Colorsound 'Bass Fuzz' - good god!

[D.o.S.]

Because this is the Mothman part deux.

As should be obvs, I'm down for beneficiary status.

What if these fuckers were all Mondrian-looking?

[Deltaphoenix]

Piet Mondrian?

[Chankgeez]

File me under List #2. (As far as pro-wrestlers, dibs on Blue Demon.)

Mondrian? Pfft.

(EDIT: image removed, it wasn't rendering correctly)

[Deltaphoenix]

If it is that enclosure and pro wrestling, Andre the Giant fo sho

[D.o.S.]

Piet Mondrian?

Yeah, but his stuff before his minimalist stuff. I've always dug the Grey Tree:

[ARC Effects]

This is my suggestion we make 3 lists of people
List #1. Builders
People that would want to build one for themselves and one for another (it would be up
to the individuals to work out a price between the two. Remember that time is money so be cool)
List #2. Beneficiaries
People that may or may not have experience with pedal fabrication but will be expected to compensate the person that builds their pedal.
Beneficiaries are encouraged to contribute to the discussion. How many switches? Should each pedal be named for a pro wrestler?
List #3. Han Solos
People that are going to build one but only for themselves.
Han Solos might be busy people, new builders or whatever. They want in on the fuzz creation station.


We add names to the list and after no one else comes forward after a particular time we pair off with people we have b/s/t'd with or share a similar sense of humour or shares the same twisted vision for this pedal.

Again this is just a suggestion...........(why does this feel like the sequel to the TB Mothman?)

I say we assemble the best of the best from ILF short of the big boys (Dr S/Blackout/etc) and have one person perform one task (board etching, board populating, enclosure drilling, enclosure labeling/painting, final assembly) before sending to the next thus having these pedals make a lengthy voyage cross country before completion. Costs can be figured out by someone else because I really don't care but that would be one hell of a pedal showcasing the skills of all involved....hell it might even take over the internet.

[Deltaphoenix]

Any Mod Ideas? How about a LPF like on the Behemoth II. But I don't know much about the logistics of that.

[Deltaphoenix]

LFO?

[skreddy]

I've looked at the schematic but have not tried it yet. What I'm thinking at first glance, though, is this: the regular Colorsound Supa Tone Bender, in my opinion, is most likely a better bass fuzz than this bass fuzz. I have one (and have cloned it of course with my Skreddy Supa Tone), and with bass it kills. The thing about it is it A) does not need bigger coupling capacitors; the .1uf are PLENTY for all the natural, thumpy bass you need, and B) the clipping capacitor also is better at .1uf instead of .22uf, in my opinion, as this allows a bit of low end to NOT get squashed by the clippers, remain clean and remain thumpy and bassy.

I use BC183L transistors like the original Supa Tone, and I like these because they're low gain and keep the clipping diodes from clamping so hard at a high signal it becomes liquid drone instead of punchy and dynamic.

[LaoWiz]

I've looked at the schematic but have not tried it yet. What I'm thinking at first glance, though, is this: the regular Colorsound Supa Tone Bender, in my opinion, is most likely a better bass fuzz than this bass fuzz. I have one (and have cloned it of course with my Skreddy Supa Tone), and with bass it kills. The thing about it is it A) does not need bigger coupling capacitors; the .1uf are PLENTY for all the natural, thumpy bass you need, and B) the clipping capacitor also is better at .1uf instead of .22uf, in my opinion, as this allows a bit of low end to NOT get squashed by the clippers, remain clean and remain thumpy and bassy.

I use BC183L transistors like the original Supa Tone, and I like these because they're low gain and keep the clipping diodes from clamping so hard at a high signal it becomes liquid drone instead of punchy and dynamic.

Thanks for posting that! I built the Bass fuzz for the bass player friend and it didn't sound great. The schematics I compared for the Jumbo Tone Bender and the Bass Fuzz were identical except for the .22 caps. Your points make sense as my unit does squash the low end a little too much. It sounds good but not great due to the loss of the low end. When I get around to it I'll switch out the caps and report back the differences....

