Two two-transistor fuzz stages in a row, 2004 style
Pedal and tube amp circuits, solved part by part the way SPICE (the circuit simulator engineers use) does it, while you listen and watch. Turn the knobs, change any part, or tap a wire to put a probe on it.
How to use the bench
Every part is simulated. Nothing you hear is a recording.
1Pick a circuit
Choose one from the menu, or type a name, maker or year in Find a circuit. The buttons under the menu switch between versions.
2Set the knobs and the input
Turn the circuit’s knobs on the front panel. In the Input box, choose Guitar or Signal generator, and the note or chord.
3Press Play
Press Play through the circuit to hear a picked note or chord. Play the string is the guitar by itself.
4Tap a part
Tap any part on the schematic to change its value, or swap the transistor, tube or diode. The red numbers are DC voltages, and they update as you go.
5Tap a wire
Tap a wire to put the probe there. The Probe graph and the spectrum show the signal there.
6Try a change
Press Try it on a card under Try this to hear one change, before and after. Modify this circuit, below the schematic, adds or removes parts.
Good to know
- Not sure what a control does? Hover over it, or hold a finger on it, for a short note.
- For step-by-step walkthroughs, open Start here at the top of the page.
- To put together a pedal or preamp of your own, use the Builder tab.
- Your switches stay where you left them the next time you open that circuit, in this browser only.
- A tube amp opens whole, with its power amp. Pick Preamp only in the Power amp menu to hear the preamp alone, or another power amp to try this preamp on it.
- The graphs use a steady test tone. Play sounds a picked note that dies away.
- Part values are typical of their type. Each circuit’s notes say which schematic it’s based on.
Modeled after the Electro-Harmonix Double Muff.
Two copies of the same two-transistor stage, each with a pair of diodes to ground after it. A switch picks the first stage alone or both, and the Overdrive pot sets how much of the first reaches the second.
Try this
Common mods
Changes people often make to this circuit. Try it plays the note before and after, at the same loudness. Keep it adds the mod to Your changes, where it can go on a switch.
Input
Peak voltage from the pickup for each note. Strum hard and a single coil puts out a few hundred millivolts. When you play a chord, its strings share this level.
Your build
Stack blocks from the guitar down to the output. Tap + Add a block wherever you want one. The coupling caps and the supply are wired in for you.
Your blocks. These are blocks you saved with Save block, values and part changes included. Add one to any build of the same kind with + Add a block. They stay in this browser.
Your builds stay in this browser, on this device, and nothing is sent to us. Anyone using this browser can see them. They’re lost if you clear your browsing data or use a private window, so Save to a file to keep a copy. Open a file, or drop the .bench file on the page, brings it back on any device.
Modify this circuit Add parts, take them out, or put one in series with another, then hear what it does. Tap to open.
Pick what to do, then tap the schematic. Your changes show in purple. Any change can go on a switch beside the knobs, from the menu in its row under Your changes.
Tap where each leg goes. Tap both ends of a part to put the new one across that part.
With Remove a part on, tap any part of the pedal or amp to take it out, and tap it again to put it back. Tapping a purple part you added deletes it.
Turn on Add in series with a leg and tap a part. In that part’s box, below the schematic, pick which leg to lift and what goes in the gap, such as a resistor between a cap and ground or a stopper in front of a grid.
With Cut into a wire on, tap any wire. Pick a part from the menu and it goes in the gap, wired in. Volume pot puts a pot there with the input on one end, the output on the wiper and the other end to ground.
With Run a wire on, tap a leg, then where the wire goes. Drag any piece of a wire you ran, or of an added part’s lead, to square it up or move it.
Your changes stay in this browser, on this device, for your next visit. Nothing is sent to us. Anyone using this browser can see them. They’re lost if you clear your browsing data or use a private window, so save a file to keep a copy. A shared link carries the circuit after the #, a part browsers never send to a server.
Input
pickup, unloadedat the pedal input
Output
at the amp input
Probe
Spectrum
Frequency response
What the curves mean
The ink curve is the response to a very quiet signal, from the generator to the probe. The blue curve is measured with pink noise at the level you set, like an audio analyzer. When stages clip, the blue curve pulls away from the ink one and the gray coherence line (right-hand scale) drops below 1. Then no single curve tells the whole story. Both use the signal generator, whichever Input tab is picked.
