Diamond

Description & History

Diamond fuzz is based on classic silicon Fuzz Face, one of the most famous 60s / 70s fuzz boxes, which have been used by many star guitarists like Jimy Hendrix, David Gilmour or Duane Allman.
Despite my great admiration of Fuzz Faces, they’ve had a few features that never really worked well. I reworked them to my liking, and so it happened that the Diamond was born.

Original units used by: Jimy Hendrix, David Gilmour or Duane Allman
Controls: Volume, Color, Fuzzzz, Bass cut switch
Contemporary trend: LED, DC socket, True Bypass ON/OFF foot switch

Main features

VOLUME KNOB (1)
Diamond keeps more treble content than a classic Fuzz Face with the “Volume” knob being turned down.

COLOR KNOB (2)
“Color” knob cuts the top end. If you don’t like the thin, aggressive fizz on top of your fuzz tone, reduce it with this knob, making the tone creamier. With this knob turned all the way down, Diamond can be used with a bass guitar.

FUZZZZ KNOB (3)
The classic Fuzz knob has been completely reworked. A classic Fuzz Face suffers from a massive gain jump at the last tiny bit of its path, which is hardly useful. Also, when you turn the classic Fuzz knob down, there is an audible treble loss, and the sound gets dull and muddy. The Diamond’s “Fuzzzz” knob ensures a smooth and balanced action all around, while the treble content stays almost intact.

HBS / SINGLES SWITCH (4)
The massive bass content of a classic Fuzz Face tone doesn’t really work well with the humbucker pickups. They generally need less bass and less gain to sound good. So, while the “Singles” position ensures the boomy Fuzz Face bass/gain tone, the “HBS” position comes with a bass/gain cut and improves the input impedance.

DC POWER (5)
Diamond can be powered from either a 9V battery or a 9V power adapter of any output current capability. The barrel jack should be the 5.5/2.1 mm type, with the “negative centre” polarity.
Carbon-Zinc batteries are preferred, but any other type will do just fine. The battery will be disconnected by the input guitar jack being pulled out, or with the DC jack being plugged in.

STOCK “FUZZ FACE” TONE SETTINGS
A stock silicon Fuzz Face tone can be achieved by turning the ”Color” and ”Fuzzzz” knobs all the way up and flipping the switch to the “Singles” position.

Other features

INTERNAL TRIMMERS
There are two trim pots inside the pedal, which can be re-adjusted to your liking. One sets how much the “HBS” switch cuts the bass end, and the other one sets the character of the fuzz tone - it varies from a loud, somehow cleaner, and open-sounding to quiet, fuzzier and more compressed.

GUITAR VOLUME SENSITIVITY
Diamond will greatly react to your guitar volume. You can regulate the amount of fuzz just with your guitar volume knob, just like with a classic Fuzz Face.

ALLERGY ON BUFFERS
Diamond doesn’t like buffers in front of it. Buffers make it sound fizzy and deprive it of its lovely feature - the great guitar volume sensitivity. Some pedals (Boss) have active buffers even when they are “off” - those pedals don’t belong before Diamond. Diamond likes to “see” your guitar pickups, and so that for the best results, place it in front of other pedals, right after wah.

INPUT IMPEDANCE AND WAH SYNERGY
Classic Fuzz Faces are notorious for their low input impedance and thus very bad synergy with wahs. A wah placed before a classic Fuzz Face will go bananas and oscillate. Unlike a classic Fuzz Face, Diamond has a way to deal with this - simply turn the “Fuzzzz” knob a bit down, to make the wah behave, or switch to “HBS” if you please.

OUTPUT IMPEDANCE
A classic Fuzz Face has a rather nasty hidden feature. It is its output impedance, which will steeply rise with the “Volume” knob being turned down towards its mid-value, where the output impedance reaches its maximum. This may cause a pedal placed after it to change its sound character when the fuzz is engaged. Diamond’s output was designed to minimize this effect.

Technical parameters

Current draw: 1.6 mA with LED on, 0.7 mA with LED off.
Input impedance at 1kHz:
- at “Singles”: 7 kΩ (max. “Fuzzzz”) - 105 kΩ (min. “Fuzzzz”)
- at “HBS”: 41 kΩ (max. “Fuzzzz”) - 110 kΩ (min. “Fuzzzz”)
Output Impedance at 1 kHz: 2 kΩ (max. “Vol.”) - 25 kΩ (mid “Vol.”).

Powering:

• 9V battery or power adapter (50-100mA at minimum)


• DC socket for a standard 5.5/2.1 mm barrel jack, positive on the barrel, negative inside


• The battery life will be extended by unplugging the input jack when the pedal is not in use. Plugging in a DC jack also disconnects the battery and saves its life.

Due to the airport security restrictions, i cannot include a battery.
Please use any kind of 9V battery, preferably a common zinc–carbon battery (for example Green Cell) for the best results, but any type will do.

The price includes

• NOS BC183 transistors


• 4 removable rubber feet


• true bypass switching that won't pop


• foot switch by Cliff


• low capacity jack sockets by Cliff


• extremely durable battery clips by Cliff


• thick wires


• firm and durable internal design