[sev]

Sev I just realized this is a heinous thread jack, I'm sorry. I'm just trying my damnedest to stay off the b/s/t page.
Again if anyone can do this sooner feel free to take the torche and run with it.

No problems.....somehow, the explosion of this thread slipped by me until now.
Count me in on one of these. I can A/B a prototype against the real thing if needed. I have recording capabilities too, so I can share the findings.
Request: works on 9v battery (I know, I'm a dirty earth polluter.)
Name: ColorBlind FACE BUZZ

Should each pedal be named for a pro wrestler?

If so, make mine the BUZZ SAWYER!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzz_Sawyer

I built the Bass fuzz for the bass player friend and it didn't sound great. The schematics I compared for the Jumbo Tone Bender and the Bass Fuzz were identical except for the .22 caps. Your points make sense as my unit does squash the low end a little too much. It sounds good but not great due to the loss of the low end.

I'm no scientist, but I could hardly imagine wanting more low end on the OG Bass Fuzz.
In fact, a mod I would like to see is a presence boost/high end boost knob in order to make it a bit more guitar friendly.
But, I'm sure you guys know exactly what you're doing.

[theavondon]

buzzsawyer.png (84.15 KiB) Viewed 2780 times

hahahahhahahaahhahah

[skreddy]

I've looked at the schematic but have not tried it yet. What I'm thinking at first glance, though, is this: the regular Colorsound Supa Tone Bender, in my opinion, is most likely a better bass fuzz than this bass fuzz. I have one (and have cloned it of course with my Skreddy Supa Tone), and with bass it kills. The thing about it is it A) does not need bigger coupling capacitors; the .1uf are PLENTY for all the natural, thumpy bass you need, and B) the clipping capacitor also is better at .1uf instead of .22uf, in my opinion, as this allows a bit of low end to NOT get squashed by the clippers, remain clean and remain thumpy and bassy.

I use BC183L transistors like the original Supa Tone, and I like these because they're low gain and keep the clipping diodes from clamping so hard at a high signal it becomes liquid drone instead of punchy and dynamic.

Thanks for posting that! I built the Bass fuzz for the bass player friend and it didn't sound great. The schematics I compared for the Jumbo Tone Bender and the Bass Fuzz were identical except for the .22 caps. Your points make sense as my unit does squash the low end a little too much. It sounds good but not great due to the loss of the low end. When I get around to it I'll switch out the caps and report back the differences....

Also try some lower-gain transistors. The BC549C, as shown on the Bass Fuzz schematic, run at about 600 Hfe, which is on the high side, even for guitar, unless you attenuate them with larger emitter resistors (e.g., use 300 ohm instead of 100 ohm). For a bass fuzz with dynamics instead of a synth tone, you'll want to use transistors with gains in the 200 Hfe range.

[skreddy]

I'm no scientist, but I could hardly imagine wanting more low end on the OG Bass Fuzz.
In fact, a mod I would like to see is a presence boost/high end boost knob in order to make it a bit more guitar friendly.
But, I'm sure you guys know exactly what you're doing.

Those 1n filter caps (in the negative-feedback loop from collector to base) are what you want to fix. Those are twice as big as needed and will darken the tone considerably compared to a guitar effect. Change those to 560pf if you're using the specified BC549C transistor. If you go with a lower-gain transistor, you can lower them to 470pf.

Oh I just noticed this one leaves out the volume-recovery stage after the tone stack--only 3 transistors. I'm sure that's fine, though.

You don't need a boost for the high end once you fix those filter caps. You can still darken the tone using the tone knob, but once it's at noon or higher, there's tons of high end.

[Chankgeez]

Wow, this is awesome.

Thanks to all builders who've offered advice.

I can't wait until we all have finished pedals in hand.