Something old something new

[BJF]

Hi,

In the old days there was little selection and actually I think personally most things made were crude, while crude always has a room if it inspires.

One of my personal favourites is the Melos Square Wave- that has no comparison to anything currently made. I like newer fuzzes aswell as like the Mc Fuzz, that does something modern and all of its own.

BJ

[VacuumVoodoo]

Melos - wasn't it a Schmitt trigger in a box ? Gibson also used to make something similar back in 1966...and then there was Marshall's Supafuzz which basically was a FuzzFace with an additional gainstage in front. Housed in a massive cast aluminium box. Sounded great with a contemporary East German Musima Guitar (http://meatexz.com/cheesyguitars/musima_eterna.html). Wasn't too bad with other guitars of the day either.

[BJF]

Hi,

Ah maybe sounded like a schmitt trigger ;)

Woohoo through one of those guitars? well I would not wonder that the department of correction would shout down the bord from the utter sounds of R&R that would make :Devil
Really it's just a two transistor composite amplifier with voltage feedback and so about 50K Ohm input impedance, while this construction had an FET for second transistor and also limited by two fast locking diodes.
Overtones from this are crude, alive, while not stretching too high in order.
When you listen closely you can hear what it does as apart from standard fuzz tones. Tonecontrol on this one also was only basscut which is surprisingly effective.

The exact composition of distortion is quite particurlar and hm, Don's Square Wave sounded just a bit more to my liking than mine...bummer.
Worth noting here is that this circuit was made for Uni-Vox USA and marketed under the Uni-Vox name in US while distributed in Europe under the name Melos appearently from the european distributors name.

Ah yes a mystery well worth investigating

Have fun
BJ