Home Made Fuzz Face Q

[cokecan72]

Hey guys

I've made my self a Fuzz Face recently using this circuit:



From the research I did this looks to be the original circuit, or at least very close i.e. no mods that i know of

This pedal i've made has some karazy distortion to it :D BUT it just sounds quite dull, dark/bluesy, maybe even muffled through my Epiphone Valve Junior (swapped out the valves for some EL84's and ECC83S) using my Tele, a strat and my cheapo squier strat

When its turned off so its just like a pass-through kinda thing everythin sounds clear and bright again.

So, does anyone have any ideas on how i can get it to sound a bit brighter when turned on?

Would appreciate any help you could offer :)

[HTH AMPS]

what transistors have you used? - the transistor types and the actual gain (Hfe) make a HUGE difference.  are they baised correctly? - read the Fuzz Face FAQs at Geofex.com if you havent already.

as for ways to make it brighter, lower the input cap to 0.01uF and change to volume pot to 100k, that will kill most of the low-end mush.  put some series resistance at the front of the circuit too if you want less of that compressed fuzz and more crunch.

 :twisted:

[cokecan72]

thanks for the reply :)

I'm using the germanium AC128's. i got a pack of 10 off egay and used that  guide geofex gave on how to find out which have the best gain and should sound the best

I'll swap out that 2.2uF cap for a 0.01uF and use a lower value POT for the volume and see what happens :)

[HTH AMPS]

what sort of leakage do those AC128s have? - I've never had any  AC128s that were very useable yet.

my advice would be this...  get a tested set of Ge transistors from Steve at Small Bear - it's slightly more expensive than buying off ebay, but you KNOW they're tested for gain, leakage and the tone will be spot on.  go for NOS one's for the best results.

I take it you've got Q2 biased with 1/2 Vs (i.e. 4.5v) at the collector?

 :twisted: