Super Fuzz

[TeleLubber]

Wow! I stayed home today.. cleaning up some junk in the garage.. found this pedal (and some other gear) sitting in a box.. I think it used to belong to a really old roomate (flaky bass player) who I haven't seen or heard from in at least 10 years.. so anyway..

Anybody know anything about these? It's in really bad condition (see pics), and has spliced up & disconnected wires, nasty grunge all over, looks like alotta the resistors are all bent to hell.. and that's because it's missing the bottom housing plate..

I want to give it a go at fixing this thing up.. I have good soldering skills doing pickup swaps and guitar mods.. but have never messed with any pedals before.. I have a basic knowledge of electronics, like what a resistor and a cap is (impressive, I know).. and I have a meter.. I can't really read schematics, but I am willing to learn.. I think this would make the perfect project to begin with.. any help from you tweaker types & pros would be much appreciated..

Where do I even begin? I took alot of pictures.. Here's the top view..

And the bottom view..

Left panel view..

Front panel view..

I will post some more close ups in the next post..

 

[TeleLubber]

Re: Super Fuzz

OK.. here's where it gets ugly.. looks like a power lead is disconnected (?)

and another stray wire.. coming from the switch.. to where (?)

and this mess of spaghetti.. note the blue wire spliced to the green/white wire.. then back to blue.. hmm

and the bent resistors & other components.. sorry it's blurry.. but you get the idea..

one more shot..

 

[Low_fidelity2100]

Re: Super Fuzz

http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/gear/guitar/univoxsuperfuzz.html


You have yourself an awesome, awesome Fuzz pedal there man. I wish I could find stuff like that in my garage.

To me it doesn't look like theres anything wrong with the Circuit board (resistors, and caps aren't "bent" thats just how the board is laid out from what I can tell)...Chances are you could just figure out where to hook up those lose wires, and be good to go. But I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will come in and tell you what ya actually need to do.

 

[TeleLubber]

Re: Super Fuzz

I did some searching.. Wow.. Super Wow.. I had no idea this was what Townshend used .. it looks as though mine was made between 1971-1978

Thanks for that link.. I'm still searchingfor a schematic..

And yeah.. it's a long story, but this is a band house, and alot of musician's have stayed here thru the years.. I have been fortunate to find some gems from time to time..

 

[Kam]

Re: Super Fuzz

Pity it's unsalvageable.

I'll give you five bucks for it.

 

[SamusChief]

Re: Super Fuzz

Pity it's unsalvageable.

I'll give you five bucks for it.

This ruins the 2nd post in your signature.

 

[TeleLubber]

Re: Super Fuzz

Pity it's unsalvageable.

I'll give you five bucks for it.

I knew I could place my trust in you guys! :22:

 

[these_go211]

Re: Super Fuzz

nice find man! awesome fuzz pedal. crank out some Who when you're done with it.

 

[drpietrzak]

Re: Super Fuzz

Hit up a repair guy for a restore. Looks worth it to me.

 

[TeleLubber]

Re: Super Fuzz

Hit up a repair guy for a restore. Looks worth it to me.

I'm pretty good friends (old bandmate) with Matt at Tortuga Effects so maybe he can work his mojo with it.. I just wanted to see if this was something I could do myself.. he's pretty busy these days.. and he don't come cheap.. so I will shoot him an email

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Super Fuzz

The black wire is probably the negative battery lead - it should go to the "ring" connection of the (stereo) input jack. When you put in a normal non-stereo plug, it shorts ring-to-ground and connects the battery.

The yellow is the audio input to the board - you can see how yellow comes from the input jack to the bypass switch, then to the circuit board.

Some careful comparison to a schemetic ought to get it sorted out. You don't nee d a costly tech - just a buddy who's built a pedal or two.

 

[TeleLubber]

Re: Super Fuzz

The black wire is probably the negative battery lead - it should go to the "ring" connection of the (stereo) input jack. When you put in a normal non-stereo plug, it shorts ring-to-ground and connects the battery.

The yellow is the audio input to the board - you can see how yellow comes from the input jack to the bypass switch, then to the circuit board.

Some careful comparison to a schemetic ought to get it sorted out. You don't nee d a costly tech - just a buddy who's built a pedal or two.

This makes sense..

So where would the red battery lead go?

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Super Fuzz

It wouldn't surprise me if a known pedal builder would fix it for free, just so he could reverse engineer it for his own use. I'm not sure I've seen a clone of that pedal, so it might give them the idea.

 

[TeleLubber]

Re: Super Fuzz

ok.. found this on the internet.. different colored wires but I think I can copy-cat it..

 

[lareplus]

Re: Super Fuzz

what a lucky find. . .i hope it works out okay. .

 

[TeleLubber]

Re: Super Fuzz

Update: I've managed to get intermittent sound! There's definitely a cool fuzz tone in there.. but the output is very low and thin, and the signal seems to be pulsating/swelling up/down & sometimes out altogether..

there's 2 known problems..

1) there's something wrong with both of the pots.. very scratchy, even after cleaning, and there's signal cutting in/out as I turn them.. there is no output as I turn the Balance pot counterclockwise..

2) this resistor looks as tho he's got a "broken leg"

So.. I'm going to have to figure out what the value of that resistor is and replace it..
and probably replace the pots too..

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Super Fuzz

Build Your Own Clone sell the "Leeds Fuzz" , which according to their site is a "faithful recreation" of the Super Fuzz.

http://www.buildyourownclone.com/leeds.html

Their instructions include a schematic. I don't know how faithful it is to the original, but it's a start. Sadly, their board layout is completely different.

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Super Fuzz

Better yet, there are two schematics for the Super Fuzz at Univox.org. Grab them while you can; that site disappears from time to time.

The pots are both 50K linear taper.

 

[DankStar]

Re: Super Fuzz

you lucky duck!! Been gassing for one lately, and I used to have one!

sick sick sick sick fuzz/doom/wall of noise. at the same time barely usable, if that makes any sense.

bought one for 90 bucks at an amp repair shop in AZ, and found I never used it, so I put it on the bay like 5-6 years ago. fetched $225, which blew my mind - now they're up to like $400+, which is insane.

I should have kept mine - stupid, stupid, stupid [hitting self in forehead]

there's several clones now: black cat, wattson, BYOC's leeds fuzz, etc. I figure I'll do the leeds eventually, since it's like 75 unbuilt and 110 built.

you could also use the leeds fuzz schematic off the BYOC site to have your guy fix.

apparently shin-ei licensed the circuit to a ton of other companies in the 70s, but in my light searching I don't run across the 70s "clones" too much (but I have seen some cool Marlboro fuzzes on the bay].

more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Univox_Super-Fuzz


keep it! the housing alone is amazing (that's most the mojo right there!!), even if you put a clone circuit in there (which you probably don't need to do)

I can't imagine just running across one like you did.

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Super Fuzz

If you search YouTube, there's a very early Gearmandude demo of the Leeds plus a couple other BYOC pedals. It gives a good idea of that the Super Fuzz sound is about.