How to build a Superfuzz pedal

by Vincent Thuvignon

Q: What is a Superfuzz?
A: What pedal do you think Mark and Steve are using? This could be heard in the single "Touch me I'm sick" in the intro. This is the sound I'm offering you.

Q: Why making it instead of buying one?
A: Because they are rare, expensive ($300) and old. And making your own pedal will make it special. Every one will ask you "hey, what's this pedal???" and you'll be proud to say "I made it man !". Are there enough good reasons?

Enjoy!

- Vincent

1. The Schematic

You can find many schematics on the www, and every schematic is different. And many have mistakes! But all of them are old, and dont have modern features, such as the power supply jack, etc...

I tried to make a modern one, with some little modification, and correct the mistakes, using all the schematics I found every where.

Here is my schematic, based on the Cookbook ones. Print it or save it on your hard disk, then read the rest of this page.

Now that you have the schematic, I will explain you the correction from the old schematic. First, there was a 100k resistor that was a mistake. It needed to be a 22k.

Then I added the 1N4001 diode (on the right) to protect your transistors from the bad polarity of the power supply. We use power supplies with many pedals, and sometimes, the polarity isn't the same from one pedal to another one, so, you forget to change it, and all your transistors are just burnt. This diode prevent that. So, it is essential. Hey, I know that cause it burnt my transistors once!!! So I know what I'm talking about. Then I added this power supply jack. Be careful to the connections with the battery, etc...

I thought I could add a led, but when the effect is on, you are dumb if you don't notice it... You can add a led between the plus of the battery and the ground with a 380 k resistor if you want to see the battery power. Adding a led is boring, cause it would make you install a triple switch instead of the double switch. You see...

2. The Components

Here is a list of components you'll need.

A. Resistors

B. Transistors

Six transistors 2N2222A or six 2N3391.

C. Caps

D. Diodes

One 1N4001 diode and two germanium diodes for the clipping.

E. Potentiometers

Two 50 k linear potentiometers for the drive and the volume.

F. Switches

A simple reverser for the notch/normal filter and a double reverser for the on/off.

3. The old pedal in which you'll put the new circuit

To have a solid box, to have lots of jack inputs, you'll need to put your circuit in an old pedal, to make it look like a real pedal.

I chose the old broken Boss Bass Limiter a friend gave me. And it did the trick ! I just changed one of the potentiometer, because there was already one 50 k in it. That's why it makes the list of component different for each of you. All depends on the pedal you'll find.

The power input is usually in all pedals, so you don't have to buy it. The same for the battery wire. The size of the printed circuit will be decided by the size of the pedal you'll find. And that's important. You have to cut the epoxy board exactly the size of the circuit inside of the old pedal. So, I suggest you to make the drawing of that old circuit and to draw the circuit in the good dimensions. You have to adapt the new switches to the size of the pedal and you can see it in the mechanics section.

4. The drawing of the printed circuit

The schematic isn't enough to weld the components. you have to draw the different components in a place that corresponds to the future printed circuit. The size is given by the one of the old pedal. You have to separate the different components, to make the weldind easy, and to prevent the forbidden connections. I can advice you to do it on the computer. It must be very clean, and you must think of the switch that are just above the printed circuit.

Be sure that the transistor won't touch the switch, it would burn the transistor. All this work is essential. It's the work you have to make really clean. That will make your pedal work or not. Before welding the components, check the drawing one more time. If you don't know how to draw it, email me. The schematic isn't always the same that the drawing of the printed circuit because of the size of the plate of epoxy, etc... And you have to take good care of the location of the potentiometers and the jacks etc.. because it's not very serious to put wire every where in the pedal. Just put the connections near the jacks and the potentiometers to prevent a big spaghetti soup.

Then you have to make the circuit. You can use the techniques of sticking black lines (which can be found in electronic stores) and black holes to draw the circuit on the copper side of the epoxy plate. Don't forget that it must be inversed from the drawing of the components, which are on the other side. You don't need to use the exposure of ultraviolet. The number of components allows you to use the basic technique of drawing directly on the copper plate. You can use lines of size 1 mm (0,04 inch), it's enough for the current.

Then you have to dive the copper/epoxy plate in the perchlorure solution (which can be found in the electronic store too) some minutes. It depends on the concentration of the perchlorure. But it is between 30 and 45 minutes. But check it soon, you must be careful, because after some times, the perchlorure goes under the black lines, and all the copper is dissolved. The part is very important too, because you can make a mistake that will destroy all the previous work.

5. The mechanics

You have to insert the new switches, and the new potentiometers. I can't help you to do it. It depends on the size of the components, size of the holes, etc... and you have to be sure that the switch is switched each time you press it, it's not an electricity problem, it's mechanics one.

So, check the contact point of the switch on the cover of the switch, like on the Boss one for example. I had to stick on a plastic circle to turn the effect on each time I press the cover. And it did the trick!

You only need to weld the components and the wires now...

6. The welding

This is the part I prefer. It is clean, and fast! And this is the last part too. I don't repeat you have to work well... be careful of the polarity of the caps and the transistors and it will work.

7. The test

Look at all the connections are done with the schematic. Check the polarity of the condensators once again, and plug the battery. Then turn your amp on and plug all the jacks. The jack "input" had to be plugged to turn the effect on. And listen to the sound!!! If it doesn't work, well, what can I say? Check your schematic, the polarity of the battery, etc... and test the connections with a multimeter.

If you have to turn the potentiometers in the unusual way, invert the two wires that are on each side of them. Not the center one. Test the two positions of the Notch/Normal switch and the main switch.

8. Conclusions

You may know that the gain potentiometer is hard to fix. We have the gain fever and always want more!! but even at 30%, the gain is horrible. That's why it's good to use the pedal with an amp that already overdrives, it, hm, is reducing the gain in one sense... even if it sounds strange, it works...

I don't give you settings, you can do it yourself. It's easy. You can notice that the notch sound hasn't got so many middle. Normal position has more middle range frequencies. It's a question of taste. The rest of the work is drawing a board with "level" and "gain" and the two positions "notch" and "normal". It is your job, be creative!

Kurt Cobain called his hand made Superfuzz a "young man fuzz". Call it what you want. Mine is called Bass Limiter!!! To turn the folks crazy!

Please don't email me for a "How I made a Bigmuff" page, I won't answer (just kidding...) You only have to change the schematic, go there: Big Muff Schematic (from the Cookbook again), and do the same thing than for a Superfuzz. But it think you should buy a Sovtek one. It's so cheap ...

P.S.: I admit my English is poor, and there must be many many mistakes. So excuse me. But I think you understood, no? For a good vocabulary, ask your electronic dealer how to make the printed circuit. He will explain you I'm sure... just tell him you're going to buy all the components from him.