DIY "big box" fuzz build story

DarnWeight

So, my late father-in-law was an electrical engineer, and a lifelong hoarder and tinkerer.  When we moved the mother-in-law a little closer to us, we took as much as we could from his "stash", and are still being surprised by some of the stuff we uncover among the assorted boxes, tins and tubs.  I've been dipping into one or other of half a dozen rusty old OXO tins for the last few years now, pulling out the odd resistor or capacitor (a complete rats nest of unsorted values and tolerances).  Over the last few months, I had a proper deep rummage and managed to pull out some hitherto unnoticed components (half a dozen 2n3053 transistors, a few opamps) that I've been able to build a few things from...a DOD 250, a Si MkII Tonebender and a Fuzz Face variant, all on vero.  It's been a lot of fun.  

The last useful bits I recovered were a couple of lengths of tag strip that I cleaned up and desoldered some half-finished project he'd been working on.  Between his leftovers and mine, I had enough for a simple build, a Si FuzzRite.  It came together just fine, and sounded, surprisingly, proper good.  Only problem was it was never gonna fit a 1590-style enclosure, so I decided to put it into something a little bigger.  I found GapCo were selling cheap overstock enclosures for the Rotosound RFB1 Fuzz reissue from a few years back, so nabbed one.  Very '60s looking, and a pretty good fit for a FuzzRite.

These things tend to snowball.  What a shame, I thought, to house this in a groovy enclosure and then not decorate it.  Enter the wife.  She's been dabbling with silk-screen printing at home...mostly t-shirts, cushion covers, greetings cards, etc., all just for fun.  I had an idea for an image/design, and asked her if she'd like to have a go.  She was supper happy I was making use of her dad's old junk, and was totally on board.  I primed and sprayed the enclosure, and let her do the magic bits.  Here's a few pics of the finished design...

Raw (silk-screened black acrylic paint over Ford Riviera Blue)


Clear-coat/lacquered and everything in place


The image is based off a still of Andy Robinson as the Scorpio killer in Dirty Harry...the opening rooftop scene with the sniper rifle.



The inspiration came from listening to the Lalo Schifrin soundtrack for this scene.  There's some dirty spaghetti/blaxpoitation/acid fuzz guitar in there that really sounded (to me) like the finished pedal.  The screen printing took a couple of attempts to get right...first go, the paint was a little thick and the pressure/pass a little uneven.  The lettering's a little bit rougher looking, but as it happens this fits really well with the "tough/dirty" aesthetic.

Here's the guts...



It's about as neat as I could make it given the grab-bag of bits I was using.  The shielded in/out wire is definitely a good thing to use on these vintage fuzz circuits.  The tag strips are zip/cable-tied to a small piece of hardboard, which tucks under the lip of the footswitch body and the tone pot lug section.  Feels stable.  The tone pot is just a 250K in series with the stock 22K to ground in parallel with the depth/volume pots...at max treble, it's stock FuzzRite, and as you dial it back it gets bassier and louder.  A little bit of extra versatility and grunt never goes amiss.

Still need to lacquer the base plate, so 99% of the way there, but just wanted to share.  Sorry it's bit of a long one, but a few firsts on this project...first tag build, first primed/sprayed enclosure, first screen printed design.

Massive props to my wife for the mad art skills, and thanks to Geoff for the raw materials, the inspiration and his daughter.

Cheers for reading!

Corvus

That looks ace! Top notch work from Mrs DW and how nice to use her Dads parts stash.

BigMonka

Great story and a very fine looking outcome 

Adam_MD

Badass absolutely love it.  Bonus mojo points for the massive cap and huge enclosure with very little in it. 

DarnWeight

Thanks everyone.

I wasn't really doing much of this kind of stuff whilst Geoff was with us, so just felt the need to do something constructive with all his leftovers.  He never threw anything out if he could help it, so I'm sure he'd appreciate that his bits had finally had a use found for them.

Adam_MD said:

Badass absolutely love it.  Bonus mojo points for the massive cap and huge enclosure with very little in it. 

The schem calls for a 100uF electro, but all I had around was that big old 220uF.  Does the job, and then some!

There is something very satisfying about all that room to breathe in there.  

oaf

Looks great and a nice story to go with it!

TheMarlin

Love this. What a great way to honour a loved one. 

paulnb57

Great story, great result, nice one!

DarnWeight

Final couple of pics with base/feet in place...





Just used a cut down address label for the bottom, and lacquered over the top of it.  Should hold up OK.

One slightly spooky turn up...I asked the Mrs when her dad's birthday was again, and it turns out it was in early November.  Yep, that would make him a Scorpio then.  Totally unplanned, and clearly a sign that it was meant to be.  Funny that!

thermionic

Very cool indeed. Screen printing has to be the most professional way of doing pedal graphics.

Winny_Pooh

Ace

DannyP

A lovely read and a great pedal, thanks!

LastMantra

Pedal looks awesome. Very authentically old looking, inside and out. Good stuff!

I've had a similar situation when a relative passed away recently. He was an electrical engineer (MOD) and a bit of a hoarder. He also was an elder at the local church and did all the sound and lighting in the church and for events  in the church halls. 
So far I've found some cool looking old mics, lots  of tins of old transistors, diodes etc...and a big cardboard box full of valves! First valve I picked out was a Brimar ECC83. Looked clean. Stuck it in my WEM Clubman amp,.....I prefer it to the Mullard that was in it! It distorts (very nicely) at lower volume. Which I prefer.

Not had a chance to go through it all...never mind build anything yet! It's all at my parents house atm. Looking forward to getting into it!