50 Year Old Heathkit Fuzz Pedal!!!

[@flymypg]

The inflation conversion makes that $22 1974 kit cost $135 today. I think I may have built this same pedal back in the early '70s for the high school bands I did setup for! I couldn't play or sing, so I did tech (sound & lights) for them. What a great fuzz effect.

[@Katie_Overqueue]

That circuit is much more clever than it first appears. R7 provides a d.c. negative feedback path that instructs the first stage (Q1) to park Q2's output (collector) somewhere mid rail. Absent that one clever trick, Q2 would be either slammed off or fully saturated, nominally resulting in no output at all. Without integrated circuits, engineers of that era had to be very creative and economical with every component due to space, cost and complexity limitations. Bravo Heatkit engineering and thanks, Fran, that was fun.

[@Barbarapape]

Heathkit takes me back, i built several of their kits from multiband radio's to an oscilloscope. They were expensive, but used good quality components and cases.

[@LenPopp]

Heathkit did make a lot of radios, so it makes sense that their guitar pedal would also be a radio receiver.

[@timmooney7528]

They made a little bit of everything. Even mini bikes and airplanes.

[@therealedharris]

Fran, you're the best, always. I've built this circuit a couple of times (just finished the first one on perfboard instead of a breadboard tonight) and I just came by to mention that it still works on 9V with a 2N3904/6 pair, all I had to do was rebias the base of Q1. It's still got the toanz, but the increase in the output peak voltage definitely means it needs a volume on the output instead of the input. A 15khz RC filter on the input means no more radio reception, too. I was so jazzed when you dropped this video because my late father was a diehard Heathkit guy, and this thing has been on my radar for years.

[@therealedharris]

I use a 330k from base to 9V, and a 100k to ground, everything else is the same as the schematic, if anyone's curious.

[@MrOhYeahRight]

Always a joy when you pick up your guitar!

[@GraemePayne1967Marine]

Ah, the memories ... Although I have never encountered that kit - I am a consumer of music rather than a producer of it. But in my memory of the early '60's, I remember my father wanting a new amplifier for the turntable. So, being an engineer, he got a Heathkit and assembled it. When he first turned it on, it actually became a smoke generator! From then on in our family, amplifiers have been called "apple-fryers"! BTW, a few days later, my mother took the kit, corrected all of his errors, tested it (NO smoke) and had it working by the time he got home. So far as I know, that was the first time she had used a soldering iron. She was drafted to assemble all future Heathkits!

[@JacksonPhixesPhones]

ALGORITHMO HAS BLESSED ME AGAIN WITH ANOTHER CHANNEL SHOULD I WISH I'D HAVE FOUND SOONER! Better late than never! Awesome video, thank you for sharing this pedal with us, kind of crunchy, I like it! 👍🙂🐧🐧

[@elantric]

My 1st electronic project I built in 1969 at age 14 - started my career in electronics - these were sold as a kit only from the Catalog shipped from Benton Harbor, MI. Its output also became my 1st home made 1/4" phone jack guitar cable. The PCB conformal coating had pre tinned solder pads for all solder connections. Mine doubled as AM radio too

[@John_Ridley]

Man what a job that would be - building Heathkits for other people! A perfect retirement "job."

[@wilneal8015]

😮❤👍 I Actually Built these Kits during My Youthful Years! Built their CB Radio Transceiver kit And the "FuzzTone" Kit, for Electronically Challenged Friends. 😊❤😎🤑💫🌟

[@StanErvin-yo9vl]

​@@wilneal8015 Had a Gibson wahwah back when time was analogue.

[@Dooodrhino]

The world used to be a much better place

[@John_Ridley]

@@Dooodrhino That's a common myth, and only true for a very small number of privileged people.

[@paulperry7091]

@@John_Ridley Agreed, Fortunately for me, I was one of the privileged. Today.. not so much. Fair enough.

[@rb032682]

That reminds me of the early 70s(?) when I had a subscription to Popular Electronics. It seemed every other issue had a schematic and plans for a diy fuzz box. I never built one because I already had several Big Muffs and had built my own hi-gain LPB-1 to overdrive my Showman amp.

[@goodun2974]

I briefly had a Maestro Fuzztone, which was thin and buzzy sounding, more like mosquito-tone; but I also had a Lafayette Radio LRE Superfuzz, which sounded HUGE, almost terrifying. It was made by Shin-Ei.