Output
Bias
every voltage and current at rest
What to listen for. Each stage is a common-emitter transistor driving a second one straight off its collector, with 100 kΩ from the second emitter back to the first base. That feedback sets the bias and holds the gain to about 20 to 27 dB in the lows. On the first stage R17 and C8 pass the treble around R16, so its gain climbs toward 40 dB by 5 kHz. The diodes after each stage hold it near 0.6 V either way, so both halves of the wave clip alike and the harmonics are odd. Probe the first stage’s diodes, then the second’s, to compare one clipping with two.
Download.
Parts and what they do
Stock values. Tap a part on the schematic to change it.
- C5, 47 µF electrolytic
- Filter cap on the 9 V line.
- R6, 1 kΩ
- Feeds the first stage.
- C6, 47 µF electrolytic
- With R6, a filter for the first stage’s supply.
- R13, 1 kΩ
- Feeds the second stage.
- C7, 47 µF electrolytic
- With R13, a filter for the second stage’s supply.
- R16, 22 kΩ
- In series at the input.
- R17, 1.2 kΩ
- With C8, a path around R16 for the treble, above about 6 kHz.
- C8, 22 nF
- With R17, a path around R16 for the treble.
- R14, 2.2 MΩ
- Holds the input side of C1 at ground.
- C1, 220 nF
- Input coupling cap into the first stage.
- R1, 100 kΩ
- Bottom of Q1’s bias. With R2 it holds Q2’s emitter near twice Q1’s base voltage.
- R2, 100 kΩ
- Feedback from Q2’s emitter to Q1’s base. It sets the bias of both transistors and holds the stage’s gain down.
- C9, 47 pF
- Across R2. It trims the first stage’s gain at the top of the band.
- Q1, BC550B
- First transistor of stage 1, common emitter, nearly all the gain.
- R3, 100 kΩ
- Q1’s collector load.
- Q2, BC550B
- Second transistor of stage 1, straight off Q1’s collector. Its emitter feeds R2 back.
- R4, 10 kΩ
- Q2’s collector load, the stage’s output.
- R5, 3.3 kΩ
- Q2’s emitter resistor.
- C2, 1 µF electrolytic
- Output cap of the first stage.
- D1, D2, 1N914 / 1N4148, one each way
- Two 1N4148s to ground, one each way. They hold the first stage’s output near 0.6 V either way.
- Overdrive, 100 kΩ pot, linear taper
- Overdrive, 100 kΩ linear, labeled 2X OVERDRIVE on the drawing. It sets how much of the first stage reaches the second.
- R7, 10 kΩ
- In series into the second stage.
- C3, 220 nF
- Coupling cap into the second stage.
- R8, 100 kΩ
- Bottom of Q3’s bias.
- R9, 100 kΩ
- Feedback from Q4’s emitter to Q3’s base, as R2. This stage has no 47 pF across it.
- Q3, BC550B
- First transistor of stage 2.
- R10, 100 kΩ
- Q3’s collector load.
- Q4, BC550B
- Second transistor of stage 2.
- R11, 10 kΩ
- Q4’s collector load.
- R12, 3.3 kΩ
- Q4’s emitter resistor.
- C4, 1 µF electrolytic
- Output cap of the second stage.
- D3, D4, 1N914 / 1N4148, one each way
- Two 1N4148s to ground after the second stage.
- Volume, 100 kΩ pot, linear taper
- Volume, 100 kΩ linear.
About this version
- BC550B
- Negative ground, 9 V. Four BC550Bs and four 1N4148s.
How this tool works. Every part is an equation, and the whole circuit is solved several times per audio sample: 192,000 samples a second while you drag a knob, 384,000 once you let go. Transistors use Ebers-Moll with gain, leakage, Early effect, base resistance, junction capacitance and temperature. Their charge storage is set at the bias point, close for small signals and rough while they switch hard. Tubes use Koren’s equations fitted to each datasheet, plus grid current. Diodes are exponential junctions with series resistance. Presets are typical of each type. Caps are ideal, and the battery or HT is a voltage behind a resistance.
Spot an error, or want a circuit added? Email info@swellamps.com. A schematic or a clear photo of one helps. Anything you send may be used to improve these models and our desktop app.
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