Fairfield Circuitry - The Unpleasant Surprise

DWBH · Post by **DWBH** » 12 Dec 2011, 17:42

http://www.fairfieldcircuitry.com/US.html

Holy smokes. I bet there's an untraceable 4 layer board inside, just like the Four Eyes, but still...
I'm not usually interested in noise boxes - well, I think they're cool and all but I wouldn't certainly buy one. But this... oh my, I could see me buy one of these.

greigoroth · Post by **greigoroth** » 12 Dec 2011, 19:17

DWBH wrote:http://www.fairfieldcircuitry.com/US.html

Holy smokes. I bet there's an untraceable 4 layer board inside, just like the Four Eyes, but still...
I'm not usually interested in noise boxes - well, I think they're cool and all but I wouldn't certainly buy one. But this... oh my, I could see me buy one of these.

Yep! I'm broke till Christmas otherwise I'd preorder - never wanted a "noise" pedal before, but this thing's something else. If nothing else I'd buy it for the controls - with the exception of "volume" I have no idea what any of them do

On the other hand, volume could be some sort of trickery...

earthtonesaudio · Post by **earthtonesaudio** » 12 Dec 2011, 19:23

Digging the sound samples very much on this one.

Gotta disagree on the "untraceable" four-layer board comment though. If it's analog, it's traceable.

DWBH · Post by **DWBH** » 12 Dec 2011, 19:54

earthtonesaudio wrote:Digging the sound samples very much on this one.

Gotta disagree on the "untraceable" four-layer board comment though. If it's analog, it's traceable.

It was just a joke regarding the pcb that's on their other fuzz pedal

diagrammatiks · Post by **diagrammatiks** » 12 Dec 2011, 20:51

love fairfield.

only builder I know who discontinued a pedal because it was too complicated and too much of a clusterfuck to build.

respect.

dlab · Post by **dlab** » 12 Dec 2011, 21:26

Isn't that what happened to the Foxrox TZF too? Too complicated to keep in production?

Whoismarykelly · Post by **Whoismarykelly** » 14 Dec 2011, 16:49

earthtonesaudio wrote:Digging the sound samples very much on this one.

Gotta disagree on the "untraceable" four-layer board comment though. If it's analog, it's traceable.

A better way to say it would be "not tracable by posting pictures of the circuit board on a web forum for knowledgable folks to guess at."

earthtonesaudio · Post by **earthtonesaudio** » 14 Dec 2011, 19:40

Quite right. The knowledgeable person, the pedal in question, and some tools must all be in the same place at the same time.

In this day and age that's actually pretty good security!

diagrammatiks · Post by **diagrammatiks** » 14 Dec 2011, 20:08

earthtonesaudio wrote:Quite right. The knowledgeable person, the pedal in question, and some tools must all be in the same place at the same time.

In this day and age that's actually pretty good security!

i think the caveat is non-destructive tracing.

anybody could trace anything by dismantling it.

amnesiac · Post by **amnesiac** » 15 Dec 2011, 03:08

Looks to be smd as well. He posted the board on fb.

DWBH · Post by **DWBH** » 15 Dec 2011, 17:11

amnesiac wrote:Looks to be smd as well. He posted the board on fb.

Indeed

Whoismarykelly · Post by **Whoismarykelly** » 16 Dec 2011, 01:01

Dude designs gorgeous PCBs. That actually doesn't look like anything more than maybe a double sided board based on the traces in sight. I'm looking forward to the one of these I have coming in the mail

Gila_Crisis · Post by **Gila_Crisis** » 06 May 2014, 09:13

any more infos about what's inside this pedal?

Nocentelli · Post by **Nocentelli** » 06 May 2014, 13:02

My guess:

Input goes to a state variable filter (3 opamps or a dual OTA), LP output goes to low fuzz circuit, BP goes to Mid fuzz circuit, HP goes to Hi fuzz circuit. Some sort of dualgang pot controls the crossover frequency, simple switch to adjust feedback resistor for variable resonance, Lo/Mid/Hi controls are gain controls for each independant circuit, simple blend to mix the three outputs.

Gila_Crisis · Post by **Gila_Crisis** » 06 May 2014, 15:13

I think you are guessing about the Four Eye fuzz.....

the Unpleasant Surprise is this one:

here a pair of gut shots I found ohnline, but nothing to start with...

Nocentelli · Post by **Nocentelli** » 06 May 2014, 19:49

Gila_Crisis wrote:I think you are guessing about the Four Eye fuzz.....

doh.

allesz · Post by **allesz** » 07 May 2014, 15:09

It's an interesting pedal, the second pic is really good, but it's impossible to read the values.
I find strange that the only non smd parts are the two transistors....

winkelschleifer · Post by **winkelschleifer** » 27 Jun 2015, 15:26

Any new clues on this pedal?

Addy Bart · Post by **Addy Bart** » 29 Jul 2017, 00:22

diagrammatiks wrote:love fairfield.

only builder I know who discontinued a pedal because it was too complicated and too much of a clusterfuck to build.

respect.

Ha, which pedal was that then?

Nocentelli · Post by **Nocentelli** » 22 Jun 2020, 16:00

Come on, Bugg, get the schematic up