How to build a Superfuzz pedal
Note: This guide was put together by Vincent way back in 1998 (I think) and donated
in exclusive to mudhoney.net. Please respect
the author's hard work: whatever you're going to do with this document, make sure
his name and this website get mentioned accordingly.
Q: What is a Superfuzz?
A: What pedal do you think Mark and Steve are using?
This could be heard in the single "Touch me I'm sick" in the intro. This is
the sound I'm offering you.
Q: Why making it instead of buying one?
A: Because they are rare, expensive ($300) and old.
And making your own pedal will make it special. Every one will ask you "hey,
what's this pedal???" and you'll be proud to say "i made it man !". Are there
enough good reasons?
Enjoy!
- Vincent
1. The Schematic
You can find many schematics on the www, and every schematic is different.
And many have mistakes! But all of them are old, and dont have modern
features, such as the power supply jack, etc...
I tried to make a modern one, with some little modification, and correct the
mistakes, using all the schematics i found every where.
Here is
my schematic,
based on the Cookbook ones. Print it or save it on your hard disk, then
read the rest of this page.
Now that you have the schematic, i will explain you the correction from the
old schematic. First, there was a 100k resistor that was a mistake. It needed
to be a 22k.
Then I added the 1N4001 diode (on the right) to protect your transistors from
the bad polarity of the power supply. We use power supplies with many pedals,
and sometimes, the polarity isn't the same from one pedal to another one, so,
you forget to change it, and all your transistors are just burnt. This diode
prevent that. So, it is essential. Hey, i know that cause it burnt my
transistors once!!! So i know what i'm talking about. Then i added this power
supply jack. Be carefull to the connections with the battery, etc...
I thought i could add a led, but when the effect is on, you are dumb if you
don't notice it... You can add a led between the plus of the battery and the
ground with a 380 k resistor if you want to see the battery power. Adding a
led is boring, cause it would make you install a triple switch instead of the
double switch. You see...
2. The Components
Here is a list of components you'll need.
A. Resistors
|
Description |
Number |
|
1 k |
1 |
B. Transistors
Six transistors 2N2222A or six 2N3391.
C. Caps
|
Description |
Number |
|
10 uF electronic cap |
11 |
D. Diodes
One 1N4001 diode and two germanium diodes for the clipping.
E. Potentiometers
Two 50 k linear potentiometers for the drive and the volume.
F. Switches
A simple reverser for the notch/normal filter and a double
reverser for the on/off.
3. The old pedal in which you'll put the new circuit
To have a solid box, to have lots of jack inputs, you'll need to put
your circuit in an old pedal, to make it look like a real pedal.
I chose the old broken Boss Bass Limiter a friend gave me. And
it did the trick ! I just changed one of the potentiometer, because
there was already one 50 k in it. That's why it makes the list of
component different for each of you. All depends on the pedal you'll find.
The power input is usualy in all pedals, so you dont have to buy it. The
same for the battery wire. The size of the printed circuit will be decided
by the size of the pedal you'll find. And that's important. You have to cut
the epoxy board exactly the size of the circuit inside of the old pedal.
So, i suggest you to make the drawing of that old circuit and to draw the
circuit in the good dimensions. You have to adapt the new switches to the
size of the pedal and you can see it in the mechanics section.
4. The drawing of the printed circuit
The schematic isnt enough to weld the components. you have to
draw the different components in a place that corresponds to the
future printed circuit. The size is given by the one of the old
pedal. You have to seperate the different components, to make the
weldind easy, and to prevent the forbiden connections. I can
advice you to do it on the computer. It must be very clean, and
you must think of the switch that are just above the printed
circuit.
Be sure that the transistor won't touch the switch, it
would burn the transistor. All this work is essential. It's the
work you have to make really clean. That will make your pedal
work or not. Before welding the components, check the drawing one
more time. If you don't know how to draw it, email me. The schematic
isn't always the same that the drawing of the printed circuit because
of the size of the plate of epoxy, etc... And you have to take good
care of the location of the potentiometers and the jacks etc..
because it's not very serious to put wire every where in the pedal.
Just put the connections near the jacks and the potentiometers to
prevent a big spaghetti soup.
Then you have to make the circuit. You can use the technics of
sticking black lines (which can be found in electronic stores) and
black holes to draw the circuit on the copper side of the epoxy
plate. Don't forget that it must be inversed from the drawing of
the components, which are on the other side. You don't need to
use the explosure of ultraviolet. The number of components allows
you to use the basic technic of drawing directly on the copper
plate. You can use lines of size 1 mm (0,04 inch), it's enough
for the current.
Then you have to dive the copper/epoxy plate in the perchlorure
solution (which can be found in the electronic store too) some
minutes. It depends on the concentration of the perchlorure. But
it is between 30 and 45 minutes. But check it soon, you must be
carefull, because after some times, the perchlorure goes under
the black lines, and all the copper is disolved. The part is very
important too, because you can make a mistake that will destroy
all the previous work.
5. The mechanics
You have to insert the new switchs, and the new potentiometers.
I can't help you to do it. It depends on the size of the components,
size of the holes, etc... and you have to be sure that the switch
is switched each time you press it, it's not an electicity problem,
it's mechanics one.
So, check the contact point of the swich on the
cover of the switch, like on the Boss one for example. I had to stick on
a plastic circle to turn the effect on each time i press the
cover. And it did the trick!
You only need to weld the components and the wires now...
6. The welding
This is the part i prefer. It is clean, and fast! And this is the last
part too. I don't repeat you have to work well... be carefull of the polarity
of the caps and the transistors and it will work.
7. The test
Look at all the connections are done with the schematic. Check the
polarity of the condensators once again, and plug the battery. Then
turn your amp on and plug all the jacks. The jack "input" had to be
plugged to turn the effect on. And listen to the sound!!!
If it doesnt work, well, what can i say? Check your schematic,
the polarity of the battery, etc... and test the connections with
a multimeter.
If you have to turn the potentiometers in the unusual way, invert
the two wires that are on each side of them. Not the center one. Test
the two positions of the Notch/Normal switch and the main switch.
8. Conclusions
You may know that the gain potentiometer is hard to fix. We have
the gain fever and always want more!! but even at 30%, the gain is
horrible. That's why it's good to use the pedal with an amp that
already overdrives, it, hm, is reducing the gain in one sense...
even if it sounds strange, it works...
I dont give you settings, you can do it yourself. It's easy.
You can notice that the notch sound hasn't got so many middle.
Normal position has more middle range frequencies.
It's a question of taste. The rest of the work is drawing a
board with "level" and "gain" and the two positions "notch"
and "normal". It is your job, be creative!
Kurt Cobain called his hand made Superfuzz a "young man fuzz".
Call it what you want. Mine is called Bass Limiter!!! To turn
the folks crazy!
Please don't email me for a "How I made a Bigmuff" page, I won't answer
(just kidding...) You only have to change the schematic, go there:
Big Muff Schematic (from the Cookbook again),
and do the same thing than for a Superfuzz. But it think you should buy a
Sovtek one. It's so cheap ...
P.S.: I admit my english is poor, and there must be many many mistakes.
So excuse me. But i think you understood, no? For a good vocabulary,
ask your electronic dealer how to make the printed circuit. He will
explain you I'm sure... just tell him you're going to buy all the components
from him.
