WEM - Project V

[LaceSensor]

Hey LaceSensor is that orange shielded wire? Where did you get it from?

Hi

Yes its Van Damme shielded (2 core) cable
got it from Dr Tweek in the UK. its about 90p a metre if memory serves me correctly...

[sinner]

me like

[digi2t]

I built the Project V (FINALLY) based on LaceSensor's vero. I omitted the 220pf cap and put the trimpots offboard... All I can say is WOW. I fell in love with the pep box the first time I heard a clone of it (Jerms' clone), and thought it was the most wicked, raw, primitive caveman fuzz I'd ever heard. Well the Project V is just amazing in this respect... it's like the grown up older brother of the pep box... the older brother that rides a motorcycle, smokes weed and loans its Zeppelin records to you...

What a fucking insanity box! The controls give you a lot of ability to dial in different tones, but 95% of the sounds it can make are unhinged mental institution-style fuzz... I would recommend this to anyone who loves craziness. If you love the FZ-1, Fuzzrite and other primitive fuzzes... you have to build a Project V.

Also: this build was a total pain in the ass in terms of fitting 1000uF and 330uF caps in a BB-sized box...

[digi2t]

Well the Project V is just amazing in this respect... it's like the grown up older brother of the pep box... the older brother that rides a motorcycle, smokes weed and loans its Zeppelin records to you...

Also: this build was a total pain in the ass in terms of fitting 1000uF and 330uF caps in a BB-sized box...

Hmmm.... mine is in a BB, and I didn't have a problem. The 1000uF is 16v, so that's fairly small, and the 330uF is 6.3v, so, about the same size. Just have to make sure that your standoffs are getting the board as low as possible.

Glad you enjoy it. It's been a while now, and it's still my fav fuzz.

[tasteless]

I did'nt know if I was going to bother trying this one, But..after AGOLDOOR's colourful description , I don't think I could ignore it !

[stomaATS]

New here...

Here's one more for those on the fence:




Haven't had a chance yet to play it through a "real" amp.. just tested it with the little peavey I have in the shop. Everything works great.. The only things I did different is I ran one wire to Edge 2 & 5 and jumped on board, and I used 2.2 and 2.7uF caps where I couldn't find any 2.5.. 11 turns of magnet wire for that added mojo.. switch ended up further over than I needed, but it all fits in a BB nice and tight!

Any biasing suggetions other than the ones on the schematic? Does it effect the sustain? I guess I will find out friday at band practice... Thanks for the hard work on this!!! I am expecting to have some jealous band mates and friends..

[digi2t]

Any biasing suggetions other than the ones on the schematic? Does it effect the sustain?

From what I remember, biasing was a bit of a pain because of the interactivity between the two trimmers. Mine is biased pretty well spot on to what the numbers on the schematic are. That's with MPSA18's, and a 2N5087. I find that's where it sounded best anyway. I say, get the numbers specified, or as close to them as possible, and then GENTLY tweak one way or the other to your ears content.

Tuned right, you get a great Muff roar, wonderful top end, and this wonderful, short-circuiting, bzzzzzzzzzz as the note decays. There is absolutely nothing like it.

[nightraven]

An excerpt from the Eno biography:

"Not content with being a lead singer, Eno now invested in his first bona fide electronic musical instrument - a Starway electric guitar purchased at a music shop during a day trip to Portsmouth. It cost him nine pounds and fifteen shillings and would stay with him for many years and several albums. Its strings were never changed and it was habitually fed through a Project Wem fuzzbox to ameliorate its - and Eno's - technical deficiencies, creating saturated wedges of sound closer to that of an aero engine than a guitar. The numerous credits for 'Snake guitar' on Eno's 1970s albums generally referred to the faithful Starway and fuzzbox set-up."

oh the things I would do to own one of those

[Pinstripedclips]

But...

Starway + muff.





With Eno fuzz, I don't think the pedal matters that much, his fuzz sounds sound DI'd and most DI'd fuzz sounds much the same.

[nightraven]

So the new unit that turned up for sale runs on 18 volts?

[kaycee]

Thanks for reminding me of this fail! I tried Digi's vero twice with no success did anyone ever do a PCB for this by any chance?

[digi2t]

Thanks for reminding me of this fail! I tried Digi's vero twice with no success did anyone ever do a PCB for this by any chance?

Really? Do you still have your vero? I would like to see it if so. I would like to know if my vero is at fault. If so, I would like to correct it. Please PM me.

Has anyone else around here built the WEM P V on my vero?

[kaycee]

I do still have the second attempt vero, No1. Was a bit of a mess from the start. As far as I could see the vero matched up with the hand drawn schematic, my grounds were alright and power gettin where it was supposed to but no output. Signal tracing proved challenging, its a heck of a circuit to understand

I wouldn't lose too much sleep over me not getting it working, a vero that dense, its easy to misplace a component or cut and stare at it without seeing it right in front of your face. I put it away till I fancy having another look at it with fresh eyes, I built your vero of the WOW signal and that worked right off of the bat

As I mentioned before, Paul Rudolph's fuzz tone on the Pink Fairies stuff is one of my favourite guitar sounds, I just wondered as this had popped up again if anyone had a board for a personal build of this beasty?

[agoldoor]

Thanks for reminding me of this fail! I tried Digi's vero twice with no success did anyone ever do a PCB for this by any chance?

Really? Do you still have your vero? I would like to see it if so. I would like to know if my vero is at fault. If so, I would like to correct it. Please PM me.

Has anyone else around here built the WEM P V on my vero?

Oh, sorry I didn't see this earlier. I built it on your vero without any problems Dino. I absolutely love this thing.

[digi2t]

Thank you sir! Thanks for the confirmation.

[astrobass]

Ghost Effects makes a current production clone called the Warmjet V, as that's what it's most famous for.

Here are some of the photos they posted of their own internals from Facebook, could be useful for reversing the schematic or for layout considerations. Their build quality is impeccable.

I've also attached a schematic of the WEM Project V that I found via googling.

It's a pretty complex build for such an old device, and it really makes you appreciate the beauty of the Ghost Effects layout. THOUGH: I don't know if they stuck exactly to that schematic or if they made design changes (haven't bothered to compare the two) or if the schematic is 100% correct. It seems like it's probably correct, since the author went to the trouble of calculating voltages. But I don't know.

[astrobass]

Oh jeez. Should've read the whole thread. That schematic has been posted and apparently verified too. Sorry.

[kaycee]

thanks for the effort though AB, the thought was there!

Yes, I used that schematic to try and trace my way through it, but its not like a FF or BM where you can easily trace the signal path.

The Ghost one is really nice, I'd forgotten that he does one, I've spoken to Ian before, he helped me out on a valve preamp pedal, nice guy. Yes that's a neat layout for such a circuit, it even looks nice, I don't etch so I'm stuck with vero or some perf nightmare!

[astrobass]

Ah. I DO etch and Eno is one of my favourites. So eventually (two or three projects away) I'm going to work out a layout based on the Ghost one. I'll post it here when I get to it.

[kaycee]

Smashing! Give me a poke when you get around to it. Happy days