ilovefuzz.com

Out of curiosity, I threw a Meathead together on the breadboard. I'll probably make it permanent and stick it in a box.


https://youtube.com/shorts/k3KPF0EBt8I? ... 600toG9Zdj


Here it is again, but with an LFO driving an LED in heatshrink with an LDR in series with the 9v supply. LED is green and not particularly bright. If I build this in and make it switchable, I imagine a super bright white LED would work better.

https://youtube.com/shorts/BPtylHrIY70? ... PoTyV5sroY

Both those clips sound good. Definitely needs to be louder!

Phosphene Audio wrote: ↑Sun Mar 16, 2025 11:37 am Out of curiosity, I threw a Meathead together on the breadboard. I'll probably make it permanent and stick it in a box.


https://youtube.com/shorts/k3KPF0EBt8I? ... 600toG9Zdj


Here it is again, but with an LFO driving an LED in heatshrink with an LDR in series with the 9v supply. LED is green and not particularly bright. If I build this in and make it switchable, I imagine a super bright white LED would work better.

https://youtube.com/shorts/BPtylHrIY70? ... PoTyV5sroY

Sounds cool! You might want to check the data sheet for the LDR; a lot of them are sensitive to a specific frequency of light - oddly enough that is often green !

Chankgeez wrote: ↑Sun Mar 16, 2025 1:27 pm Both those clips sound good. Definitely needs to be louder!

Even though I was in the basement, I was keeping it pretty quiet (can def hear the acoustic zing of the strings) because my wife was still asleep.

Not that I begrudge David Main charging whatever he can get, but the Meathead is a great sounding simple circuit that anyone who knows which end of a soldering iron to grab should take a crack at building. Some folks might want a larger input cap, or a couple of values on a switch.

moid wrote: ↑Sun Mar 16, 2025 3:13 pm

Phosphene Audio wrote: ↑Sun Mar 16, 2025 11:37 am Out of curiosity, I threw a Meathead together on the breadboard. I'll probably make it permanent and stick it in a box.


https://youtube.com/shorts/k3KPF0EBt8I? ... 600toG9Zdj


Here it is again, but with an LFO driving an LED in heatshrink with an LDR in series with the 9v supply. LED is green and not particularly bright. If I build this in and make it switchable, I imagine a super bright white LED would work better.

https://youtube.com/shorts/BPtylHrIY70? ... PoTyV5sroY

Sounds cool! You might want to check the data sheet for the LDR; a lot of them are sensitive to a specific frequency of light - oddly enough that is often green !

Good to know. Unfortunately, I just have a box full of them, no part number, and I have no idea where I got them, haha.

Sounds like the bag of different value ldrs I bought from ebay ~10 years ago; it have five bags inside it, each with a different hand written Chinese character on it and no way of knowing what each ldr is! I even asked one of my Chinese students if he could read it and he said whoever wrote it had terrible handwriting and the marks don’t make any sense! I chuck them into different projects to see if they work, but have since bought parts in labelled bags from actual electronics suppliers as a better way of designing pedals

Changing to a bright white LED made the LFO/LDR thing work much better.

I ended up putting the Meathead in a box, using a generic one knob fuzz board from Reverb.

Also, I put a Schaller Verzerrer on the breadboard this morning, the silicon one with extra stuff between C of Q1 and B of Q2. Even though the input cap is large, the high pass created by R3/C3 keeps it from being too bassy, or at least I think that's what is going on. There is no real point in the Intensity pot, though. Best thing is to just wire it for max fuzz.

Finally had PCBs made and put one Schaller in a box:


https://youtube.com/shorts/JPITW7vNdME? ... n1oJN4n_op

As for the Big Muff, I started to like my BM-style pedal (Barber Trifecta) a lot more after I started using it in conjunction with either a Green Ringer-style or Colorsound Power Boost-style pedal (I have a Gup Tech GR clone and an IdiotboxFX Power Drive).

I like big muffs a lot more when boosted with other stuff too! Current thing of choice is a DOD 250 clone (salt box)

Phosphene Audio wrote: ↑Sat May 10, 2025 12:59 pm Finally had PCBs made and put one Schaller in a box:


https://youtube.com/shorts/JPITW7vNdME? ... n1oJN4n_op

Sounds good! I have a Schaller TV66/67 Tonverzerrer from the very first production year with Germanium transistors. I found it for a great price last November - and it had the original battery soldered to the circuit! A very beefy sounding early fuzz with lots of headroom and low noise. I love it!

Pepe wrote: ↑Sun May 11, 2025 3:16 pm

Phosphene Audio wrote: ↑Sat May 10, 2025 12:59 pm Finally had PCBs made and put one Schaller in a box:


https://youtube.com/shorts/JPITW7vNdME? ... n1oJN4n_op

Sounds good! I have a Schaller TV66/67 Tonverzerrer from the very first production year with Germanium transistors. I found it for a great price last November - and it had the original battery soldered to the circuit! A very beefy sounding early fuzz with lots of headroom and low noise. I love it!

very cool

I wonder if having the battery soldered in was some kind of normal practice?

I guess that the very first pedals have been delivered this way. It looked like it had been the factory state. The TV66/67 was the first "compact" pedal by Schaller. Everything else that was made prior to this fuzz was powered by mains.

Speaking of fuzz, and the above mentioned Schaller- has anyone dove into the pedals Fredric Effects makes? A shop up in Denver carries their whole line and they look really cool in the flesh- especially the slanted block of cheese boxes. They have a percolator that looks pretty cool, and some versions of the Companion fuzzes and other vintage noise saws.

I'd not heard of them, but they look and sound cool.