MARSHALL SUPA FUZZES (Data Dump)

[Graham]

Well I started sticking some pics on the buy sell post re that expensive SF on the bay and thought rather than stick extra pics up there we ought to get something rolling here.


From what I term the Mark 3 - in the second body shape with script lettering - middle one in my family trio.






From what I term the Mark 4 - in the third body shape with the raised lettering - right hand one in pic.
Somebody has put a soldering iron to this one some time - you can see the flux on the underside - it wasnt me but it works just fine! These versions have a tad more bottom end than the earlier ones. Notice they use the same board as the previous body shape model.







There was a later (Mk5) which while in the same "raised lettering" body used a translucent green (and sometimes brownish) material for the board but as far as I know - not currently owning one - it is the same circuit still using OC75's - these were available until the tail end of the seventies perhaps into the eighties! That would make the Supa Fuzz the version of the Solasound Mk2 Tonebender that was the longest lived.

I will add further pictures to this thread as I dig them out and hopefully others will repost theirs here
(John your Mk1 OC81 model please?)

[theemadcap1]

Absolutely!
Here is the beauty queen!!
If I post this...Graham...you gotta post some pics of that sick 'proto-type-ish' Vox TB Pro MKII!!!
Be a good reference to this one!

Helloo Betty!! Just as I got her. Came from 'straight out of the Netherlands' (naturally!)



What are those unmarked transistors? Probably OC81Ds, because there has never been another Sola sound made MKII-type pedal that used anything but Mullard OC75 or OC81D transistors.
Waiting for a new Lithium PP4 battery and then I am going to take some new pictures, a la Graham, a full spread; to capture her curves and details...(ooofff...is that a coppertop Alkaline battery!?!? I didn't know better! Contacted the original owner, he looked around and found the original PP4 battery terminals!!)
Maybe under black light there will be secret messages from Gary Hurst!

[tatter]

Excellent photos. I'm really interested in the Supa Fuzz Dave mentions in the Tone Bender History page which has the original Tonebender MKI circuit but with a crude tone/filter control. Would i be right in thinking that you own one of these Graham?

Also it's a shame that the guy selling the 5K OC81 Supa Fuzz on ebay hasn't posted pictures of the underside of his circuit board. IF (and it's a big if) they are original it would be quite a significant variation and possibly suggest that the unmarked transistors on theemadcap1's supa fuzz are also OC81 instead of OC81D?

[Graham]

Excellent photos. I'm really interested in the Supa Fuzz Dave mentions in the Tone Bender History page which has the original Tonebender MKI circuit but with a crude tone/filter control. Would i be right in thinking that you own one of these Graham?

Also it's a shame that the guy selling the 5K OC81 Supa Fuzz on ebay hasn't posted pictures of the underside of his circuit board. IF (and it's a big if) they are original it would be quite a significant variation and possibly suggest that the unmarked transistors on theemadcap1's supa fuzz are also OC81 instead of OC81D?

Well I have got a very early Vox mk 2 pro (as mentioned by John already) which has exactly the same long board and unmarked metal can trannies as his Supa Fuzz here - I will put a full spread up somewhere soon (Dave and Donovan been talking to me re setting up a decent dedicated mk2 area / page) but noone heard of a early Sola mk2 with 81's as opposed to 81D's - the captain reckons mine and Johns are one and the same board (think thats the right terminology) youll see for yourself tomorrow sometime (although I think I already recently put a shot of my mk2 pro board onto the forum - perhaps on the "other" supafuzz posting )

Re the proto supa fuzz with the close knobs - again tomorrow ok

I saw the pics of the underside of that ebay supafuzz - looks like a little work done but I couldnt tell if the trannies were refitted - they werent sent to me direct so its not my prerogative to post them here - sorry

G

[Graham]

Hi Donovan sorry to have not gotten back more promptly to last PM - I knew the old site was ok with the pics off photobucket but didnt understand the nuts and bolts here - it is a lot easier for me to load pics straight over from a pc or in my case using several I now use a nice mini hd unit - half a terrabyte and size of an Ipod!

If you can optimise (I really ought to say if you don't mind the work) then please go ahead by all means - Youd need to explain a little more to me the other stuff - I am basically happy to stick my entire collection up somewhere - not as in boasting - just fun to share and chat to others about the stuff that so interests me - I love the way I am always finding out more here in dribs and drabs and the whole "detective work" vibe gets my heart beating the way bags of powders once used to! It just seemed that stuff was getting dotted about all over the place - perhaps getting given my own playpen (or is that cage) might be fun and I could plod away at my own speed with folks lifting or kicking in whenever! I am terribly keen that there be a thorough online resource where for instance somebody could see the different modelds of Colorsound Power Boost / Overdriver in full detail with sensible comment and discussion - not seeing it as my own personal thing but where - as you had suggested - things were kept reasonably tightly on subject without the drift that is such fun yet screws up the continuity of any attempt at referencing...

One of my major motivations was that I have spent untold hours attempting to glean even minute bits of info on something that catches my eye - often with very little reward! Some of the other guys - Bart in particular and Dragonfly amongst others have done great stuff too and I am not after replicating their work (havent got that kind of patience or work ethic!!) so much as taking it to the next level specifically with the fuzzy stuff - I ought to mention Steve Russels Vintage Hofner site too - its not that strong on the pedals (maybe something we could help with) but is truly inspirational when it comes to small British amps!!!

Maybe I should have said this in a pm - David has been talking about it as well but if you notice the time here (gone5) im a tad insomniacal (and need to turn the bloody laptop off) and had just kicked in here cos I saw your comment .