[@57dent]

Id argue those back labels are oriented the correct way. When you're plugging in the pedal and setting up you'd arguably be doing it from the back!

[@professordeb]

That was a fun one! My dad and I made some Heathkit projects back in the day. Didn't know they also made instrument and peripherals kits. Can't imagine the wiring for a full console organ!

[@sassulusmagnus]

1:23 The reason they put the labels for the connections upside down is that they didn't think guitar players were smart enough to be able plug the thing in without literally walking around to the other side first.

[@davelewis4215]

That’s a blast from the past I had completely forgotten about. A few friends had them and other brilliant Heathkit products that were available in the UK in the late 60s early 70s . Thank you for making this excellent video 👍

[@pinetopthomas4100]

Great video Fran. I’m experimenting breadboarding different Fuzz pedal designs trying to come up with the perfect pedal for my needs so now I have another one to test.

[@blackenedheart9592]

Definitely need more videos of you playing guitar! 🤘🤘 I play too snd i love watching other guitar players jam out! 🤘🤘

[@chrisknowles]

What a great blast from the past. Kind of reminds me of my teenager soldering skills! LOL The sound is very '70's If I were to have one now, I don't think I could resist modifying it as you were describing, RF filter, additional transistor, higher power supply, higher output. Wonderful video as always Fran, Thanks!!

[@twiff3rino28]

Better than the op amp Big Muff I slapped together at 15... somehow it still works 18 years later 😐

[@fepatton]

I think it’s interesting that the Fuzz-Tone ad talks about making your bass sound like a Sousaphone, tuba or a bass sax. Never thought about it in those terms!

[@CARLiCON]

nice teardown/demo Frannie, I love The "Mod" Sound...I have an old Guild fuzz box of similar vintage, it's smaller & the whole box plugs into the amp, thereby also only requiring 1 guitar cable..rock on!

[@rodgre]

I love this episode! I have a “Tim’s Own Fuzzer Buzzer” which is the same circuit, I believe. It was sold under different names like Wurlitzer and Lafeyette I think. Great squishy fuzz! I love that Vibroverb too! My favorite Fender amp. I have two of the 90s reissues and neither look as clean as yours!

[@ravenslaves]

My Harmony (H78) is a Heathkit. Great guitar. ...which reminds me... If I say ,"Radio Shack", how many of us smile...with maybe a slight tear?

[@timmooney7528]

I grew up near the St. Joseph and Benton Harbor area. Several of my friends and neighbors worked at either Heath or Zenith Data Systems. When I went to junior college, several of my instructors were either retired or active Heath/ Zenith employees from their educational division. The older techs have cool stories. They had a motto, "never let the customer fail." If a customer had trouble building a kit, they could get either phone support or send their kit back and have a tech fix it or finish it. A friend became the expert on HERO robots. He would pull the rat's nest of wires out and replace them with an organized wiring harness. I was hired after Groupe Bull bought ZDS, and Heath became a separate entity by then.

[@jondhuse1549]

Any video where Fran has a guitar in her hands is a great video - thanks!

[@ronwingeart4345]

Thanks Fran, didn't know they did a Fuzz box. I'm from Niles Michigan, Heethkit was just East of here.

[@michaelmitchell5909]

Awesome amp amd pedal....love your channel and what you do Fran, always thumbs up from me.

[@Autoxdriver]

Hi Fran. The upside down labels are for the connectors in the back, not the effect pots. :)

[@kmoecub]

She knows that. Are you going to be standing behind the pedal to plug it in?

[@jamanjeval]

@@kmoecubmaybe. But if they weren’t upside down, it would look like labels for the knobs. So when the writing is right-side-up, the jacks are facing you. Logical, but not aesthetic.

[@davidedgar2818]

I was so proud when I stepped up to the basic Heathkit kits. I built a stereo turntable and it worked. My dad worked in Hempstead and bought the kit for me.

