Zvex - Fuzz Factory  [traced]

General documentation, gut shot, schematic links, ongoing circuit tracing, deep thoughts ... all about boutique stompboxes.
Post Reply
User avatar
modman
a d m i n
Information
Posts: 4890
Joined: 19 Jun 2007, 16:57
Has thanked: 4394 times
Been thanked: 2131 times

Post by modman »

Now I'm so glad I can just post a link :D

Here's that incredible French project to make your own zvex Fuzz Fact. clone. And there's that Japanese page where you can still make out the values to compare them.

and I thought I had a schematic around, but will have to check and get back...

ZJ
Last edited by modman on 23 Jul 2007, 16:05, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
analogguru
Old Solderhand
Information
Posts: 3238
Joined: 26 Jun 2007, 13:58
Been thanked: 124 times
Contact:

Post by analogguru »

After I have written five nonsense-posts I can place a link to the schematic.

analogguru

User avatar
modman
a d m i n
Information
Posts: 4890
Joined: 19 Jun 2007, 16:57
Has thanked: 4394 times
Been thanked: 2131 times

Post by modman »

analogguru wrote:After I have written five nonsense-posts I can place a link to the schematic.

analogguru
Man, you on fire!

Anyways, on topic here's a by the man himself.

User avatar
soulsonic
Old Solderhand
Information
Posts: 3880
Joined: 27 Jun 2007, 03:38
my favorite amplifier: Traynor YVM-1
Completed builds: too many!
Location: Morgantown, WV
Has thanked: 183 times
Been thanked: 468 times
Contact:

Post by soulsonic »

Here's a schematic I drew up. Does it look right? It's based on an unreadable one I found somewhere in the Wired. It seems to match up with gut shots I've seen.

ZVexFuzzFactory.gif

(edited by Admin: for readability of the forum, very large image are better linked to than embedded. thanks)

User avatar
bajaman
Old Solderhand
Information
Posts: 4549
Joined: 26 Jun 2007, 21:18
Location: New Brighton, Christchurch, NZ
Has thanked: 595 times
Been thanked: 2056 times

Post by bajaman »

Hey Hey!
Isn't that a EH LPB (or screaming bird etc)bipolar boost in front of a Dallas Arbiter fuzz Face, with a slightly better output connection and a whole lot of extra controls???
And "he" says it is a completely original design on "his" website!
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm :shock:

User avatar
modman
a d m i n
Information
Posts: 4890
Joined: 19 Jun 2007, 16:57
Has thanked: 4394 times
Been thanked: 2131 times

Post by modman »

bajaman wrote:Hey Hey!
Isn't that a EH LPB (or screaming bird etc)bipolar boost in front of a Dallas Arbiter fuzz Face, with a slightly better output connection and a whole lot of extra controls???
And "he" says it is a completely original design on "his" website!
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm :shock:

Wow, man you are right. Classic booster driving a classic Ge Fuzz face with extra controls. Probably is true what he said -- that he thought it up one night at the kitchen table.

Prime example of how 'new' effects are made - block building, really. Still a great design and a great box: economical and efficient. But the low part count makes is very vulnerable for cloning....

great post,
keep it up

User avatar
bajaman
Old Solderhand
Information
Posts: 4549
Joined: 26 Jun 2007, 21:18
Location: New Brighton, Christchurch, NZ
Has thanked: 595 times
Been thanked: 2056 times

Post by bajaman »

....and improving :)
thanks modman - for the opportunity to post my thoughts freely 8)

User avatar
bajaman
Old Solderhand
Information
Posts: 4549
Joined: 26 Jun 2007, 21:18
Location: New Brighton, Christchurch, NZ
Has thanked: 595 times
Been thanked: 2056 times

Post by bajaman »

Don't worry i intend to keep it up ( at least while I can - i am nearly a senior, or is that senile citizen, with a lot of knowledge to share before i bite the dust) :lol: :lol: :lol:

User avatar
modman
a d m i n
Information
Posts: 4890
Joined: 19 Jun 2007, 16:57
Has thanked: 4394 times
Been thanked: 2131 times

Post by modman »

the great 'Fuzz Factory still up at Ampage thread'

exchanges between RG an VZEX are great reading
Anyway, I believe that all of the people who think that the super-secret circuits that *they* have come up with (or cobbled together from other stuff)are the keys to the kingdom are a little bit deluded. And yes, zach, I do get all wound up when someone copies my words and artwork. The difference is The Rules. For better or worse, we have an arbitrary set of Rules. The Rules say, "Artwork, images, and words are protected. Ideas, unless patented, are not."

zachary and others who get voluntary non-disclosure are very lucky guys. There aren't any Rules against disclosure, but through force of personality and appeal to others' ideas of fair play, they get non-disclosure. This is good, and we're all playing nice, as we should.

