Mellowtone FuzzKit

[letsgocoyote]

Is anyone interested in fuzz kits? I have laid out a PCB design for one My concept is this:

Kit will potentally contain:

-PCB
-Potentiometer
-Battery Clip
-Components
-Wire
-Solder
-Sticker
-Instructions

You provide:
-Soldering Iron
-Wire snipper
-9v battery
(additional tools helpful)

The kit itself will contain components enough that you will be able to build a functioning pedal circuit, directly wired to in and out jacks and a 9v battery. That way you can make a fuzz and play around with it.

Optionally:
-Recycled an altoids tin or old tuna can to mount the jacks, pot, and battery in
-Purchase an enclosure, footswitch, knob, dc jack, LED+bezel from pedalpartsplus.com for under $16 (plus shipping) and wire it up like a real pedal! You can do it for less if: you can drill it yourself and/or don't need a DC jack and/or don't need an LED. It will cost more if you want them to paint your enclosure (they do a great job though if you want a cool color).

The kit will include components to build A) Electra Distortion B) Bazz Fuss C) Dirty Booster (they all work on the same circuit board). Of course like a little Lego kit you could mix things up too...

So the idea is to make these little beginner kits for under $20 shipped. Anyone interested? For it to be worthwhile I need to see that a good chunk of people would want some initially, and that over time I would be able to sell the rest (as I would probably order 100 pcb's).

[iamthesnow]

i'm interested! i've been wanting something similar to the electra since i heard the trotsky drive...

[effetebomb]

i would do it for sure. sounds like an awesome first step. I've never done this kinda stuff before, but am interested.

[hazelwould]

I'd definately be interested!

[metalmariachi]

Sounds like a fun project.

Hmm maybe a multi pedal containing all 3 variations .

very interested

MM

[hazelwould]

Out of curiousity, with the kit can you make the melxowone (since it's based on the Electra)? Also the Trotsky drive should also be an option cause of the Electra? Also with the circuits can you adjust drive and volume via pots? Thanks!

[letsgocoyote]

it will be setup to use a board mounted volume pot. of course this is ripe for experimentation, so there are some different methods you could use to implement a drive control, as well as mess around with the bias/gain, and voicing.

[ifeellikeatourist]

that's so damn cheap I would probably have to get one

[CliffBass]

That would be cool, do it.

[ifeellikeatourist]

Actually, yeah, I must change my previous statement to "These are so damn cheap, I'll probably buy at least two." Kinda like MM said, I think it would be sweet to have a dual footswitch pedal with a distortion on one side and a dirty boost on the other--and all for 40 bucks?! Plus the cost of the enclosure, of course, but c'mon, that's still two pedals for less than the price of one GGG fuzz kit (and theirs I thought were reasonably priced)! And did I hear it even comes with a sweet mellowtone sticker you can slap on there?! Sweetness.

[letsgocoyote]

I feel pretty confident about bringing this out, but I will wait until other projects are finished before I order the PCBs. I estimate 2 months down the road. Of course once I get them I will have to make an instruction manual which will take some time.

Another cool application for these kits (since they don't come with an enclosure) is to install a fuzz in your guitar! Just use a push/pull pot or mini toggle for bypass.

[leastwise]

yes. yes. this is a great idea.

[NetStar]

I too would be up for this.

If you could throw in a generic Mellowtone, black and white JPG template, that would be great too. So we could colour it in, maybe add a design and print out, stick it on!

[ifeellikeatourist]

So is there a big difference between the sound of the electra distortion and the bazz fuss? I now think that I would like to build a dual pedal with those two circuits, since I'm hoping to get dirty boost capabilities out of the upcoming clean chan/dirty chan.

[letsgocoyote]

Yes thy sound different. The Bazz Fuss is a tight muff-like fuzz. Has sort of a short sustain on high notes. The Electra Distortion is more of a saturated warm overdrive, more ragged and grungy.

My plan is to get the pcb's for these when I order pcb's for the cleanchan/dirtychan pedals.