These vintage plans from Popular Electronics Magazine have launched thousands of garage bands over the years. In 1967, they first published the classic "Fuzzbox for Under $3" article and everyone was buzzing Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones. Soon after, they hit again with "Treble Boost for Your Guitar" in 1969, paving the way for Brian May tones and louder, more rockin' solos.
So here you go...both sets of plans together in one simple PDF download for you. Run to Amazon or your favorite electronics shop, buy up the transistors and make your cigar box guitar GRRRRROWL!
Kick out the jams, brothers and sisters...
Vintage Effects Plans - Fuzzbox and Treble Boost
Replies
Treble Boost for your Guitar Info:
Original Motorola HEP55/S0015 transistor specs:
Recently I built this on my Breadboard with the Motorola transistor & Resistor values from the original article, but the transistor was mis-biased & sounded pretty crappy! I recommend changing R1 to 560K ohms & R3 to 10K ohms to get the bias into focus? These two Resistors are the ones that make this tick, so if yours doesn’t quite sound right, these are the ones to fool with? I also recommend using a Low noise NPN Bipolar Transistor like BC108b or BC547b instead, it will not have the noise & hiss of the original transistor? Another recommended substitute is to use an ordinary 5K ohms Linear pot instead of the switched pot, as they are not as common as they were at the time the article was written. And forget the dotted line in the schematic that connects to the power, this is for the switched pot? Pro Tip: if you have a Breadboard, then that’s the best way to sort out the details of what Resistor value works best?
The Germanium diode in the Fuzz box is on the rare side, depending on where you are, so I suggest using 1n34a & 1n270 Germanium diodes, as they are more common & easier to find?
Transistor for the Treble Boost has been obsolete for decades, use 2n2222, BC547, 2n3904. any NPN with 300-350 hfe, watch out, BC series has different pin out?
Anyone who has Alfred E Newman as their picture has a one check in the good column :-)