In any case, I believe it would not affect Z Vex sales any for the schemos to be posted. The people who would build them are not the people who buy them now. They're different sets of people. However, most boutique pedal makers were themselves builders once, and I think that makes the separation of builders and capitalizers harder for them to see, because they're themselves one of the few people who would tinker, build, then sell. It must make it seem like everyone is like them. Zachary is not by any means the only boutique maker that this discussion applies to, just the one we see here. Many of use remember Mike Fuller's net-rage when his Fulldrive modification of the TS-9 was traced out.

So - I think the posting or not posting issue is overblown, but being an emotional issue will not go away.

R.G.

User avatar
Lexx
Information
Posts: 11
Joined: 27 Jun 2007, 11:03

Post by Lexx »

modman wrote:Wow, man you are right. Classic booster driving a classic Ge Fuzz face with extra controls. Probably is true what he said -- that he thought it up one night at the kitchen table.
is not it more similar to tonebender mark ii?

http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/dia ... _sc_pn.gif

lexx

User avatar
bajaman
Old Solderhand
Information
Posts: 4549
Joined: 26 Jun 2007, 21:18
Location: New Brighton, Christchurch, NZ
Has thanked: 595 times
Been thanked: 2056 times

Post by bajaman »

Hi Lexx,
Yes, i forgot that one - one of my personal favourites too :D
I have a small quantity of OC81 transistors left from the 60s - okay i know they are not the fabled OC81D type, but my recollection was that the D type were designed for output stages and were fitted with a heatsink enclosing the OC81.
Anyway they do sound nice and can instantly transport you back to early Yardbirds days. :D
Cheers
steve

User avatar
analogguru
Old Solderhand
Information
Posts: 3238
Joined: 26 Jun 2007, 13:58
Been thanked: 124 times
Contact:

Post by analogguru »

@modman
OOhhh...I see you have a good stomach - maybe this is something of interest for you:

http://www.muzique.com/schem/Aron_archives4.html

Here some excerpts:
Re: EBow
Saturday, 07-Aug-1999 04:21:55
166.133.0.212 writes:
e-bows are one of those special mysterious things... they encase their circuit in some kind of pink goo, hard as a rock... the encapsulant is probably dissolvable in some carcinogen, but i can tell you first had from busting open one (and destroying it) that e-bows certainly are not simply an electromagnet. there is something special in there, something that should never be understood. i hope i never see a schematic for one.
.....
zachary vex


Re: Re: EBow
Saturday, 07-Aug-1999 15:03:16
130.161.4.7 writes:
There´s a patent available too at the IBM patent database. Zachary, don´t you look now...
Mike Burgundy



Re: Re: Re: EBow
Sunday, 08-Aug-1999 04:53:55
166.133.0.212 writes:
i don't do clones. there was a partial rip-off of the apollo fuzz-wah in my octane pedal. i discontinued it. i would highly suggest to all of you, as i have in previous posts, to investigate the unknown, as well as the already invented.reinventing does not earn you credit in heaven. turn away from all that is in the past, and stare off the precipice into the unknown, and remember this: it's a hell of a lot brighter in the unknown than in the region called "that which shall never be known." bring your own flashlights, gentlemen. and a spare set of batteries.
zachary vex


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: EBow
Sunday, 08-Aug-1999 15:19:10
166.133.0.212 writes:
oops. well, you're right... i was being a little intense there... i certainly have a huge collection of schematics that i use as a basis for problem-solving, inspiration and design. but i want to keep reminding you to do things different. many of the basic circuits that we take for granted now were partly discovered by accident. like the theremin, which started as an annoyance... an rf oscillator that changed operating frequency as you walked up to it. some russian discovered that if you had two of them, they generated beat frequencies that you could hear as a pitch that would rise and fall with distance to the body... voila!
zachary vex


ZZ top sound
Wednesday, 04-Aug-1999 16:08:36
208.144.114.4 writes:
Zachary anybody, on the ZZ Top song LOADED is that sick sound an expandora or a Fuzz Factory?
Gus



