Danelectro - CF-1 Cool Cat Fuzz

TubeDude22 · Post by **TubeDude22** » 22 Jan 2009, 23:54

Time for me to give something back to this cool site. I spent the day under a magnifyer drawing up this thing. Here is the first draft of the schematic. I like this pedal but want to reduce the low end thump a tad. So, I drew it up. Not shown is the switching and LED circuitry. No clipping diodes here.

Cheers!

TD

IvIark · Post by **IvIark** » 23 Jan 2009, 00:19

Excellent, thanks for sharing. I thought the clips sounded pretty good for this and was wondering what was "under the hood". So it's definitely not a fuzz face clone then!

Entrant_21 · Post by **Entrant_21** » 23 Jan 2009, 00:28

If you're removing some parts on this pedal, i'd recommend a solder pump, braid is not as accurate unless you have really thin stuff, even then traces are easily destroyed...
Speaking from experience lol!

TubeDude22 · Post by **TubeDude22** » 23 Jan 2009, 00:37

Just laughed out loud reading the Frantone Peach Fuzz reviews on HC. The CF-1 is a Peach Fuzz clone.

RnFR · Post by **RnFR** » 23 Jan 2009, 01:24

for 30 bucks, i might just have to buy one of these. i don't know how i can pass that up.

PurplePeopleEater · Post by **PurplePeopleEater** » 23 Jan 2009, 03:17

TubeDude22 wrote:Just laughed out loud reading the Frantone Peach Fuzz reviews on HC. The CF-1 is a Peach Fuzz clone.

Yep. Swap the 4558 for a TL022 and you're pretty much there.

devastator · Post by **devastator** » 23 Jan 2009, 19:55

It's me or the schematic looks like frantone peach fuzz ?

PurplePeopleEater · Post by **PurplePeopleEater** » 23 Jan 2009, 20:48

devastator wrote:It's me or the schematic looks like frantone peach fuzz ?

Read the thread.The fact that it's a Peach Fuzz clone has been mentioned a couple times, one primary difference being the Dano uses a 4558 instead of a TL022. Good eye though. You are absolutely correct.

TubeDude22 · Post by **TubeDude22** » 24 Jan 2009, 22:45

Started testing some mods today. Here are some gut shots to check out. I'll post the results of my experimenting soon. Gotta play at a gig tonight.

TubeDude22 · Post by **TubeDude22** » 25 Jan 2009, 14:37

So I liked what was happening in the CF-1 but the tone seemed to have too much bass. I ran the tone stack values through Duncan's tone stack calculator and decided to try different EQ capacitors. After gaining access to the back of the board, I heated the tone cap leads with my soldering iron and walked the parts out of the plated through holes. Next, I took some 1/4 watt resistors and held them in place above the PTH. Holding the iron on the resistor lead, they heated enough to melt the solder in the PTH and I pushed the resistor through. This gave me a hold for mini grabbers, which I connected to my capacitor substitution box.

It ended up that I didn't like any values different from the .01uf and 470nF caps. So, I tried different types of caps. I found that a metalized polyester .01 and a mylar .47uF cap sounded much, much better than the originals. The eq was more responsive and the sweet spot was now at 12 o'clock on the tone control.

As you can see, the mylar is large. I had to scrape a new grounding point for it but it fit with the boards remounted.

The new caps made for a major sonic improvement. For some strange reason, I found myself inspired to play some old Uriah Heep songs. As you can see from the photos, connector cables are used to hook everything up. There is a daughter board for the jacks and another for the 3PDT foot switch. The case is a nice "peach" orange, too.

TD

Entrant_21 · Post by **Entrant_21** » 25 Jan 2009, 22:34

hey, smart mods you got there

very nice!

How did you put the tonestack in duncans amp sim?

TubeDude22 · Post by **TubeDude22** » 26 Jan 2009, 00:32

Thanks! With Duncan's TSC I used the Muff sim and put in the values from the schem I drew. It was only an approximation as the high side has an extra resistor in series with the cap.

Skarrgus · Post by **Skarrgus** » 19 Feb 2009, 17:37

I just picked one of these up yesterday. I think it sounds pretty good, but it's nowhere near loud enough. It barely touches on unity even with everything cranked. Any quick remedies for this?
Should I bring it up to Peach Fuzz specs?

TubeDude22 · Post by **TubeDude22** » 19 Feb 2009, 23:24

The low output level is odd. Your pedal must have a problem. My CC Fuzz has an incredible hot output level. Can you take it back to the store and exchange it?

Skarrgus · Post by **Skarrgus** » 20 Feb 2009, 00:48

That's what I've read online, regarding the output. I'll see about taking it back. I got it for $20, though... What should I look for when I open it up?

ShortScaleMike · Post by **ShortScaleMike** » 20 Feb 2009, 10:26

TubeDude22 wrote:The low output level is odd. Your pedal must have a problem. My CC Fuzz has an incredible hot output level. Can you take it back to the store and exchange it?

+1

It should be crushingly loud. Here is a demo I made of it:

TubeDude22 · Post by **TubeDude22** » 20 Feb 2009, 13:57

Skarrgus wrote:What should I look for when I open it up?

Look for flecks of tin causing a short somewhere. You should have ~4.5 volts on the output of each chip as well as on the emitter of the output transistor.

Skarrgus · Post by **Skarrgus** » 20 Feb 2009, 16:37

I A/B'd it with a friend's last night, and you're right- his was much louder and had a lot more bass presence throughout the sweep of the tone pot. Didn't notice anything like tin chips or anything, and air-dusted it just to be sure. To no avail. Mine's defective. I'm sending it in.

handyman · Post by **handyman** » 10 Mar 2009, 13:45

Never mind, I need to learn how to read.

Freakout510 · Post by **Freakout510** » 03 May 2009, 16:55

I've got one of these puppies; and I wasn't fond of the volume jump.
After learning that the volume pot is linear I went and replaced the pot with a standard log (it's volume man, why use linear?).

It successfully got the pedal to have more usable tones the lower settings; don't feel hunched anymore; and the higher registers get some more sustain. Overall it increased the fidelity of the pedal. you can still crank it to have it jump out in the mix.

Danelectro - CF-1 Cool Cat Fuzz [schematic]