So quite some time ago I accepted my friend Savino’s Bat Fuzz pedal (by Jaques) to try to fix it. He had had it in various shops and it always comes back ok for a bit an then dies again. It had one of those cheesey SMD momentary switches, where they put a larger heavy duty looking actuator over it, so I suspected the switch. Was gonna change out for a proper switch (bypass the hole original switch board) and rehouse cuz wound’t fit in original enclosure.
I got it working, but the thing is 3 seperate PCBs and wires everywhere and at some point after getting the enclosure ready, I decided to test it again one last time (cuz it would be a pain to get out again) and something went wrong. I think I fried something (used the wrong power adapter) and after that it just wouldn’t work anymore and I couldn’t figure out what I burnt. It sat on the shelf for a while.
Time goes by and Savino starts coming to jams with a new fuzz pedal he’s auditioning every week. I can’t have any of that so the Sorry It’s Not your Bat Fuzz project began. It ended up being a modified Deluxe Bazz Fuzz (the similarity in name having nothing to do with it I assure you), but I considered a few other things, including something based on germanium darlington pair but that didn’t work out on the breadboard.
The main changes I made to the Deluxe Bazz were to make the output filter variable as well as the input filter (this seemed to make a noticable difference on the breadboard when using it for bass; not so much for guitar); losing the input choke; changing the transistor to a more ubiquitous 2n5088 (adjusting the B+ resistor accordingly); switching out the 1n914 clipping diode for a series pair of germanium 1n34As, with a switch for subbing in a red LED. The 34s are nice and crunchy; the LED drops the output volume a bit (plenty of gain so just adjust the out level to compensate) but takes you into near distortion effect vs straight fuzz territory. I thought the LED would light up when switched that way but it doesn’t - not enough current (I did get it lighting up on the breadboard but I was trying a bunch of other things too and had it hooked up backwards for a bit - what it sounds like is more important but boy that woulda been cool). I reused the enclosure I already drilled out for the Bat Fuzz (had to enlarge some holes and plug others) as well as the switch and I/O jacks - neat cuz those were already wired in; less work. Also used a bunch of 70s Stackpole pots I had reclaimed from a Traynor YVM-6 a while back.
Schem, with notes about some ideas for value substitutions, and vero board layout posted above; rock on.
Don’t tell Savino, Tim!