Re: ZZ top sound
Thursday, 05-Aug-1999 22:46:31
166.133.0.212 writes:
well, he has both. dunno... i don't have the record. is that the rhythmean (meen?) album? cuz if it is, my stuff isn't on there. he bought about 25 of my effects during the tour supporting that record, but he had never seen them before that. i invented the fuzz factory at 5:00 am on saturday november 25, 1995. i met him almost exactly a year later while he was on the preliminary tour (small venues) for the record and he wanted christmas presents for all the people who had helped him with the record. he had bought up all the stock at a couple of my dealers already... his secretary denise contacted me with addresses and i ended up mailing a pile of those pedals to his friends directly with little notes saying "from billy" in my handwriting. wacky. his purchase made it possible for me to escape a storefront i lived in during the middle of that subzero winter. the furnace was going out in that place and it was in the forties at night indoors. my hands were so cold that i couldn't even pick up an eighth-watt resistor. thanks, billy. saved my butt. nice guy, too. skinny as a fishing rod. i saw his eyes once through those dark sunglasses when the light was just right.... very scary. he gave me a bunch of tickets and backstage passes for the show, and we had dinner after his concert, late night pizza. he wanted me find him a perkin's, but i convinced him that pizza was a better bet... he ate most of a large by himself. consumed a dozen diet cokes. and you'd think he would have had one of those lumps like a snake gets when it eats a kitten, but nope. nothin. we talked about pickups and pedals and he had this magician with him doing card tricks at the table, a vegas guy, who had built some magic tricks for one of billy's tours years before, and we talked about the trapdoors and chutes and smoke and poor dusty screaming bloody murder every time he had to do this falling stunt. all the time billy was eyeing this girl behind the counter, she couldn't have been more than 18, a punker with a million piercings and tattoos, but nice looking. when he left the place i stayed for a bit to talk to some friends, and told her as i left that billy gibbons had remarked that she was good looking. her knees buckled... she gasped, "i thought that was him! but i... i... i already have a boyfriend!" cripes. she probably only knew him from "legs". i guess rock and roll will never die. it'll just get wrinkly. really really wrinkly.
oops, was that off topic? i hate a chatty bbs. heh.
zachary vex


the solution.
Wednesday, 04-Aug-1999 07:28:44
166.133.0.212 writes:
it's easy to see why pedals are so fun for guitarists.
they are small, underfoot (rackmount stuff has to be kicked if you are playing with both hands... as well it should be), they can be rearranged at will to create new interactions... they are easy to eliminate from your signal chain, easy to trade, sell, loan, hide, or hand to a repairperson for diagnosis (while the rest of your gear remains intact), can be tucked into a guitar case, pocket, or bag... and make your system flexible and understandable.
goshdarnit, stompboxes will always be around.
invent one today. think of the future! some kid is gonna need that thing. blow your own mind first, the rest will follow. and pray for the future of that bizarre yet eternal hope, the carbon-zinc nine-volt battery.
zachary vex
I believe with this arrogant b*llsh*t-talk he will never "earn credit in heaven"... God will send him to hell....

analogguru
There´s a sucker born every minute - and too many of them end up in the bootweak pedal biz.

User avatar
bajaman
Old Solderhand
Information
Posts: 4549
Joined: 26 Jun 2007, 21:18
Location: New Brighton, Christchurch, NZ
Has thanked: 595 times
Been thanked: 2056 times

Post by bajaman »

Hi AG
Now now, don't get bitter :wink:
This is a great site, and your excerpts make fun reading.
No one here disputes your knowledge or intelligence, lets just stay on task on this forum and leave judgement to the Big Guy (or Gal) upstairs.
Peace and Love
:D Steve

User avatar
modman
a d m i n
Information
Posts: 4890
Joined: 19 Jun 2007, 16:57
Has thanked: 4394 times
Been thanked: 2131 times

Post by modman »

analogguru wrote:@modman
OOhhh...I see you have a good stomach - maybe this is something of interest for you:

http://www.muzique.com/schem/Aron_archives4.html

I believe with this arrogant b*llsh*t-talk he will never "earn credit in heaven"... man will send him to hell....

analogguru
hi guru,

Fascinating reading, but what is that, Jack's personal notepad from the forum? Of course, you are right, but don't get too hung up zv. He just did everything he could to protect his business including lying and misleading people.

What is sadder is that this censorship is maintained and but not supported by the older members (RG, Jack, Gus, TG, Doug H, ....) who don't agree with it at all. Still Aron decides, and since his forum has become a worldwide diy stompbox platform, they just stick to the rules out of courtesy. That is ok.

