I saw this "FUZZ BOX" on two pedalboards at an amazing show in Richmond, VA, as a part of some epic tonez, so I had to throw one together. I decided to make my own layout (verified, below) so I could fit it in a mini pedal if desired, and use certain components I wanted to use. Since I'm going to end up with three knobs it's going to go in a larger enclosure anyway, but I'm happy with my layout.
this is a great sounding fuzz. I would not recommend settling on the 82R resistor, that sound is very very dark sounding without much definition. I liked adding a 2K pot in series with it for a range of EQ, gain level, and fuzz characteristics. before I box it up I will probably replace the 1K for a Gain control, since this pedal does not clean up well with the guitar volume control (neither does the Meathead), and with a high output guitar I'll probably want to tame the gain just a tiny bit. The sound quality is similar to the Meathead (who would have guessed, right) but the EQ profile is very different. The meathead is all about the midrange, like a MK II tonebender or something, good for bluesy riffing and stuff, but it's at the expense of the bass end. The One Knob Fuzz is this huge raging fuzz tone more like a Wooly Mammoth or something, big fat hairy bass. It's better, for me, than the meathead for playing power riffs and stuff like that. The clipping sounds asymmetrical to me so it's got a nice aggressive characteristic. anything past 2K on the "82R" resistor sounded kind of choked and bad so I decided on that value for my "character" pot.
It's so cool to me how many different sounds you can get out of the same basic circuit architecture (all the fuzz faces, one knob fuzz, meathead, vox tonebender) just by varying part values
my layout
my build
