How to build Fuzzy, our gift PCB
Hey, thanks for supporting Pedal Markt! Please accept this PCB as a sign of our gratitude.
If you want to build it into a Fuzz, here's what you'd need.
Tools
- Soldering Iron
- Solder
- Wire cutters
- Wire strippers
- Alligator clips for testing
If you decide to put the effect into an enclosure you would also need a drill with large enough drill bits (see drill template).
Components
You can get the components from your favorite electronics shop. If you don't yet have one yet, here are a few online shops to consider:
- Tayda
- Musikding.de, Banzaimusic.com if you are in Germany
- Mouser
- DigiKey
We've put together a bill of materials (BOM) with links to the products on Tayda and their prices.
Building the effect
If you have no experience populating a PCB, here is how it works.
The references (R1, R2, C1 etc) are printed on the PCB. You place the corresponding components into the holes on the PCB, solder them and cut the legs if they are too long. If you are a beginner, do it one component at a time, starting with the smallest size (resistors and sockets, wire) and going up (ceramic capacitor, box capacitor, electrolytic capacitor).
- It's better to use sockets for the transistors, because that way you can replace them and try different sounds (on the photos we don't use sockets, we didn't have any lying around).
- Orientation is important for the electrolytic capacitor, transistors and potentiometers. For the other components: resistors, the box cap, the ceramic cap, it does not matter.
- Orientation of the electrolytic capacitor is shown by the "+" sign printed on the board. The capacitor itself has a "-" strip printed. So the opposite leg from that "-" strip goes into the "+" hole on the board.
- If you are using TO-92 Emitter-Base-Collector case transistors (like 2N5088) pay attention to the outline of the transistor printed on the PCB, it shows the correct orientation.
If you are using a different NPN transistor, check its datasheet to see which pin is collector, which is base and which is emitter. If you are looking at the flat side of the outline on the PCB, left to write the holes are: 1) emitter, 2) base, 3) collector. - The potentiometers are inserted from the back side of the PCB (see the image below, also sorry we are using wrong values for the pots on the photos, keeping the right components in stock is hard 😅)
(Heads up: the values on the pots on the picture below are not the correct ones)
Testing the effect
Hook up the effect to a 9V battery or a 9V power supply and test it out. Here's a great video on how to do that.
Box it
Use any enclosure you can fit Fuzzy into. The PCB is built in a way that the potentiometers will hold it in place and there are no extra screws required.
The smallest standard pedal enclosure size you can fit this effect into is 125B. If you get one of those (or a larger standard enclosure). Print out this drill template, cut it out and stick it to the enclosure, use it to mark the location of all the holes.
To wire the footswitch and the jacks use this excellent tutorial.
Send us your builds and questions
If you experience any troubles and you are in Berlin, feel free to stop by the shop and we'll help you build up the pedal!
If you are having issues and can't get to the shop, drop us a line hey@pedalmarkt.com.
Share your Fuzzy builds with us on socials or by email 💜