[@binaryboyo9674]

Great look into Ye Olde Fuzz Box/AM Radio kit! I've different pedal but factory built somewhere but No radio! 🙂 But even better was Fran's 'Rock Chick' Demo with Fender! Priceless!! 😃 Now if Fran had pursued Music back in the day where might she be today? ....... Hopefully still in The Lab! 🤔

[@CARLiCON]

so since the signal is amplified, then fed into another amplifier, it's essentially an RF regen radio circuit, w/o the tuning section, probably picking up the closest high power AM station. I used to have an old hollow-body with single coils & by accident I connected to a fuzz with an un-shielded speaker cable instead of a shielded guitar cable, the AM reception was amazing

[@BobBasshead]

I had to chuckle at the soldering job on the phone plug. At the age of 15 in the early 70's I soldered many CB radio microphone plugs and PL259 antenna connectors for the "old guys" who didn't have soldering skills. From there I built Dynaco home stereo equipment, the PAT4 preamp, ST120 power amp and the FM5 receiver and still have them till this day. Heathkit was out of my price range so I opted for the Dynaco brand.

[@jeffreyyoung4104]

I loved building most of my novice ham station as a teen in the 70s with Heathkit!! Altho I was always dreaming about all of the projects in the catalog, I could only focus on what I could save up for, and that was ham radio!

[@bradpittiful7288]

blues theme dave allen and the arrows is a great tune!...im a punk but i also love 60s fuzz!

[@kurt9232]

Again very interesting. Thanks for that one! 😊😊😊

[@R3TR0R4V3]

Wow, didn't even know these existed. How cool! 😎 Thanks for sharing.

[@scyz2807]

When you were showing the 1974 catalog I recognized my old Heathkit 25 watt guitar amp! hahaha I indeed built it from kit. But it may have been 1976 before I bought it.

[@TranscendentBen]

I had that! After a few years I opened it up and added some caps and resistors to change the tone. I never got it to sound like Jimi Hendrix.

[@smalcolmbrown]

I built my own version in 1976 from the schematic, from the book "How to repair Musical Instrument amplifiers" by Byron Wels, using a BC149 and BC159 transistors and some Vero board.

[@Stevie_D]

That was fun ... and who better to talk about it, thanks, Fran!

[@randyt04]

Around 1971 I built my first Heathkit - a TA-16 Starmaker amplifier. Traded that for my first motorcycle. Then in 1975 I built the TA-17 Combo Amp and still have it to this day.

[@topfacemod]

Fran! You just explained why dying batteries make fuzz effects sound so much better! The under-volting is providing a non- linear clipping...adding to the distortion. I was today years old when I learned this!

[@doctorwacky5680]

Another one for you to do a video on that people might enjoy. Back in about 81 or 82 in the JCPenney catalog. They were selling a distortion pedal called a marquee. At that time this thing was probably about 10 years old. It was built like a little tank and it was an awesome pedal. I believe they also were selling a Flanger, but I never saw one of those.

[@SeanKerns]

Very cool. I borrowed an unbranded wedge shaped two knob fuzz that ran from a 1.5V battery once, and it also had a big volume drop when engaged. I thought it was broken at the time, but I new very little about electronics then. I considered at the time whether I should try to plug a 9V into it, but it's probably better than I didn't.

[@williamcorcoran8842]

It's got a great sound for rhythm, so long as you have a guitar that's in tune, and someone that knows how to set up the amp, and also knows how crush an axe. But, so long as those variables are met, the fuzz pedal by HealthKit sounds great!

[@popsfereal]

That was fun Fran. Thanks.

[@seantak]

I love your videos fran! I wish you enabled subtitles though

[@writerjmd]

I have one of these that I built. I have it inside my Vox Pacemaker amp that I bought back in the mid 60's. I think the last time I tried it it didn't work, but I should try it again. I think that they are worth a lot now.

[@ticthak]

Cool old fuzz. I got one of the TA-25 combo amps (2 X 12, two independent channels w/ spring reverb and tremelo (the first I fixed, still have to fix the trem) probably 25 years ago. Nice clean channel, and the reverb IS excellent. They went a little light on the plywood cases on these amps, the cases have a distinct tone, aloing with some acoustic responses due to that that can be annoying unless you figure out how to actually USE them.

[@catface101]

Heathkit, it's me, I'm Cathy I’ve come home, I'm so cold

[@bobair2]

I hear in your playing Davie Allen and link Wray! Fran you have excellent taste!!!

[@homunculusSZN]

I love it. Somehow this fuzz sounds better than all the modern “boutique” fuzzes.

