Note that the Shocktave gets very easily confused by treble content in the signal! So, if you or your son are using Strats, then I would advise to look elsewhere for the octave downage. I have an SG, a tele with hot mid oriented pickups, and a Strat. The tracking of the octave on the Strat is very bad.
If anything else interests you, or anybody else, just ask, because I would feel guilty if you spend lots of time building this and conclude that it doesn't work for you. It's not a kind of pedal that will sound spectacular whatever guitar you run into it, and fiddling with the volume and tone knobs is a must if you wanna get some of those tones like on my demo. Just saying.
Still, if you or your son end up not seeing any use of this effect wired combined like I did with mine, you can always run it separately, 2-in-1 sort of, cause they both sound great for what they are.
Good luck!
Thanks for the detailed reply. I totally forgot that it was fuzz AFTER shocktave.
I threw a vero together last night, only to find that I don't have a 1 meg audio pot, or trimmer. So while I wait for that to come in with my parts odder, I reckon I can try my hand at building the super fuzz.
The kid has a strat with a bridge hb , and he plays my 67 sg special (maybe the octave will like p-90's). So he'll be ok.
The super fuzz seems a bit tricky to get right, from what I've read. We shall see:)
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
The superfuzz will love the strat, but the shocktave won't. Still, rolling the tone control on the guitar could help a lot. As well as volume, it all depends really, that's why I would insist that you build the shocktave as a true bypassable circuit in that enclosure, so that 100% superfuzz only tones are possible. It would maybe be easier if you were to build Green Ringer instead of the superfuzz, a lot less parts to go through, and octave up tones are very possible with the ringer as well. Just a thought. Still, some people are not convinced that the ringer is even a usable pedal... ... ...
But...it's easy - you build the Shocktave first, and see if the Strat and the SG p90 will love it. If yes, you continue the project, if not, dismiss.
Shocktave you can build pretty fast so it's gonna be a fast test. Be very meticulous about having EXACTLY 4.5V on the collector of Q2. It is the key to a good octave down. I chose my transistors in the 430 hfe area.
The stratocaster humbucker is a prs hfs, it's pretty high output, so I will keep my fingers crossed. I just soldered the vero of the shocktave up, didn't bother to bias the q2 transistor :o .
Guess I'll check the voltage and insert the needed resistor value. I was just going off the layout-_- no build doc.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
Correctly biasing the Q2 is a must. Put a trimpot in there, and fine tune it, that's what I did to mine.
I run the fuzz of the shoctave completely dimed, and volume somewhere around middle way of the trimpot [I used 1M for volume] and the Mix control is my external octae down blend knob as you know.
Let me know how you like the sounds of the shocktave, and remember to experiment a lot with volume and tone controls of the guitar. Cheers!
Quote from: Cortexturizer on March 05, 2013, 09:59:39 AM
Hm, it's Shocktave INTO the Superfuzz, not the other way around, so making a fuzz face instead of the superfuzz will result in no upper octave tones. That, and if I were you, I would wire a dpdt toggle switch on the way of the Shocktave towards the Superfuzz in a true bypass sort of manner, so that your boy could have superfuzz-only tones. Now as to why I haven't done that to my build...well, I don't like to many knobs, switches, and everything, and this sounded good and usable to me, as someone that can pretty much get straight superfuzz tones by fiddlin' with guitar controls anyway.
Note that the Shocktave gets very easily confused by treble content in the signal! So, if you or your son are using Strats, then I would advise to look elsewhere for the octave downage. I have an SG, a tele with hot mid oriented pickups, and a Strat. The tracking of the octave on the Strat is very bad.
If anything else interests you, or anybody else, just ask, because I would feel guilty if you spend lots of time building this and conclude that it doesn't work for you. It's not a kind of pedal that will sound spectacular whatever guitar you run into it, and fiddling with the volume and tone knobs is a must if you wanna get some of those tones like on my demo. Just saying.
Still, if you or your son end up not seeing any use of this effect wired combined like I did with mine, you can always run it separately, 2-in-1 sort of, cause they both sound great for what they are.
Good luck!
You are right about the shocktave being picky about pickups. I have better luck on my PRS with Imperials than my son's guitar ( strat, with a high gain/ mid-range-ish PRS HFS humbucker).
So i am building him another one, this time using your idea of the 10k trimmer at the collector of Q2, and I am going to throw on an input cap , on a switch, for less high frequencies getting to the circuit.
I've noticed that it doesn't see to like his Dunlop Jimi Fuzz Face....but he loves that thing, I've built him an Analogman Sunface and a '69, he still likes the Dunlop. ::)
I want to thank you again for answering my questions about the circuit.