The Sabbadius Love Drops Fuzz was born as an answer to the question “What fuzz pedal would Jimi Hendrix use today if he were still alive?”
After watching hours of footage of Jimi’s live shows, the Argentinian builder decided he wanted to make a wah-compatible Fuzz Face with the warmth of the Germanium diodes but not their temperature sensitivity.
He, therefore, decided to adopt low noise, low to medium gain silicon transistors (the Matsushita 2sC828A-Q) to make them sound more like a germanium fuzz. The geeks among you can read more about the thought behind the design in the notes below, Google translated from the original page.
The pedal has four knobs, and two of them are rather unusual (the other two are Level and Fuzz):
• A BIAS control allows to get more tones and sounds by changing the voltage feeding the circuit.
• The WAH WAH TRICK knob allows you to use a Wah-Wah pedal with the fuzz, either before or after it. Just turn both effects on and rotate the knob until the sound is right!
Here’s the first video of the Sabbadius Love Drops Fuzz.
Sabbadius Love Drops Fuzz, Builder’s Notes
The Love Drops Fuzz is a fuzz effect pedal inspired by one of the most influential Fuzz users and one of the best guitarists in the world, the unparalleled jimi hendrix and his Gibson Psychedelic Flying V guitar, called “Love Drops” which is hand painted. Hendrix modified the nut and strap button and painted the instrument himself with nail polish.
When Hendrix gave the guitar to Mick Cox of the Irish band Eire Apparent in 1969, Cox repainted it black and removed the original design. In the 1990s, session musician Dave Brewis acquired the instrument and restored Hendrix’s original paint.
The Love Drops Fuzz is something no one thought of or built… why? Because every pedal manufacturer wants to make the same pedal that other companies make, using the same transistors, over and over again. I asked myself the question: What fuzz pedal would Jimi Hendrix use today if he were still alive? I saw hundreds of videos of Jimi playing in different places, Ex: Isle of Wight, Stockholm, among others and
his fuzz had trouble working with his wah-wah. His fuzz had that constant feedback hissing noise that drove him crazy. So, I used all my knowledge on Fuzz Faces and decided to put low noise transistors with low to medium gain silicon transistors to make them sound more like a germanium fuzz because Jimi liked the warmth of the germanium fuzz but he didn’t like how they respond when the weather was not favorable for that type of transistor…Unfortunately, the Fuzz Face’s germanium transistors were extremely unreliable. When exposed to hot stage lights or the sun during outdoor concerts. Jimi he gathered several Fuzz Face pedals and tried several during sound check to pick the one he thought would work.
it sounded better that particular day. Eventually, he grew tired of the unreliable transistors in his Fuzz Face pedals, so Roger Mayer modified them.The silicon transistors I chose for this Fuzz are the Matsushita 2sC828A-Q. These transistors do not. They are common 2sC828’s like the ones used in Uni-Vibe, these have class “A” gain (hFE) from 130hfe to 260hfe, (in my opinion) Perfect match for silicon transistors in this fuzz.
The circuit has some features that make this Fuzz unique in the market today, it has a knob called “WAH WAH TRICK” that allows you to make this Fuzz “Wah Wah friendly”, this means you can use this pedal fuzz with a wah wah without having that annoying hissing noise that makes fuzz pedals not compatible with wah wah pedals and you won’t be able to make your wah wah sound or modulate like it should.You can place the before or after the wah-wah pedal and use this “WAH WAH TRICK” knob to set the correct position so that the hiss disappears. Another thing to keep in mind when using the wah wah trick is that if you don’t want to use a wah wah with the fuzz, you can use the “WAH WAH TRICK” as a “Fuzz cleaner”, this means you can clean up the “fizz” a bit. » of the fuzz and turn it into a kind of Overdrive. You can turn the FUZZ, OUTPUT and WAH WAH TRICK knobs all the way down and turn down the volume on your guitar to clean up your tone as if the fuzz effect was OFF.
The fuzz potentiometer is custom made for SABBADIUS Electronics with a special curve for have the best control on a fuzz pedal from 0 to 9, giving you the ability to use the full potential of the knob’s range, giving you more control of the FUZZ.
The pedal has 4 controls, OUTPUT, FUZZ, BIAS AND WAH WAH TRICK:SABBADIUS
• OUTPUT: The OUTPUT controls the output volume.
• FUZZ: The FUZZ knob controls the amount of FUZZ that is added to the effect. This control can also be manipulated by the volume control on the guitar.
• BIAS: A BIAS control on a Fuzz with silicon transistors? Yes, why? I decided to add this control outside the PCB so users can get more tones and sounds customized by playing with the voltage that Q2 controls.
• WAH WAH TRICK: The WAH WAH TRICK knob allows you to use a Wah-Wah pedal with the fuzz. In several fuzz pedals you cannot use wah wah’s because it makes an unpleasant noise like a hiss when you sweep it towards the bass or the “Wah Wah” effect does not appear, thus losing the modulation effect. With this control it is possible to make your fuzz work with the Wah Wah by placing your fuzz before or after the wah wah, thus producing an original wah-wah sound and fuzz modulating together perfectly. This function can be turned on or off to control and generate “Fizz” in the FUZZ effect or to use it as an overdrive.
