The Fuzz of 1000 Faces

For a long time I have been a fan of the Multi-Face Pedal and have been having fun exploring the different nuances of fuzz by swapping around parts on a breadboard. However, I wanted to make a more permanent fuzz pedal that I could use to toggle through different capacitors and transistors very quickly. I came up with this design, which involves 4 rotary switches. In this way, I am able to quickly achieve 1,296 rockin' combinations. Hence, being a fuzz pedal with lots of combination, it was thus aptly named "The Fuzz of 1000 Faces."

Step 1 Go get stuff

You will need:

(x1) PCB (Radioshack part #276-168)
(x1) Hacked Radioshack Illuminated Switch
(x1) 5K potentiometer
(x1) 10K potentiometer
(x1) 100K potentiometer
(x2) 100K resistor
(x1) 10K resistor
(x2) 0.01 uF capacitor
(x2) 0.047 uF capacitor
(x2) 0.1 uF capacitor
(x2) 1 uF capacitor
(x2) 4.7 uF capacitor
(x2) 10 uF capacitor
(x2) BC337
(x2) BC547
(x2) 2N5088
(x2) 2N2222
(x2) 2N3904
(x2) 2N2102
(x1) DPDT relay
(x4) 2P6P rotary switch
(x4) Gray knobs
(x3) White knobs
(x1) Hammond size-DD enclosure
(x1) Metal spray primer
(x1) Pink Spraypaint
(x1) Brushes, Testor enamel paint and thinner
(x2) Fine point paint pens
(x1) 18" x 12" cork
(x1) 18" x 12" rubber
(x1) Soldering setup
(x1) Drill press and clamps
(x1) Painter's tape
(x1) Multicolored wire
(x1) misc tools and cleaning supplies

Comments

[stixcheck]

wow this wiring looks really jumbled, any word on an organized diagram?

[sconner1]

Ahh! I love having a variety of modification potions at my fingertips.
One might research their fav players pedal circuit specs and put them in preset switch combinations for easy dialing of your inspirations' signature sounds.

[prodo123]

...or drill another hole, install a jack, and plug it in AC! Adaptors for $12 at RadioShack, too

[bigtwenty]

Uh fuzz pedals ALWAYS sound better with Alkaline batteries, not AC power. I dont know why, im not an engineer, but any tone freak can tell you that! Great instructable!

[prodo123]

nope. a noise gate filters out the static from the AC/DC conversion, and the sound quality stays same (I know cuz im into electronics n guitar :D)

[sconner1]

A good shielding box and regulated ac/dc adapter should keep the hum away.
Good pedals power supplies have filter capacitors on the dc side to snubb unwanted noise and ac ripple.

[sconner1]

My cheesy paper cutter doesn't do even the thinner boards.
I use a straight edge and utility knife, scribe both sides and snap.

[sconner1]

Aluminum doesn't rust. But primer can help you get a really good finish.
Do a 400 grit or higher wet sand between coats.
Smooth.

[sconner1]

Other methods could be to use a leather punch or a sharpened piece of metal tube of the correct inner diameter to make a punch.

[why_luigi]

Hey nice Pedal, and I'm Kind of new at making circuits so I never used Relays before so I two questions Does the relay need to be of certain amperes? And where does it go? thank you

[skaar]

voltage on a guitar is pretty low, the contacts can be standard 5v, or 12v... the coil is the thing, you have to decide what voltage to feed it, and with this, 9v, you'd need a better than 5v coil, commonly available ones are 5 and 12v.

[why_luigi]

hey thanks for the tips :)

[skaar]

even better, most relays are made with low voltage coils to control HUGE voltages, a feeble little 5v coil can control thousands of volts. the contacts are also rated for ac and dc, interesting thing, dc will wear the contacts away, so you need heavy duty contacts to survive it, these same contacts can control hundreds of ac volts. a lot of the relay spec sheets i've read, are on the order of 1/10th, so 120v relay, is likely to be good on 12v, phones, as i remember, are built to use 90v, so, 9v on both the contacts and the coils would probably work.

so... how about building a few effects into an old rotary phone?

