Ibanez - FZ-7 Fuzz (Help me modify this fuzz!)

A forum devoted to mod, tips and suggestions for upgrading and rehousing your VERY CHEAP commercial stompbox to near boutique excellence.
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DWBH
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Post by DWBH »

After some time with it, I'm not happy.
I want to do some mods, reduce the gain, put it more controlled. It's very.... violent.
I want it to be a fuzz, yeah, but I want it to have less gain, a better tone control, and a bit more responsive.
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Image
Here's the schem:
http://www.schematicx.com/schematic/iba ... schematic/

If somebody could take a look at the schem and give me some pointers were to start, I'd be thankful.

André

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DWBH
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Post by DWBH »

It's not worth it, right?

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modman
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Post by modman »

In absence of better suggestions, I would start playing with the filtering section: C22, C24 - C26 trying to smooth out the response, and increase the treble cap (27nF stock)...

Careful soldering and not overheating the pads and you can try out a few things.
good luck
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nooneknows
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Post by nooneknows »

I don't understand the function of the 4 transistor in parallel, any idea?

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Post by TubeDude22 »

Raising a zombie thread to share my mods for the Ibanez FZ7 fuzz.

I just bought a Vox AC15 amp and found out that it loves fuzz. So, I tested my small collection of fuzz pedals and noted their idiosyncrasies. The problem I had with the Ibanez was that it had tone suck in bypass. What I ended up doing was modifying the buffer stages with three caps and one resistor. Clarity is MUCH improved in bypass and the thing generally sounds much better in fuzz mode.

NOTE: The factory schematic shows C1 as a 223 cap but mine came stock with a 104 mylar.

1. Change R2 to 22K.
2. Change C44 to .1mfd metalized polyester.
3. Change C35 to .1mfd metalized polyester.
4. Parallel C36 with a small 103 mylar cap.

I'm really enjoying the pedal now. If I do any more mods down the road, I'll post them. But this will be a good start for anyone wanting to improve one of these.

Cheers!

/TD
Attachments
FZ7 output buffer mods
FZ7 output buffer mods
FZ7 front end buffer circuit mods
FZ7 front end buffer circuit mods
ibanez-fz7-fuzz-schematic.pdf
Complete Schematic
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Post by OMFUG »

RE-ressurecting the zombie thread... so I have one of these, and the AC15 you mention, and they seem paired well, but I need to tame it as well. are you pretty happy with all the mods a year of so in? Seems a simple job, so I'm up for trying if it's worthwhile.

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Post by zedsnotdead »

RE-RE-Ressurecting! :idea:

A friend of mine just gave me a FZ7 and asked me to mod it as I please....
I have the schematic, it's kind of strange looking one, for me at least... I was wondering if one could change the clipping diodes (D5/D6) for anything else...
Are there any other mods I could do to add character?

thx!

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Post by Dirk_Hendrik »

See the low mid hi text next to the resistors in vicinity of U2A? Replace those resistors by pots (20k) and dial to your sonic character till you drop. That's what teh designers of this fuzz obviously did. Once they found the character of their liking they measured the pots and repaced em by voltage divider resistor sets.
Sorry. Plain out of planes.

http://www.dirk-hendrik.com

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