Death By Audio Fuzz War

[JonasL]

I think I finally found a good, reliable schematic of the DBA Fuzz War. The guy sells the pedal as a kit, so I assume it must be working properly...

Here's the link: http://pedalparts.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/rawfuzz-v1.pdf
en here's where he sells the kit: http://shop.pedalparts.co.uk/Raw_Fuzz_v1/p847124_8389179.aspx

Could you take a look into it and make a vero of it? He also sells a clone of the fuzz gun.

[Rolf Poti]

FINALLY!!!
I have been wanting this pedal since proguitarshops video.

Hope to see this on vero soon! : )

[Harmony-Rocket]

Hooray! I'm game!!!

[johnk]

I drew up a vero for the fuzz war today (three knob version w/external drive). it's probably larger than Mark would make it at 30 x 14 but I believe that it's correct. i'll build it up and see if it works properly in a day or two.

[johnk]

well I built the one in the link that you posted. it works and sounds okay, and somewhat similar but it's NOT and actual Fuzz War that most people are familiar with.. the one that you linked is the early version that has only 4 transistors (2N5088's) and the newer , more common and (IMO) desirable one has 7 trannys (2N5089's).

[JonasL]

Allright, thanks for verifying! Can you post the vero? I think I'll build it anyway, even if it doesn't sound exactly like a fuzz war.

[johnk]

[JonasL]

I finally had time to build this and it works like a charm, thanks a lot!

[rocket88]

Hopefully this will help. I've been searching for more info on the newer 7 transistor version and found these layouts that supposedly are correct, based on the schematic provided below.

[JonasL]

Hi, thanks for the reply!

I've seen those vero's and schematic floating around the web too, but as far as I remember I read everywhere that these are not working.. Did you read somewhere that the schematic is correct? But if you like to make yourself a fuzz war, I recommend you to build the vero someone made earlier in this post. That one works and sounds awesome!

[johnk]

JonasL wrote

Hi, thanks for the reply!

I've seen those vero's and schematic floating around the web too, but as far as I remember I read everywhere that these are not working.. Did you read somewhere that the schematic is correct?

+1.
I built the 7 transistor one from those schematics and veros and I can confirm that they DO NOT work. I tried everything (different transistors, resistors etc) but to no avail.

[rocket88]

ahh, i found it randomly on FSB forum, and from what I read in the posts the schematic was traced from an actual fuzz war John Lyons had and posted pictures of the board and all the connections. Link.

The layouts I found on Apocalypse Fuzz, and know its unverified, but was built off of the FSB posts.

Here's the pictures of the board posted by John, btw:








Maybe someone can trace it better from the pics.

[johnk]

if anyone wants to build the Fuzz War Version 1, I ended up drawing a smaller vero for the 4 transistor Fuzz War that is a bit smaller than my first vero layout:

[rocket88]

Nice one John. Do you think a layout can be done of the 7 transistor one using the images I found of board and components on FSB or DIYS.

[johnk]

rocket88 wrote

Nice one John. Do you think a layout can be done of the 7 transistor one using the images I found of board and components on FSB or DIYS.

I built one using one of the posted vero layouts of the 7 transistor version and I couldn't get to work and it looked like they followed the circuit but i'd have to check it out again.
IMO, the pedal is really kind of poor design with the transistors reversed like that and i'm not all that fond of  DBA pedals.

[rocket88]

I hear you on that one John. I saw them in a documentary about the history of fuzz pedals and to say I was really disappointed is being nice. I saw a shoutout in YouTube with some fuzzes on bass and this just sounded really great. No big deal if it doesn't make it up. Btw, how does the older 4 transistor one differ from the newer 7 transistor one in terms of sound?

[johnk]

IMO, they're two different animals but the 4 transistor version does sound good.
I got my 7 transistor FW board out again today and was comparing it to the pictures of the actual unit that you posted and it appears to follow them exactly. after two more hours of tinkering with it, it still doesn't work.

[johnk]

I first drew up a perf board layout using the pics that rockett88 posted to match the original pedal. then, right next to it, I drew up a vero for it. i'm 99% sure that it is correct. the vero is smaller than the perf layout but is still pretty big at 30 x17 and I really didn't try to make it as small as possible, since i wanted to use all laydown resistors and still make it pretty much follow the original layout so I can socket some of the resistors later should I find it necessary. plus the original is in a 1590BB and that's what I also intend to use.  I haven't built it yet but hopefully it'll work.

here's a pic of the perf layout I made using the photos of the original pedal:

[rocket88]

That's amazing john. I hope that it works and that this thing finally gets cracked. I know it's been wanted for a long time.

[johnk]

well, I just looked over my build of the one that I made using Mike Livesly's layout and made a few corrections to it and that one still doesn't work so don't hold your breath.

IME,ALL DBA circuits are very difficult to get to work properly.