Saturday, October 28, 2023

CREEPY FINGERS: Lonely Hearts Fuzz

I do like some of the Beatles fuzz tones, and coincidentally I have a couple of Gretsch Guitars to match - so when I saw this, I thought I had to give it a try.  

It's very closely based on the preamp from the Vox UL series amps, which were used on Revolver and in some cases Sergeant Peppers.  Hence the name.

The Schematic can be found here, on Pedal PCB.


CREEPY FINGERS LONELY HEARTS FUZZ - VERO LAYOUT





Updated from V1 as it had an error - this layout (V1b) works just fine.   The 1k gate trimmer could be an external pot.  It is quite useful. 

Note that I used a different transistor for Q1, so the orientation is different to the layout above.  I didn’t have a BC319, so I used a 2N3565 instead.  



This is the signal taken from the collector of Q1 - it's dirty from the first stage.


Q2 collector, full fuzz.









8 comments:

  1. thanks, this looks cool, first time i've seen 1n4001s used in this way, you learn some new every day

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    Replies
    1. Hi Colin. I’ve seen a couple of other pedals using as clippers, but it’s not common. Just a another silicon diode really

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  2. Can 2N3904 replace BC319? Will the sound be very different?

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  3. Yes it can. It’s probably not going to make much difference, if any in this circuit.

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  4. I have checked your layout and found that there is a difference with the circuit diagram. The polarity of capacitor C1 is reversed. Is the circuit diagram incorrect?

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    Replies
    1. thank you - the layout has been corrected.

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    2. Can the 2.2uf capacitor be replaced with a CBB capacitor or MLCC capacitor of the same capacitance? Recently, I purchased some 47UF and 100UF 50V ceramic chip capacitors. Can I use these non-polarized chip capacitors for power supply filtering?

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    3. Hi Ding

      Yes to both questions.

      I've tested this circuit on LTspice, and I've found that the 2.2uf capacitors can also be reduced down to 1uf with very little difference in frequency response.

      The original circuit uses a 47n capacitor instead of the 56n capacitor that Creepy Fingers has used. This shifts the mid frequency a little.

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