Kimberly Buzz Box and Volume Expander pedal 1968

pinkjimiphoton · Post by **pinkjimiphoton** » 04 Nov 2013, 00:48

never heard of one, but it looks kinda cool...

any ideas what it is?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/60s-VINTAGE-RA ... 4d0b621ead

jrod · Post by **jrod** » 04 Nov 2013, 01:50

This should be the same as the Conrad Buzz Box & Volume Expander.

jallenshaw · Post by **jallenshaw** » 04 Nov 2013, 02:35

See the bottom of this page>>>> http://tonebender.webs.com/fuzz.htm

pinkjimiphoton · Post by **pinkjimiphoton** » 04 Nov 2013, 03:15

looks to be different, in the ebay pics you can see a diode clipper pretty clearly.

i've built the umi.... dave/lucifer's trip figured out the issue with this, the schematic has a mistake,

LucifersTrip · Post by **LucifersTrip** » 04 Nov 2013, 09:20

jallenshaw wrote:See the bottom of this page>>>> http://tonebender.webs.com/fuzz.htm

the funny thing is that, I believe, all (the last 4) of those Fuzz Rite type circuit schematics are wrong or incomplete.

the Orpheum si doesn't have the pots listed (did anyone ever confirm those?), the Orpheum ge is missing the .1uf to ground from between the two 47K's, on the UMI, the .0022uF goes to the .15uF/4.7K/1M junction instead of Q2B, and the Conrad probably has the same error?

LucifersTrip · Post by **LucifersTrip** » 04 Nov 2013, 09:44

maybe someone can recognize it from some values...what can you guys make out?

brown/green/yellow/silver = 150K
red/red/red/silver = 2.2K (if orange, 33K)
brown/black/green/silver = 1M

only the last matches a Conrad/ UMI

there's a couple other related ones at the Effect DB

http://www.effectsdatabase.com/model/au ... s/fuzzound
Apollo 843 Buzz Box & Volume Expander
Kimberly Buzz Box and Volume Expander

jrod · Post by **jrod** » 04 Nov 2013, 21:44

pinkjimiphoton wrote:looks to be different, in the ebay pics you can see a diode clipper pretty clearly.

Yup! I do see those clipping diodes now that you pointed them out.

LucifersTrip · Post by **LucifersTrip** » 04 Nov 2013, 23:52

...and is that a yellow/white/red/silver = 4.9K (if orange, 49K) ?

jrod · Post by **jrod** » 04 Nov 2013, 23:56

Looks like Yellow/White (or very faded violet), Red to me.

LucifersTrip · Post by **LucifersTrip** » 05 Nov 2013, 01:11

jrod wrote:Looks like Yellow/White (or very faded violet), Red to me.

4.7K would make more sense

pinkjimiphoton · Post by **pinkjimiphoton** » 05 Nov 2013, 16:32

did you guys read the guy's description? i think he's on lsd, but he says every time you stomp it it sounds different.

so i'd bet on germanium, but i'm but i'm not savvy enough yet to id it by components. to me, it kinda looks like a fuzzmite variant with a full wave rectifier (if thaat's what ya call a diode clipper)

could it actually be something new, maybe?

maybe i could ask the guy to send me some better gut shots?

Intripped · Post by **Intripped** » 05 Nov 2013, 17:00

pinkjimiphoton wrote: [...]
so i'd bet on germanium [...]

in the description he says: "Loaded with rare RCA 2N2613 FW 7D transistors."
that actually are PNP germanium transistors

pinkjimiphoton · Post by **pinkjimiphoton** » 05 Nov 2013, 17:11

i asked him (quite politely for me) for some more detailed gut shots.

this has gotta be something we've seen before but we're not recognizing. hard to tell from the pics...
my eyes are too dodgy to tell the colours very well... brown and violet, yellow and white, orange and red are hard for me to distinguish at this point,
even when they're in front of me.

i'm not color blind, just hard of seeing i guess.

hopefully he'll respond. be nice to find another new old fuzz.

jrod · Post by **jrod** » 05 Nov 2013, 18:34

I looked over the gut shots pretty good last night and tried to compare them to schematics I have saved and couldn't come up with anything. I don't recall seeing any two germanium transistor circuits with clipping diodes. I looks like there are only 3 caps and they are electrolytic, so they are probably large values (1uF on up). Couldn't match up the caps or resistor values that are visible. My best guess is it could a stripped down version of the Conrad/Umi type circuit (no tone control) with clipping diodes?

I hope you do get some more guts shots, pinkjimiphoton. It'll be cool to see what this circuit is. I am certainly anxious to find out!

Thanks for starting the BTW!!!

LucifersTrip · Post by **LucifersTrip** » 05 Nov 2013, 20:17

Intripped wrote:
pinkjimiphoton wrote: [...]
so i'd bet on germanium [...]
in the description he says: "Loaded with rare RCA 2N2613 FW 7D transistors."
that actually are PNP germanium transistors

I forgot to mention that that's what you'll see listed in the original Q1 in a FuzzRite
http://www.mosritecelebrity.com/_wp_gen ... 7c8b52.gif

LucifersTrip · Post by **LucifersTrip** » 05 Nov 2013, 20:21

jrod wrote:I looked over the gut shots pretty good last night and tried to compare them to schematics I have saved and couldn't come up with anything. I don't recall seeing any two germanium transistor circuits with clipping diodes. I looks like

there is actually the Sekova /Apollo / Crestwood, but it's not that...and those prob all (the Sekova does) use Japanese transistors, also.
http://analogguru.an.ohost.de/001/schem ... _FA-II.gif

theehman · Post by **theehman** » 05 Nov 2013, 20:38

The construction puts me in mind of the Rogue Fuzz.

pinkjimiphoton · Post by **pinkjimiphoton** » 05 Nov 2013, 23:18

i heard back from the guy, he wanted to know what specifically i wanna see... suggestions?

i'm thinking cap values... can you guys make out the circuit enough to trace it if i can get the values out of him?

Solidhex · Post by **Solidhex** » 06 Nov 2013, 06:49

From what I can see it has a somewhat of a Fuzzrite structure. Q1 has that electro from the input jack connected to its base. The -9V supply feeds a 2K2 or 33K connected to its collector with a 1M across the collector/base junction. Both transistors' emitters appear to be grounded. The fuzz control is like a Fuzzrite with the output of Q1 on lug1 and Q2 on lug3. Q2 has another one of the 2K2 or 33K's on its collector but with a 150K across the collector/base junction this time. The question now is how the third 2K2/33K, the 4K7, and the diode pair are connected as well as the switching arrangement. The output of Q1 has to get to the base of Q2 somehow. I could be wrong but I think the final 2K2/33K connects to Q1's output cap on the fuzz control. The other end connects to the diode pair which is grounded on the output jacks' ground lug. The 4K7 is also connected to this junction with its other end connected to Q2's base. I could be wrong though as these pics are blurry and have some stuff obscured. My guess about the switching is that it connects lugs 1 and 3 together. The phase cancellation would reduce the gain...

jrod · Post by **jrod** » 06 Nov 2013, 14:53

pinkjimiphoton wrote:i heard back from the guy, he wanted to know what specifically i wanna see... suggestions?

i'm thinking cap values... can you guys make out the circuit enough to trace it if i can get the values out of him?

Cool! Maybe some clearer closeup shots of the circuit, cap and pot values?

Kimberly Buzz Box and Volume Expander pedal 1968 [schematic]