Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz Box knockoff

[fazer]

I believe they are 2n2614. Need to check for sure

 

[fazer]

Looks like mine is the fz-1a version or a
second version

 

[CJ]

Thanks Fazer! How long is the base plate, 5 7/8" ?

Yes fz 1a supposedly use 1.5 v.

Cool on that encapsulated thing musica!

I have been searching for that spirit on the sky sound for a while. I am excited to try that fuzzrite supposedly Greenbaum had his tech install a circuit into his guitar which has been lost forever.

I built the Aion FX ampeg scrambler and it is dang close with it,s octave thing going on , use lots of reverb and don't use a pick. For the on/off bends you turn off the vol on the neck pickup and use the toggle sw.

He Fazer, can you see what thos pc board screws go into? Thanks!

And maybe look at the pots, vol is supposedly rev audio and conflicting reports on the attack pot, some say audio taper, others say linear.

I used 22 gauge steel which is a bit thin, it took a few tries to get it reasonable.
I want to try the Range master, supposedly Toni Iommi used one I built the analogman king of tone and it is good for sustain/feedback. Built the Love tone Big Cheese, the scooped mids setting is great.

Nothing beats these old Germaniums though, they do weird things that the silicon does not , almost as if they were alive.

 

[fazer]

Bottom plate is 5-1/2”

 

[13engrsapper]

I found one old Gibson Fuzztone part. It is the mount for the circuit board that connects to the foot switch. When the old foot switch fails, it's often hard to find a suitable replacement to mate up correctly and hold the board. We ended up making our own for the replacement switches.

 

[13engrsapper]

Once I find the original battery they came with I will post it next to a regular AA. If I remember correctly they are slightly fatter. It really is of no matter other than historical at this point, I doubt you could get these originals any longer. I think it was similar to the 523 battery in dimension. But I could be wrong. I remember the originals only having a spot for only a single cell. The volume was also a switched volume pot to turn the unit off. I could well be wrong on the battery cell as it has been a few years since one rolled through for service/repair.

 

[13engrsapper]

I just took a quick look through our sorted transistor area to see if/how many we have. But there were none up there. So I thought I would take a peek in the unsorted transistor boxes.... ugh no way I am looking today. The big linked 40mm grenade ammo can is all germanium. There are over 15,000 in that big can. Some beautiful mil-spec ones with gold leads too.... mmmmm shiny things. The white small shoebox sized thing is unsorted silicon and germanium. I am betting we have some originals in there.

 

[CJ]

ah, so that's how they mount the board, clever! now i know why not weld marks or deformation on the lid,

thanks again fazer! one last question, can you check the dims on the hole for the cord , that is, where it is cut out on the side panel?

well i had the width and height of the control panel spot on but the top panel was 5 1/4 instead of 6,

sounds like a gold mine waiting in that transistor bucket!

they have some old caps like the originals on evilbay but that would probably not be a great idea unless you were looking for a retro look instead of functionality>

 

[CJ]

here is the orig batt holder>

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/keystone-electronics/140/437

 

[hodad]

hey have some old caps like the originals on evilbay

I can verify that those transi-lytics are extremely failure prone. I've had to replace more than a few.

 

[rock soderstrom]

So I thought I would take a peek in the unsorted transistor boxes.... ugh no way I am looking today. The big linked 40mm grenade ammo can is all germanium. There are over 15,000 in that big can. Some beautiful mil-spec ones with gold leads too.... mmmmm shiny things. The white small shoebox sized thing is unsorted silicon and germanium. I am betting we have some originals in there.

Inspired by your video, I searched through my stocks and found the following Germanics. All european and NOS, I also have a bag of used GE transistors, removed from trash units. But where?

Anyway, I think I have enough for an adventurous trip to GE Fuzzland.

 

[13engrsapper]

I will send a video of the big gold bag later. I started sorting our unsorted transistors which we thought were mostly Silicon, turns out they are 95% Germanium.

I will send a video of the sorted transistors too. There are more of those than unsorted ;-) I may crank out another fuzz or two from our old prototype boards. We just do not do pedals at all anymore. I think we are going to use the rest for microphone preamps, compressors, and eq's. I have many many thousands of sorted and tested Germanium transistors - I think we have decided to start selling a limited amount of our on hand resources.

 

[rock soderstrom]

PS: bought 10 germanium transistors last night...

My new guests from over the great pond arrived. 10x 2N1307

and further investigations in my cellar brought this beauties to daylight.

10x NPN(!) AC187 with golden legs. Sexy

 

[fazer]

Hey CJ. Both pots are 50k

Volume is a log. Measures 44k.
Mid rotate 3k full rotate 44k
Says CBA 400C. 50K

Attack pot is used as a variable resistor with 22k from center to ground on output ground Jack. Mine is original so o do t want to in solder. It is fed from a 2.2 k off a transistor junction.

In circuit it measures as follows with 22k lifted. By disconnect output Jack from case ( lifts 22k ground from box)
Rotate 3 =2k
5=4k
7=11k
Full. 10=14k

With 22k grounded. Full in circuit

Rotate 5= 4k
Full. 10= 9.5k

Pretty linear in operation

 

[CJ]

Awesome, thanks! I wonder if they ran out of 500K pots, lots of parts swapping going on back then,

i bought those sprague nos lytics, i read Hodad's post too late!

will do some A-B tests with the ancient lytics on the scope with sine, sq, sawtooth to see if anything going on,

 

[dmp]

I went through a bunch of Ge transistors I had accumulated over the years, mostly from ebay or stores (AC128, Oc76 etc) and found high leakage and low gain. Even pairs marketed for fuzz face DIY with only gain of 4

My best Ge pedal build is a speaker cranker using 1N60P diodes

Just ordered some from the ebay seller mentioned here though

 

[hodad]

Even pairs marketed for fuzz face DIY with only gain of 4

Most of the AC128s I have aren't particularly good (and I have a lot), but I rarely see a gain below 30 or so. How are you measuring?

 

[dmp]

Most of the AC128s I have aren't particularly good (and I have a lot), but I rarely see a gain below 30 or so. How are you measuring?

The method in "picking transistors for FF clones" by Keen. If you search it will come up.

 

[hodad]

I've used the Keen method. I use a DCA75 now, which tends to indicate higher hfe than the Keen method but I haven't found that to be an insurmountable problem. I'd just be suspicious of your testing setup if everything you have sucks. It's certainly possible, but if they're different part numbers from different sources, I would expect at least a couple to be decent, if not necessarily brilliant.

 

[dmp]

Could be. But I don't just get terrible readings. I just pulled ten AC134 off a Farfisa board and eight were over 300 micro Amps leakage (with gain between 50-100) . Of the two under 300, I got gain 41 and 73. I think in general a lot of old Ge are pretty bad.
And if you're buying them online the good one's may have been sorted out and you could be getting rejects.
Today I got the ones from ebay seller jcameo2012 though and they test for me fairly close to what he advertised. So I have some for fuzz builds. The Aion pcbs are really nice too. Having the +/- DC converter is sweet.