[@freddyquiroga505]

I had a Heathkit kit electronic siren in my car for years!

[@markhammer643]

A high school friend built his own TA-16 amp as well as the fuzz. I lusted after that amp, and many decades later found one 2nd hand, cheap. The front end had gotten a little hissy over the years, but I fixed that with a transistor swap, and installed a brite switch.

[@tjsogmc]

The nice things about the Heathkits is that they are good for modifications and experimenting. Such a simple circuit is ripe for mods.

[@kensmith5694]

I am going to go make a spice model of it and see what it does according to that. I will edit this when I have something to describe. It turns out what I thought is correct. You were underselling how clever the circuit is. If you apply 440Hz at different levels the effect is interesting. --Down near 1mVpeak constant sine wave, it shows a gain of about 80 --With 10mVpeak in, both the NPN and the PNP contribute to the clipping and the output is fairly good square wave in the low lone setting. --With 100mVpeak it is still a good square wave while the signal is applied. If the signal decreases suddenly, the amplifier pins against one rail and then recovers in about 10mS The tone knob seems to move the peak gain from 200Hz to 10KHz as you turn it one end to the other.

[@angryshoebox]

I remember when I was a teenager I plugged my first electric guitar into a mic input on my JVC cassette deck, and turned the mic level all the way up. I got tones very similar to the Heathkit fuzz pedal, LOL.

[@beauwilliamson3628]

I hear half the spirit of 77 punk bands when you kicked that in

[@richiebricker]

Im pretty sure the reverse battery voltage happens when the battery gets near zero volts and the capacitors slowly leak their charge backwards. Because theres no voltage or current it can and will flow backwards. In modern electronics we get a similar thing when charging 1 cell lipo batts that have a usb charger with an indicator led. If disconnected from the power source, i.e. Turning a computer off, then the Led in the charger will drain the lipo down to nothing. Ive only had one go negative and that was a lil RC car that had an internal battery. Im unsure if capacitors had a hand in that but its scary cause I didnt think a lipo could have a negative charge. It kills the battery but is it more unstable like that, Im sure it is

[@DavidLindes]

1:34 - my take on why that lettering is upside down is because _when you're plugging it in_ maybe you would be behind it... or have it in your hand turned around, to have the jack and cord close to you. YMMV (e.g. at 1:51 you show just lifting the back towards you, without turning it around, though what you do at 2:46 gets closer to what I'm imagining), but that's how I interpreted the motivation, before you even mentioned it... so... 🤷‍♀

[@NullStaticVoid]

Love the piano hinge on the cover. More effects should be designed like that! This reminds me of a Gibson Reverb box I used to own. It was solid state, but in that 60's kind of way. Had two attached cables to connect to two amps. They sounded a little different but I wouldn't go so far as to say it was stereo. The reverb was excellent. Not noisy at all, very warm. But due to the flimsy box it was in would launch into feedback with little effort. Funny quirk of it was that it passed signal with no power, albeit about -10dB lower. Never can find any info on that old unit. It was all over all my early recordings back when digital reverbs were expensive and tape loops were cheaper than samplers. Ps kept waiting for 'Rumble'.

[@randycarter2001]

Upside down because the stage hand hooking up the wires would be off the front. The musician would be on the back pushing the switch.

[@DadofScience]

Thanks Fran :)

[@lolaeudy8316]

Awesome find! Especially, with catalog.

[@fraterfraxinus6293]

That's a power chord monster!

[@ugsisr]

Fran, I have an old Fuzz and WaWa pedal by Fender but this one by Heathkit is interesting... Thank you

[@LPdeluxe]

Nice teardown and overview. I dig that amp....is that the 2x10 Vibroverb reissue? thanks.

[@acid3137]

Nice shoutout to The Arrows there!

[@ScottfromBaltimore]

THAT is a clean tone.

[@hotpuppy1]

I wish I had kept my old catalogs from then. Fun to read.

[@bborkzilla]

I recognize those knobs as the ones they also used on their SW-717 shortwave receiver.

[@ikestoddard2458]

To the left of your Vibroverb is a Fender item I do not recognize! Has a small buddy Holly pic on it. I see a keypad, and display.

