Electronic – How Fuzz (audio effect) works

capacitordiodessignalsound

I am relatively new to the world of guitar pedals, and I have recently (after a few failed attempts) built a successful Bazz Fuss.

Although I've successfully built it, I'm not sure how exactly it works. I would like to learn what each part in it does.

Here's the circuit:

Schematic

My main questions are:

  1. What are capacitors doing in the circuit?

  2. What is diode's purpose and why is it connected this way? I've thought it would be connected straight from the capacitor to the transistor base.

  3. And of course, how fuzz works (in general).

Best Answer

And of course, how fuzz works (in general).

In words, adding fuzz is adding harmonics to the original signal. Harmonics are frequencies that are higher than the original signal but are tonally related.

More technically, this circuit essentially converts a sine wave

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to something resembling a square wave

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A sine wave is a pure tone which sounds dull

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but a square wave contains the pure tone as well as odd order harmonics

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which sounds more interesting.

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