But it is creating a misleading atmosphere on the board where newbies are unwillingly brought up in the myth of absolute orginality and mojo, though of course there is very little of that in stompbox making. Thanks for showing some early patents. If there is a patent that still only means you cannot commercialize the idea, but you can apply it for personal use.

In his own kind way, Aron communicated very vaguely about these matters in the courtesy of not wanting to name people. In the 'Since when did it become bad...' thread he starts out saying, "this is not directed at you, x" which it wasn't, it was xx. It was about posting an unverified layout made from an unverified schematic that coudn't be linked to on the board because of the censorship rules. In this thread Aron starts out promoting publishing schematics (except the known friends of course...) which indeed is the right thing to do...

There should at least be a clear list of what is forbidden, so we can keep updating! :lol:
BTW, what made the SHO an exception to the rule?

zj

User avatar
analogguru
Old Solderhand
Information
Posts: 3238
Joined: 26 Jun 2007, 13:58
Been thanked: 124 times
Contact:

Post by analogguru »

Mr. Zvex himself.... He wanted to proof, that the cloners make better stompboxes than he himself. Have a look:

http://zvex.com/copycat/

From this I drew my first SHO-schematic, long before I found the japanese site. Thanks Zakki....

analogguru
There´s a sucker born every minute - and too many of them end up in the bootweak pedal biz.

User avatar
modman
a d m i n
Information
Posts: 4890
Joined: 19 Jun 2007, 16:57
Has thanked: 4394 times
Been thanked: 2131 times

Post by modman »

analogguru wrote:Mr. Zvex himself.... He wanted to proof, that the cloners make better stompboxes than he himself. Have a look:

http://zvex.com/copycat/

From this I drew my first SHO-schematic, long before I found the japanese site. Thanks Zakki....

analogguru
Yeah, :D :shock: :lol: :D that page was a subtle stroke of genius!
He really does it to himself, ...

zj

User avatar
soulsonic
Old Solderhand
Information
Posts: 3880
Joined: 27 Jun 2007, 03:38
my favorite amplifier: Traynor YVM-1
Completed builds: too many!
Location: Morgantown, WV
Has thanked: 183 times
Been thanked: 468 times
Contact:

Post by soulsonic »

Sorry about the giant pic of the schaltplan. :oops:
But, as you can see, there's nothing fancy happening there. I have a fuzz I call the Shizzle which is pretty much the same concept of a Rangemaster boosting a Fuzz Face (I got the idea when I used my Rangemaster to boost my Fuzz Face and it sounded great.... suprised?). Anyway, though they are similar, I came up with mine well before I had any knowledge of the Fuzz Factory, and my fuzz has a COMPLETELY different set of controls and likely a completely different tone. I believe comparing the Fuzz Factory to the Shizzle does much to show the difference of my design philosophy compared to that of ZVex. I would like to post my schaltplan for the Shizzle so everyone knows what I'm talking about, but I'm afraid I can't reveal all the component values...... someone has to buy one and trace it out if they want to know that stuff :wink: . I'm not into "secrets", but I'd like to at least sell a few before the whole world knows how it works.......

Yeah, I'll post the schematic for the Shizzle - I'll just leave a couple little things out.... you'd still be able to build it, it just won't sound exactly like the one I sell. I'm sure a savvy builder could make it do whatever he/she wants.

User avatar
bajaman
Old Solderhand
Information
Posts: 4549
Joined: 26 Jun 2007, 21:18
Location: New Brighton, Christchurch, NZ
Has thanked: 595 times
Been thanked: 2056 times

Post by bajaman »

Hi soulsonic
I had the same experience (plugged my germanium rangemaster into a fuzz face clone - it gives a great sound :D )
hey, i might even post my Hot Cake variation too :lol:
Good luck with your pedal sales, and thanks for sharing mate 8)
Steve

User avatar
Igloo
Solder Soldier
Information
Posts: 171
Joined: 08 Jul 2007, 09:33
Been thanked: 3 times

Post by Igloo »

Here's an image of the board from the French site...

Fuzz Factory pcb Layout

For a bit of fun

Factory de Fuzz vero layout

(admin: edited to text links)
Last edited by Igloo on 13 Jul 2007, 03:36, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
Igloo
Solder Soldier
Information
Posts: 171
Joined: 08 Jul 2007, 09:33
Been thanked: 3 times

Post by Igloo »

:D :D :D

Post Reply