[@wrayven]

These were used by Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad. They don't work so great if you're playing at bedroom levels, but if you're playing a cranked 100 watt amp with a large cabinet the Heathkit Fuzz works ok. I had one modded for a 9 volt battery which gave some more volume and overall response, but it just wasn't my thing. For the primordial fuzz pedals, I am definitively in the Mosrite Fuzzrite camp followed by the Foxx Tone Machine & original FY-6 Superfuzz. The true Davie Allen pedal is a Mosrite Fuzzrite. Get one of those and your guitar tone will instantly sound like a biker movie soundtrack.

[@angrydove4067]

I was hoping you would play it for us. Cool.

[@user-zx8de8op9l]

The song is Blues Theme from the movie The Wild Angels

[@nokomislanes8500]

I have a Heathkit TA-28 with knobs labeled "Fuzz" & "Tone". It's great fuzz and one I do love, however it has such a huge volume drop it's not as easily usable live.

[@mikebarushok5361]

Odd that it ran on a "penlight" cell and not 9 V.

[@goodun2974]

Note the capacitor rated for only 3V !!

[@woodypope7421]

I still have mine!

[@StanErvin-yo9vl]

Heard a backwoods country band that did a whooshing effect on the pedal steel guitar. And I swear they did vibrato on the fiddle. This was near Asheville.

[@archiedentone5950]

I had one and tried to use it on my Farfisa combo compact but it didn't fit my music direction at the time.😊

[@ScottfromBaltimore]

I had the metronome from that catalog!

[@jimsalman7257]

I’d replace that one blue electrolytic cap which appears original. It’s most likely either dead or nearly so. That might help the output level. Or not.

[@schreds8882]

It sounds a bit like the fuzz from Spirit in the Sky. I know Norman Greenbaum had something built into his guitar but it's always been a bit of a question how he got that fuzz sound.

[@TailSpinRCSpain]

I've had batteries which reverse charge just by being left in a device, but they were originally correct polarity.

[@sylvainmichaud2262]

I would assume that _guitare_ and _amplifier_ writing is to be readable when inserting the cable or selecting the one going to the amplifier.

[@tvelektron]

Would like to hear it in direct comparisition to other effect, for example Frantone. Ok, output voltage is a bit on the low side but otherwise i like the sound. Maybe i will build this circuit for one of my DIY pedals...

[@tvtoms]

Some sort of enamel coating on the board, like magnet wire maybe? Quite a kit, very beefy and thick as was the style at the time, hah.

[@OfDoom.]

Anyone know of any modern day clones for these in production? Love that Mark Farner fuzz sound

[@einsteinwasright1044]

Those top labels aren't upside down when looked at from the perspective of the person connecting to the input and from the output, who might very well be on that side of the pedal. Is it not possible to adjust the LEVEL control so that the volume is approximately the same on/off? When is it drawing current from the battery? Only if there is a guitar cord plugged into it?

[@EvilHomer1973]

I picked up Radio Moscow one night on my amp because I had a old Banana guitar tuner in the signal chain and heard Russian voice speaking to me from the amp. My dad is a HAM and I ran to get him to check it out. He laughed his ass off!

[@keithhampton9700]

My friends Dad had a really cool Heathkit tube twin guitar amp with reverb. He played Jazz and swing country music. He played a MOSERITE. GOSPEL.

[@rrp1127]

Pretty sure there was a simpler version without the tone control that i built in that era. Great memory.

[@Berainish]

Too Cool 😎

[@alangunn7254]

Can you get significant distortion from just the dry joints in the output Jack? 🤔😁

[@olavschioett4101]

I like how it sounds, would be fun to hear it on a tb 303

[@herby4215]

Vintage electronic love to see

[@DrRussPhd]

Bees in a can at the start. Has a little Big Muffiness to it. A friend of mine had a heath kit 1x12 amp way back when. It sounded OK but we had nothing to really compare it to at the time.

[@butchlauer]

Have to put it in the diet fuzz catagory, but a great example of heathkit history for sure. 👍

[@TheGreatAtario]

Rawkin' it with Heathkit

[@technofundave]

I'm thinking that fixing the bad solder joints might fix the radio pickup problem. They looked really really bad.

[@FranLab]

The radio issue is because there is no RF filtering on the effect input. I put a simple R/C filter in all my effect designs to curb this.