Sam Ash Fuzzz Boxx Schem & Pics
This one dates back to the 42nd week of 1966...well the pots do.. The transistors are probably quite hard to find these days but any general purpose NPN silicon should work good (BC108, 2N3904, 2N5088). Diodes can be 1N914 or 1N4148. Here's some lovely sound clips http://www.tonefrenzy.com/effects/sam_ash_fuzz_boxx.html

ha. there's that spastic, ultra flash, hot shit 80's hair metal guitarist on the samples again...hot diggety! :( It's remarkable how he can make a perfectly cool, vintage fuzz box sound like absolute shit. I'd really rather hear THE PEDAL than that wanker!....wish they would do simple samples. That shit makes me wanna walk outta the shop, but I'm at home! :roll: cool fuzz box, though...those things are tanks. thanks for posting.

Does anyone one know if the astrotone is a rebadge of the sam ash box, they look to have pretty much the same circuit and were produced at the same time so I'm guessing they are pretty close.

Yeah they're the same. Here's a Astrotone and Sam Ash, he used the Sam Ash to repair a Astrotone. (both the Sam Ash versions had the same circuit) http://www.analogman.com/graphics/astrotone/astrotone.htm

Nice one!! :D Thanks Leon.

Leon - lovely pedal (and a nice fuzz flower on the other thread too!) What does this one sound like? I tried poking about here but didnt find anything - what would you compare it to that might give me a grip on things - a silicon fuzzface?? I heard the tonefrenzy stuff but they are all done with the same recording played through their pedals (think thats how they do it rather than have to play that lick endlessly) it makes their clips a bit samey and hi-fi - not that I dont enjoy them, but was wondering how you liked the pedal Cheers - G

Sorry for the slow reply Graham First thing you'll notice is that tone control is pretty awful I just leave it turned down, the schematic was discussed on the diystompbox site and people who had never even heard it said it was a bad tone control just looking at the schem.. most people either leave it out or build their own tone control, I know someone said they used the tone control from a big muff. It has nowhere near as much gain as a silicon FF, mine gets pretty hairy at full tilt the fuzz boxxx stays more restrained, you wont pierce ears with this, like the reveiw on tonefrenzy says.. it won't make your solos sing. I really like it though, playing sat in a corner and not trying to melt peoples faces off. One thing of note is there are variations in the circuit maybe for biasing as the circuit pics i've seen have used link wires instead of resistors in a few places.

Thanks!

Gawd. I tried to listen again. Reminds me of walking into a guitar shop back in the 80's and some guy would be playing like that, (ad infinitum & nauseum) really loudly, and i would just walk straight out of the place. AGH. Pinch harmonics?...wowee!...somebody gimme a bazooka! :evil:

lol

Interesting ... your schematic has a few differences from the main other "known" Sam Ash schematic.