Budda Wah into Sonus 1968 Jimi Mod Fuzz

[Motterpaul]

I have these original pedals - Budda Wah feeding a Sonus Jimi Mod Fuzz (germ NKT transistor). When the Fuzz is turned on the Wah drops in volume and gets far less "wah."

I know it is an impedance issue and I have seen a few fixes;

1. Put a buffer between them - problem? the buffer is always there even when the wah is off - not the best choice
2. Put a specially designed (ie: foxrox) internal buffer inside the wah that only turns on when the wah is switched on - so no buffer when wah is off
3. Simply put a 500k trim pot on the output of the wah to raise its output impedance

Questions - eliminating #1 which is better: #2 or #3?

 

[Moderato]

Id suggest #2 am not familiar with foxrox one but the one on my clyde dlx was perfect and did not color tone at all (plus can be put out of the circuit with a switch), regarding #3 you want to use a pot to find the right value? I used a fixed resistor but on the fuzz input, it solved my issues (which were more messy than volume drop) but the fuzz lost a lot of gain so the clyde dlx solved my issues 100%.

 

[loocnmad]

I'll second option #2. I have an original black label Budda wah and installed the Foxrox buffer. The issue with my silicon FF pedals was more high pitched squealing than volume loss. It definitely fixed it for me. Didn't have a chance to try with any Ge pedals.

 

[Motterpaul]

Thanks guys, I also decide on the FoxRox. I also should say I had the resistor placement wrong, the sometimes used fix is to put a trim pot on the input of the Fuzz (as Moderato said) and it is better to use a variable resistor (trim pot) so you can dial in the best sound.

But the buffer inside the wah seems to be the best answer, I also decided.

 

[Motterpaul]

Here is the interesting background, my client has a germanium (NKT) fuzz, and Budda Wah and an original Univibe. This is close to the whole pedal layout Hendrix used (Vox Wah, Fuzz Face and Univibe).

Hendrix figured out that if he put the Univibe between the Wah (first) and the Fuzz Face that it sounded best even with the Univibe off, but it was because the Univibe was not True Bypass, it had some processing happening even when it was off (some kind of buffer, likely).

Also - a silicon fuzz will give you squeal, but a germanium fuzz is much weaker in processing power, so you just lose clarity.

 

[Motterpaul]

I got the FoxRox buffer installed into the Budda - the wah now works with the Sonus Germanium 1968 (Jimi Mod) Fuzz. Before the buffer install, the wah could not push any treble into the fuzz. I built the buffer myself with a trimpot to dial in the tone - works really well.