Fuzz Sustainer

This is probably the first ever clone of rare 80s Fuzz Sustainer made in Poland by Satronik. I traced two units and based my pedal on them without modifications (there are some component values variations between original examples, what don't change overall sound too much - they probably used whatever parts were available... or really often changed schematic).

It's very unique fuzz with some interesting circuit features and to my knowledge not based on any particular pedal. It's really high gain fuzz which produces distortion by brutal overload of transistor and integrated circuit (no clipping diodes are involved). Not much tone filtering happens there so overall sound is very raw, almost primitive, with oldschool grainy character and 'weird' behaviour when instrument is muted (it's not gated and not fully sustaining, with bit of noise and crackling sounds when idle). Active treble boost/cut knob is a handy tone control and pedal works well with buffers in front (but difference between buffer vs no buffer is noticeable; both options sound good).

Original units used mix of BC108, BC109, BC148 and BC239 transistors (possibly other types too) and 741 type integrated circuit in various packages. In this drop I used new old stock BC109 and BC149, both made by Polish manufacturer Cemi - like some original units. I used MAA741 chip, which is a metal can 741 equivalent - just for some extra mojo.

Box is pretty big - 1590XX model, circa 14.5 x 12.5 cm

Controls:
- sustaining - level of distortion
- balance - output volume
- tone - treble boost/cut (flat response at '5')

Internal controls:
- unmarked trimpot adjusts IC's input offset voltage - I preset it to value of my original unit and I recommend to keep it there (if you're persistent to experiment, turning it will provide gating effect at far ends of the dial and some minor changes in attack and harmonics; it will be hard to set it back to stock setting)

NO BATTERY OPERATION POSSIBLE WITH THIS PEDAL. Feed it only with standard 9V DC negative center power supply.