Silver Fox Octaver

11/16/2014

Another new original - the Silver Fox Octaver.

This is basically a continuation of the TOFUzz, but with a octave up aswell and CMOS based. The idea is the same: the squared-up signal triggers a gated oscillator to produce a pseudo octave down effect. The octave up section is a similar to Tim Escobedo's Digital Octave Fuzz, but implementet in a different way. The result is a very synthy octave fuzz. Compared to the Tofuzz it tracks better, has a wider range of tracking on the fretboard and has better sustain. I hope you like it. :)

silver_fox_octaver_pcb.pdf
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silver_fox_vero.png
File Size:	124 kb
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It's very loud, so it's probably a good idea to add a resistor to ground in parallell with the volume pot to decrease the overall output.

It's named after one of my favourite martial arts actors: Hwang Jang Lee. His made his breakthough in the movie "Secret Rivals" (1976) where he played the villain Silver Fox.

14 Comments

anders

11/16/2014 03:22:00 am

Looks cool Parts ordered.

Sergio

11/25/2014 04:19:33 pm

Nice fuzz, amazing to hear while seeing at the same time Hwang Jang Lee video. What a kick style!-) I am wing tsun kung fu practitioner, but it s great to see these movies. These always put a smile on me! Thank you for your veros blog and sharing videos like this!
Sergio

Fredrik Lyxzén link

12/7/2014 09:39:42 pm

Hey, thanks for commenting! I used to pratice Hung Gar Kung Fu myself, but that was many years ago now. I'm glad you like the blog. :) cheers / Freppo

Dude

12/18/2015 11:24:49 am

Hey!
I built this pedal now for the 3rd. time (I thought I did a mistake and just startet all over again twice).
i tried 2 times the vero and now the PCB layout.
every time i got massive noise when i engage the octave up thing.
are you sure, the layouts are written correctly?

please help me out

12/18/2015 11:53:41 am

Hey again!
I plugged it in again and found out, that the noise stops sometimes when i turn around the volume knob or just move the hands on the strings. So this is a gated fuzz. I think with the octave up engaged its just not gatet enough. Maybe i just have to change a resistor to a different value? Help! :D

12/21/2015 06:42:57 am

Hi Dude,

I'm sorry to hear that you still are having problems with your build. Both the vero layout and PCB layout are verified by me, It's really hard to tell what the problem could be. Maybe you are having a bad CMOS chip?

12/21/2015 11:25:16 am

I tried 3 different chips each - same result.
I looked at the pinout of the chips and tried to understand what they are doing. I came up a result. I didnt want to mess with the pcb anymore so i soldered a 33k resistor on one of the cables that goes to the octave up switch. (I tried a pot first to get the right value). That totally solved my problem!
Then I figured out something cool. My 9v supply deliveres something between 12 and 13 volt. (also when its plugged in) That made the pedal noisy again. So i built a switchable voltage drop thingy that drops the 12-13v to around 9v. That made the pedal working nicely again.
But then I ran it with a battery again and dropped its 9v to 6v and the pedal sounded better, it got rid if some high harshness AND the notes sustain longer before get cut off. I recommend running this pedal at 6v now! :D

12/23/2015 04:15:52 pm

Thanks for the build report! I'm happy to hear that you solved it. :) CMOS chips can be picky with the voltages sometimes. Maybe a voltage regulator built in with the circuit would be a good idea. I have to play around with this with some of my other stuff to see if it makes a difference. Merry christmas, Fredrik

Struggle

3/3/2017 01:22:40 pm

And what about gate controll, where to put it for fine controll?)) thank you

3/6/2017 01:26:23 am

Hi Struggle,
This circuit doesn't have a schmitt trigger like my later designs, so it's not as easy to incorparate a gate control. But you could perhaps replace the 1M resistor in the last gainstage with a trimmer or a pot, to set the gain going into the inverters. That should kinda work like a gate control too. Just replace the 1M resistor in the top left (on the stripboard layout, row A and D on the left side) with a 1M pot.
Cheers / Fredrik

ALExi

3/10/2019 05:43:58 pm

Is possible to as a blend pot for blending the octaves with the fuzz .. thanks great l’ajout btw

3/12/2019 04:02:25 am

Yes, but not easily. It would probably require to remake the vero layout from scratch, so I can't commit time to explain or draw it up. Sorry. Maybe you can ask in forum where other people can chime in. The schematic is included in the PCB PDF above. Best regards / Fredrik

Gary Freeman link

7/12/2021 09:34:33 pm

How much for this assembled pedal and does it take a 9v battery?

Silver Fox Octaver

Fredrik Lyxzen link

7/21/2021 03:51:51 am

Hi Gary.
Sorry for the late reply. I don't do custom request one-off builds i'm afraid. I simply don't have the time. But If you like this pedal, check out the Arcadiator (it also does square wave fuzz, both octave down and up, very similar to this pedal). It's avaliable as a fully assembled pedal in the webshop (it doesn't take a battery though). / Fredrik

Silver Fox Octaver

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