D*A*M: Dragonfly DF-06

This the D*A*M Dragonfly DF-06, which is somewhat confusingly not the same circuit as the D*A*M Drag n Fly.  They're both in the Fuzz Face family, but they each approach the tone control differently.  The Drag n Fly does the tone shaping up front, while the Dragonfly does it at the end of the circuit, using a method similar to a MKIII.

Not having one available to trace, I’ve relied on photos available online.  Unfortunately a few capacitor values can't be seen, however, on the upside, it's not hard to guess what they might be to get something very close to the mark.

For me the key value is the capacitor forming a high-pass filter in the tone section.  Breadboard it and see what you like, or be prepared for a bit of soldering on the vero board.  The other caps certainly have a role to play, my feeling is that while they contribute to the overall bass response, the filter section is where the magic happens. 

Possible high-pass filter values:

24k    4n7    1.3khz

24k    3n3    2khz

24k    2n2    3khz

D*A*M DRAGONFLY DF-06    0.15" VERO LAYOUT 

TRANSISTORS

It's a hybrid silicon / germanium circuit.  The DF-06 below uses a BC337 & an OC141.  The BC337 is very similar to a 2N2222A which us a regular low gain NPN transistor.  Just watch the transistor pinouts, as the BC will be the reverse of the 2N.  i.e.  Flipped 180 degrees.

If you don't have any decent NPN germanium transistors, drop in a silicon and I'm sure it will still work - but you may need to tweak some resistor values to get it to work well.   This may even be the case with germanium transistors, as I’m sure Dave Main will have biased this to get what he wanted out of these particular transistors.  

STYRO CAPS

As you can see, the styro cap (the silver one) on the input to ground is larger than the one in the high pass filter section, which leads me to believe that it's probably a 10n, similar to what might be found on a MKII Tone Bender.

D*A*M DRAGONFLY SCHEMATIC

As a few values are not known, this is really just a guide to what the circuit looks like ands it's handy for me to test possible values in LTspice.  Where values are unknown, I think a safe bet is running with component values used in fuzz faces and tone benders.  Seems like an obvious choice.  An AC127 was used in LTspice, as I didn't have access to the model for an OC141.

Like most things pedal related, and I've mentioned this before - nothing beats building it and testing values on a bread board.  

If you want to play with the LTspice file, you can find it here.  If you don't have the right transistors in your library, just change them to a generic low-gain silicon transistor.

INPUT CAP C2

I've shown a few values below, which as mentioned above, are probably common fuzz face or tone bender values.

TONE CONTROL - HPF CAP C4

C4 forms a high pass filter with R6, the 24k resistor to ground.  The high pass filter is mixed in with a direct signal from Q2 via C3 (100n cap).  This is quite similar to a MKIII Tone Bender arrangement.

Lower value = more mids.  Higher values have a bit more sizzle.

Not much around in terms of video - this is all I could find

NOTE:  I had posted a Dragonfly layout back in early 2022.  I've reposted with additional information, instead of updating the old post.