Cheers - G

ps - despite the criticisms of this supa on the bay its still an important pedal - not too many of them about that early model - and could sound fabulous - also as I mentioned to madcap John - if it transpired the 81's had been planted it wouldnt be any big deal to reinstate a trio of black oc75's at least they are reasonably available - just the seller hasnt helped himself at all with the way hes gone about it slagging Dave and over-egging (and hugely overvaluing) the pedal hes got - you know its nice to have most of the screen printing still legible if youre chasing top dollar!!

Also its a lucky find -a pedal that's 40 plus years old that hasnt had at least some work done on it - comes down to the quality and degree of the work really - I cant stress enough the importance - particularly with the truly rare stuff - of only letting decent people work on your gear and that any restoration really should be kept sympathetic to the pedal!!! (could do with a chap on a high horse emoticon!!) I hate pedal vandalism - you ought to see what was done to an admittedly great sounding blue CMI Tonebender I have !! Hang the Hotrodders!!!

[Graham]

Sounds cool to me Mr D.

again sorry I spilled it over onto the thread it was five am and i was spun out ! G

[Graham]

PROTOTYPE MARSHALL SUPA FUZZ PICS

PICTURES ONLY AT THIS POINT:

In 2 postings to keep load times down...[/color]









Now then - isn't that sticker bloody interesting - Channel Electronics and type OASIS!!!! wonder where they fitted in with Sola - perhaps they subbed the proto build out or something - it certainly looks original and doesn't appear to me to be a label from a service engineer - (wish there was a Sherlock Holmes smiley with a magnifying glass!) VERY INTERESTING!!
Graham

[Graham]

GUTS Hope you like them - sorry if some seem almost the same - think they are all a bit different - it's a beautiful pedal once being in Carls collection - I considered myself particularly fortunate to be able to get hold of this one from him....














Lots of pics but i's a particularly nice and super rare pedal - I know of one more of these with the close spaced knobs - Dave tells me that particular one was discovered in a partially built condition and that its owner either completed the build himself or else had it done for him (he is a great pedal builder himself so I imagine he did it himself!!) - as I understood it they were both aware of this one at that time (according to the Captain) and considered this one to be effectively unique. I did see some pics of one of these models on plexipalace though - it could well have been the same one (because I am unfamiliar with peoples forum names there) I just mentioned Dave telling me about - He thinks this one is a one off and as such probably the grand daddy of them all!! Of course if the one I saw on PP was not the one that had been found incomplete then that would mean there are three in total of these that we know of so that could mean there were two fully built prototypes..

If you compare the board layout on this one to the various Tonebender mk2 boards and also to subsequent production model Supa Fuzzes then this pedals build is very interesting and raises some questions about where it should fit in on the evolutionary timeline of the Sola Sound Tonebenders - according to Dave the circuit has a lot more in common with the earliest Tonebender circuits than the later mk2's - Don't know much about that myself as I'm a technical luddite although I do have examples of the other versions of the Tonebneder including a Mk1 and several Mk2's.



Mk1 - Hornby Skewes Zonk Machine - Sola Mk1.5 - this one - Rotosound mk2 (I didn't have my Vox Mk2 Pro when I took that picture but the Roto is the same circuit apart from its not using the OC81's found in my Vox)

The whole history thing and in particular where the Mk1.5 sits in relation to the Arbiter fuzz face family is extremely convoluted and "shrouded in mystery". The Zonk with its 3 trannies had a lot in common with the mk1 (according to Dave) but the mk1.5 which is seen in some areas as the early version of the mk2 had two trannies and is effectively the same as the FF - those were supposedly cribbed from a universally available design for something called a "Shmidt Trigger" in the electronic circuit books ofthe day - but Gary Hurst worked for Sola and also did work for Arbiter (whether legit and on the books I dont know) so whether the Mk1.5 is a few months older than the earliest fuzz faces and as such the Grand daddy of all the FF family (and cribbed by Arbiter off of Sola) or perhaps a few months younger than the FF and therefore cribbed by Sola from Arbiter - The role of Gary Hurst is integral!! Whatever the case Sola quickly dropped the 2 tranny design and concentrated on their 3 tranny mk2 designs for the next few years both on their own branded pedals and those made for third parties.....

I will have to get more serious about putting some reference section together to give the pictures to flesh out the arguments for the developmental history although will need the technical input of others here to make sense of it all.. Perhaps the Captain will kick in on the developmental history and where he thinks this one sits in relation to the other versions --???. ...

Greedy Graham

btw I did spend some time earlier today putting together some comprehensive photo groupings for both the Zonk and my Buzzaround so will stick a decent reference posting up on those two in the next day or so - its a bummer that a lot of my stuff is stuck over on the old forum site but I will get them all here in the end!!!

Bandwidth --- phwahh!!! Cap'n Dave told me I was cool to do it this way - when I tried to do the direct thing I fu***ed it up good and proper !!! - check my Mk2 Pro post! Seriously though what I aready have sorted out already on photobucket (i.e the old site postings) will have to go on this way until I get to grips with a bit of techno trickery piccy shrinking voodoo (now I remember why I like analog electronics not digital!!) G

[Mr. Min T. Fresh]

Is that beast yours :shock:

[tatter]

Is that Supa Fuzz the 'MKI circuit with crude tone control' that Dave mentions on the Tone Bender History page? Wow that's pretty special. What does this particular pedal sound like compared to your MKI and other Supa Fuzzes?