# NPD - Wattson FY-2 replica



## hardasmum (Apr 23, 2008)

A positive Craigslist transaction today landed me this Wattson Classic Electronics FY-2 Fuzz. 

I've wanted to try a FY-2 flavoured fuzz for awhile. Surprisingly there aren't as many clones of the FY-2 as there are of Tone Benders and Big Muffs.

The Wattson is particularly cool because they've housed it in a replica Shin Ei box. They've added an LED, battery access drawer, 9VDC jack and an internal clean boost switch to compensate for the low output of the original circuit.



















I just tried it at work and first impressions are that it's spitty, nasty, Lo-Fi and exactly the flavour of fuzz I have been missing from my pedal arsenal.

I can't wait to try it on bass guitar!


----------



## Cups (Jan 5, 2010)

They're one trick ponies but it's a good trick.
I've built one with a BigMuff tone control instead of the mid dip circuit. Sounds even better and more versatile in my opinion.


----------



## ElectricMojo (May 19, 2011)

Wow.
Really, really cool.
Congrats!


----------



## Sneaky (Feb 14, 2006)

I've always wanted to try one of those. I have an old "Royal" branded Shin-Ei fuzz that is insanely good.


----------



## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

Congrats!

I'm digging the guitar knobs on that too, pretty cool.


----------



## hardasmum (Apr 23, 2008)

sulphur said:


> Congrats!
> 
> I'm digging the guitar knobs on that too, pretty cool.


Haha. I literally just asked the seller if he had the original ones. These keep falling off because they don't have those fastening screws.


----------



## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

I don't know what was on there originally,
but you can see the settings that way with a peak over the end of the unit.

Seems legit. 8)


----------



## hardasmum (Apr 23, 2008)

sulphur said:


> I don't know what was on there originally,
> but you can see the settings that way with a peak over the end of the unit.
> 
> Seems legit. 8)


Likely why he changed them. The original ones are aluminum with a little notch marker.


----------



## 4345567 (Jun 26, 2008)

__________


----------



## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Welcome to the fold!:food-smiley-004:

I bought an FY-2 from a pawn shop in Moncton in 1993....for the stompswitch and box, if you can believe it. DPDT stompswitches were [email protected] at the time, and the pedal was $15. I chucked the circuit board in a scrap box of parts to cannibalize at some point. Fifteen or so years later I thought I'd fire it up and asked around about where to connect the various pads on the board (I had no schematic at the time). Once I wired and fired it up, I thought "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE!?". Great fuzz. Push it hard with a booster and it gets sick....EBOLA sick. 

I've modded mine in a variety of ways, and built several clones and derivatives. The pedal is remarkably maleable (though if you just dropped a chunk of change on one, I imagine you'll want to hold off on the malleability for a bit). That said, here are some things worth trying:

1) The two resistors and capacitors between the Fuzz control and Volume produce a big midscoop that leaves you with big bottom and sizzling top. If you insert some resistance between the 0.1uf cap and ground, you save the upper mids, and it moves more into the "Over Under Sideways Down" sort of tone. My redraw shows 50k, but quite honestly, more than 2k-5k is pretty much wasted. Note that the midscoop filter removes a LOT of signal. So as you retain more of the upper bass and lower mids you get a LOT of additional volume. What is a not particularly loud pedal in stock form loses all need for a gain recovery stage.

2) The FY-2, Orpheum Fuzz, Mosrite Fuzz-Rite, and a bunch of other fuzzes share the same topology, however the FY-2 wires up the fuzz control differently for some reason. On the Fuzz-Rite, the Fuzz control is wired like a panpot, taking a feed from Q1 and Q2 in varying proportions. The FY-2 is different. Personally, I find I get a broader range of tones if I wire up the fuzz control on the FY-2 in Fuzz-Rite style.

3) You can see on the second transistor in each, there is a 100k and 47k resistor, and a .047uf cap, connected to V+. The amount of bottom (or top, depending on how you look at it) depends on where along the overall 147k resistance the cap is tied to. So, a person could replace those two resistors with (coming from V+) an 18k resistor, 100k linear pot, and 27k-33k resistor. The 18k goes to V+ and one outside lug of the pot. The other outside lug goes to the collector of the transistor, and the cap is connected to the wiper of the pot and V+. As you move the pot, you adjust how much bottom is introduced. It's still the same one-trick pony, but you can make the pony palomino or chestnut.


















I made this sick little puppy that packs a modified Muff Fuzz and modded FY-2 into one package. It illustrates some of the suggested mods. Fedding a Muff Fuzz into an FY-2 yields some nice tones, even at 1/2W.
[video=youtube;npxq2DSAyuk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npxq2DSAyuk[/video]


----------



## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

when i was putting my fy-2 clone together,
Mark shared the above mods with me,
and i used them in my build.
took an already awesome sounding fuzz and doubled the awesomeness.
the fy-2 is a really great fuzz.



> I can't wait to try it on bass guitar!


when i want fuzzy bass, the fy-2 is what i use- sounds fantastic.
love the enclosure the watson version comes in-


----------



## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

One of the FY-2 derivatives I made was a fuzz for a longtime friend who is a bass player. I doubled the values of the caps on each side of the Fuzz control - 2200pf to 4700pf, and 3300pf to 6800pf - and replaced the midscoop filter with a simple treble rolloff switch. Didn't turn out exactly as I wanted it to (I was aiming for Grand Funk bass player Mel Schacher's sound), but it sounded great on bass. I imagine that with the right chorus it would sound absolutely monstrous.


----------



## hardasmum (Apr 23, 2008)

I'm going to sit with the pedal for a bit and get to know it, then I might consider some modifications. 

Anyone know where I might source replacement rubber feet? Two are missing and the seller can't find them. He took them off to sit better on his pedalboard. They are similar to Dunlop Crybaby feet but smaller screw and rubber washer. 

I tried contacting Wattson but they haven't replied and their website hasn't been updated for a couple of years.


----------