[sconner1]

Yeah! Use the receiver's contact closures to instead of a relay to switch in parts. Hang up the phone and it's rhythm fuzz. Pick up and it's "OFF The Hook!"

[Gizah]

What xquadra said

[Gizah]

Is it okay if I use polyester 0.047 capacitors? will it make any difference? and could you please upload a more legible version of the schematic? I'm having some troubles figuring it out

[Gizah]

Stupid me, I just noticed I can click the "i" on the pic for a higher res version

[skaar]

what's a cdr file?

[randofo]

Corel Draw

[skaar]

ah... completely unusable for people that don't have corel?

[greezus]

Can this be made from a dead computer? :)

Also, I'd LOVE a diagram too!!! pretty new to all of this stuff... thanks!

[Makescreenname]

The hand drawn schematic is a bit hard to read, and like another commenter, I'd appreciate an updated wiring diagram showing the components you forgot to include in the hand-drawn schematic. Thanks.

[macnomad84]

Found this to be helpful:

http://www.smallbearelec.com/HowTos/FuzzFaceFAQ/FFFAQ.htm

Will try this with germaniums.

Do PNPs affect the sound?

[macnomad84]

Do you make sure the transistor pairs are matched?

What type of germanium transistors can you substitute as well?

[hiphopapotomas]

Will i be able to find all of this at radioshack?

[randofo]

Nope. Try Jameco.com

[magiko]

I'm not a guitarist, but my wife's sister is very good, and owns several guitars. I think it would be fun to build this as a gift, but to be honest I'm not sure what it is, exactly (even after listening to the sound files on the link) or how to describe it so I can ask her friends/family if she would like it. Is it accurate that this "adds fuzz/noise to a sound input?" to make it sound more... gritty? Should everyone already know what a fuzz box/pedal is? To the poster I'd say - nice instructable considering I want to build one even though I don't know what it does - one paragraph about what someone will end up with, and who wants it would be very useful for non-guitarists.

[randofo]

It makes your guitar sound more fuzzy... think Jimi Hendrix sounding... or perhaps the Kinks... All day and all of the night...

[zoltzerino]

I believe I recall the Kink's sound being due to the fact the fella slit his speaker cone... I could be wrong.

I will definitely make this (when I get the money) - great instructable and smart idea :-)

[ArisenProdigy]

If she hasn't tried one, chances are she'll still like it quite a bit. It's sort of similar to a distortion pedal... Only fuzzier, haha. Hard to explain.

[prodo123]

It's a light distortion, very very light distortion to make your guitar's sound a bit blurrier and fuzzier. Most of the time, they can give a slight boost to the volume. Think of it this way - If you turn on a pair of crap speakers at max volume, the sound becomes distorted and fuzzy, right? It applies that sound onto a guitar signal.

[neverbored]

Amazing idea, great job on the instructable. I was wondering if you know where I can get all of the electronic compoents for this in 1 shot. I want to build one of theese bad boys but Im finding a lot of dead ends for parts in Canada. Also I was wondering if you could possibly show a coulple pics of the wiring diagram or briefly describe the wiring and pcb soldering? I have to admit I am bad at totally understanding schematics. ... I am assuming polarity is not an issue on any of these components?

[xquadra]

Would you please create a diagram on how to wire everything. The schematic is kinda confusing and it's just a lot of wires.

[wazupwiop]

I wonder how many radio signals you could pick up with that........

[erraticwonder]

that pedal looks SWEET!..would love somthing like that amongst my fx pedals!...so stylisH! WOOT!

[Earths_hope]

someone likes to use GIF's

[Re-design]

Very nice job on the box! You get an A+.

[burningsuntech]

randofo An excellent example of a well documented instructable and a very nice job too. Obviously, this took alot of time to do but the result is super! Love It! RA

[profpat]

at last! an electronic projects does not need an PIC or Arduino! this is great, will try to build one for my son who plays guitar and composes music for the games programmers... thanks...

[prodo123]

This is by far the best instructables ever. Put a demo of that pedal!