Astrotone - Fuzz  [schematic]

Discussion regarding early stompbox technology: 1960-1975 Please keep discussion focused and contribute what info you have...
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DougH
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Post by DougH »

"You have just tubescreamered or fuzzfaced yourself " -polarbearfx

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Post by jrod »

Nice sound clips, Doug!

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Post by Fuzzer »

I jsut don't get it. It's not that great.
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dajm
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Post by dajm »

gut shot of the Analogman Astrotone over at the gearpage forum, shown below the Bi-Compressor in this post.

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showpo ... tcount=832

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analogguru
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Post by analogguru »

Hey, thats rip-off what Analogman is doing here. This unit has nothing to do with an Astrotone clone.

The unit with the 1M2 at Q2 had a 3M3 resistor at the base of Q1 (instead of the 1M2 used). And the unit with equal values had 2 x 1M (instead of the 1M2 used). There was never used a 470n capacitor, neither in the Astrotone nor in the Sam Ash Fuzz Box. The capacitors were 47nF, and in the Astrotone were ceramic types:
Image

Analogman knows this exactly, as you can see here:
http://www.analogman.com/graphics/astro ... rotone.htm

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Post by 5thumbs »

Slightly off-topic from the circuit analysis going on in this thread, but did anyone else notice the letter upon which the AstroFuzz was lying on AnalogMan's page? Looks like Mike got to repair David Gilmour's AstroFuzz. (Lucky bastard. *jealous*)

Kind of reminds me of Dano (of Beavis Audio Research) getting to fix a delay unit originating from Frank Zappa's "Utility Muffin Research Kitchen".

Just an observation, that's all...as you were, gentlemen. ;)
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Post by Electric Warrior »

analogguru wrote:Hey, thats rip-off what Analogman is doing here. This unit has nothing to do with an Astrotone clone.

The unit with the 1M2 at Q2 had a 3M3 resistor at the base of Q1 (instead of the 1M2 used). And the unit with equal values had 2 x 1M (instead of the 1M2 used). There was never used a 470n capacitor, neither in the Astrotone nor in the Sam Ash Fuzz Box. The capacitors were 47nF, and in the Astrotone were ceramic types:

Analogman knows this exactly, as you can see here:
http://www.analogman.com/graphics/astro ... rotone.htm

analogguru
It's not supposed to be an exact clone: http://www.analogman.com/astrotone.htm

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Post by analogguru »

Electric Warrior wrote:It's not supposed to be an exact clone:
Oh, I see....

I always thought when there is "Mercedes" written on a car then it is a "Mercedes". And when there is written "Astrotone" on a pedal.... Maybe with "Astroclone" I wouldn´t have had this problem.

Sorry about my mistake.

So the Analogman "Astroclone" is a modded Astrotone (Sam Ash Fuzzz Boxx) with the following sacred component values:
input coupling cap: 470n
bias resistor Q1: 1M2 collector resistor: 22k
coupling cap: 47n
clipping diodes: silicon (or schottky)
coupling cap: 47n
bias divider: 1M2 - 470k emitter resistor: 1k8
output coupling cap: 470n
tone resistor: 470 Ohm (instead 1k8)

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Post by Electric Warrior »

here's an interesting one: http://dam.10.forumer.com/viewtopic.php ... highlight=
but I guess the wiring of the tone pot may be wrong in the schematic.

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Post by lolbou »

analogguru wrote:I always thought when there is "Mercedes" written on a car then it is a "Mercedes".
My Dad always says "if the toilet lid reads Bénédictine, don't drink as it's not"... :wink:

Though I'm with you for the Astroclone name to have been better instead... :( At least he almost clearly mentions the origins and "mods" of his unit...
- Are you a mod or a rocker?
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Post by jrod »

Electric Warrior wrote:here's an interesting one: http://dam.10.forumer.com/viewtopic.php ... highlight=
but I guess the wiring of the tone pot may be wrong in the schematic.
I actually read last night on another forum that a couple of values on this schematic might be wrong. The 3M3 and the 820R from Q1 emitter are not on other schematics. Someone built this one and it had very little gain.

Edit: Found the link - https://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/ ... ic=71289.0 (about halfway down page)

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Post by Electric Warrior »

Leon mentioned that it has additional resistors, where some other units have wire jumpers (like the one AG posted earlier).

Edit: There may be more mistakes in that schematic, but we have no indications of any..

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Post by DougH »

Fuzzer wrote:I jsut don't get it. It's not that great.
It's not really all that great. It's okay, that's it. The tone control really sucks, and I think a lot of diy-er's (me included) modify that to improve it. I thought it was sort of cool and enjoyed the challenge of using the PVC pipe but once I built it I rarely use it. But then I rarely use any gain pedals anymore.

I think the interest in it was due to it being another "uncovered rock" in the world of stompbox circuits at the time. Most of the good ones had already been uncovered, now this was one of the other ones that was left.
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Post by Seiche »

sorry for digging this out. I was wondering if there is any schematic of the Analogman Version of this pedal. I know Analogguru already named the differences, but it's difficult for me from this thread to tell which schematic is wrong or incorrect and which isn't. Cheers.

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Post by Seiche »

Would this be the correct schem? can anyone confirm?

https://img694.imageshack.us/img694/576 ... nversi.jpg

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roseblood11
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Post by roseblood11 »

no idea...

but which program do you use to draw those schematics?

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Post by Seiche »

roseblood11 wrote:no idea...

but which program do you use to draw those schematics?
you should ask fuzzer (thread starter), i used ms paint :slap: :mrgreen:

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Post by Seiche »

If i wanted to build this, what would you guys recommend as the transistors? I imagine the ones from the 60s have fairly low gain around 100. Any advises?

would give it a shot soon.

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Post by Solidhex »

2N2222's

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Post by mictester »

Seiche wrote:If i wanted to build this, what would you guys recommend as the transistors? I imagine the ones from the 60s have fairly low gain around 100. Any advises?

would give it a shot soon.
You could go for 2N2222 or if you're not worried about "intellectual property" you could use a transistor array like a 3046! If you do use the transistor array, you could use two of the transistors for the diodes (you'd even get temperature compensation, that way :D ) and the extra spare transistor for your "Millennium Bypass".
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