Top Gear - Fuzz Sustain - 3 knob  [schematic]

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

This just in. The housing appears to be resin. The two knob version also appears as the Guild Grizzly Fuzz, but with plain metal casing.

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tube-exorcist
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Post by tube-exorcist »

Thanks for the nice pictures. The only still unanswered question is: what is written on that brown ceramic capacitor beside the two diodes ?
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nightraven
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Post by nightraven »

tube-exorcist wrote:Thanks for the nice pictures. The only still unanswered question is: what is written on that brown ceramic capacitor beside the two diodes ?
You're not the first person to ask that question. Here's a photo from my Fuzz Sustain (before I sold it - dreadful pedal). You wanted to know what was written, but somehow I don't think this answers the fundamental question :D

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tube-exorcist
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Post by tube-exorcist »

Only this is written on it or a secret on the other side?
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nightraven
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Post by nightraven »

tube-exorcist wrote:Only this is written on it or a secret on the other side?
I guess it's either the same on the other side, or nothing at all. Otherwise I'd have taken a picture of that as well. I seem to remember some confusion about this capacitor a while ago.
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Nocentelli
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Post by Nocentelli »

Just came across a schematic for this traced from photos by ciaran haslett over at tagboardfx about five years ago....
ZiCgnFn_d (1).webp
ZiCgnFn_d (1).webp (11 KiB) Viewed 3514 times
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Manfred
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Post by Manfred »

i made a PCB clone for it, only the traces running under the Tone potentiometer are not visible.
I assumed that there is a trace ring around the potentiometer hole that connects the case to the PCB ground.
The part names are in accordance with the schematic above.
TopGearFuzzSustain3-KnobLayout.JPG
TopGearFuzzMyGuessLayoutDetail.JPG
Ready to print PDF files:
TopGearFuzzSustainComponentSide.pdf
(13.23 KiB) Downloaded 158 times
TopGearFuzzSustainSolderSide.pdf
(11.4 KiB) Downloaded 152 times
Sprint Layout6.0 file:
Top Gear Fuzz Sustain - 3 knobLayout.zip
(19.83 KiB) Downloaded 156 times

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BillyTex
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Post by BillyTex »

Thank you for this schematic. I'm getting used to this site, and will definitely show thanks by posting some of my modded schematics, and Kicad files in the future for everyone to use,,,when I figure it all out

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snk
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Post by snk »

Thank you Manfred,
I built it the other month using a veroboard layout.
It's a quite odd pedal, but i like it :)
It's not a fuzz (more an overdrive), and I like the way the gain affects tone (bit like a MXR Dist+).
I'd be curious to try the other pedals from that Top Gear line (the phasers, the rotator...)

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