The key to building a good fuzz face is ensuring that transistors are getting the correct voltage. Diy npn silicon transistors fuzz face clone pedal in. This analysis covers the first arbitrer fuzz face model equipped with pnp germanium transistors from the first releases. The layout also uses a 10k trimpot on the collector of q2 so that that biasing can be adjusted precisely. Ac128 germanium fuzzface with fuller mods from diy. It has tons of information on the circuit, how to test and select transistors, some mods, etc. Modification order form for sending in your fuzz face pedal. But for my fuzz face clone, ive decided to build it as. Its only drawback was that gain and fuzz was not as extreme at the max setting of the fuzz pot. This article answers some common questions about the transistors used in cloning and modifying the fuzz face and similar pedals. Youve determined to build the best fuzz face clone in the world. We recommend using 1900, mini fluted, mini 1510, or b. If ever there was an essential addition to a rig then the fuzz face surely is it.
Because of limited space, you cannot use knobs with skirts larger than 16mm. Youve collected parts, including some dynomite pnp germanium transistors and are just itching to get soldering. Fuzz face joe bonamassa germanium transistor pair diy build your own pedal nos. You need to carefully balance the volume with the fuzz to get a warm sound. Silicon fuzz face clone into a clean fender amp simulation. Build yet another fuzz face and give a whole new sound to your clone tone. The arbiter fuzz face clone and the face the fuzz circuits work fantastically with our handtested and. Npn silicon fuzz face germanium emulation from an older thread on fsb and diysb about using two pairs of piggybacked silicon transistors to have control over the gain. This was paired with the nte123 transistor silicon in cesar diazs cool texas square face fuzz. But out of that batch of germanium transistors, how do you tell which are going to sound good and which will not. Welcome to the genuine arbiter fuzz face clone kit instructions.
Proper biasing of the germanium transistors found in synthroteks fuzz face clone and the face the fuzz pedals is essential to getting the best optimal tone out of your product. The transistors are hard to find, the thing to look for is germanium transistors with a decent. We can modify any of the round fuzz face pedals, including the red dunlop one, the grey uk arbiter one, and the grey jhf1 jimi reissue. Arbiter fuzz face clone kit the arbiter fuzz face clone kit is a vintage guitar effectaphiles dream, modeled after the dallas arbiter fuzz. I had also seen much written about the complexities of proper biasing and transistor selection, which made the fuzz face a bit more more daunting for me, still a. The most simple but also the most difficult pedal to build. The germanium transistors are 2n229 and they are magic in the fuzz face circuit. Very cool initiative and very nice fuzz face layout on single tagboard. The original boardmounted pot version is ideal for the simplest way to build a npn version, or a pnp build that cant be daisychained for power. Band of gypsys mini fuzz face telecaster guitar forum. The deimos fuzz is a clone of the tone bender mark 2 twoknob. These all have the basic fuzzface circuit of two transistors and no extra junk. Its a great circuit and its an easy build, so lets get started.
They were also used by various legendary effect producing devices like vox, hornbyskewes treble boosters and dallas rangemaster etc. Sep 06, 2017 audio preamplification transistors ex. Also very cool tripps and the dunlop gang basically commonized some of the goofier octaviao values, and also clearly found some modern and massproduced transistors that are as good as the originals imo, anyway. At least until this approach becomes widely popular and prices of lowgain parts go up, you can do an allgermanium or hybrid sige, negativeground fuzz face that sounds great for very little money. The ending of stone free may be, if im hearing things right, the first use of a fuzz face by hendrix on record specifically the unexpected shift to a fuzzy fchord and fade out at about 3. Silicon transistors provided for a more stable operation, but have a different, harsher sound. I will not be held accountable for paternity suits. For a long time i associated mike piera more as the king of tone with a view to his drive pedals, but he is even more active with his fuzz pedals carrying dozens of varieties of rare germanium and silicon transistors and offering special options on his various fuzz. Analog man, for one, makes several renditions of the sun face fuzz, a fuzz face clone, using various types of germanium and silicon transistors the germanium sun face ac128 versus the silicon sun face bc183, for example. A list of all the components needed to build up synthroteks arbiter fuzz face clone. The original fuzz face used nkt275 transistors made by a british company called new market.
Plugging a 64 rickenbacker 360 into a 70s dallasarbiter fuzz face with bc109c silicon transistors and then into a 64 vox ac30, you realize just how peaky the effects fuzz control can be. Original nos newmarket transistors in general will be expensive if you can find them but especially the 275. They were designed for audio preamplification circuits in consumer and midrange equipment, where they quickly replaced the tubes. For the best results with this pcb the transistor in q2 needs to have the correct voltage for optimum performance. Fuzz face pedal and distortion analysis robert lemiesz.
The original fuzz face using pnp transistors uses positive ground that means that the input and output jack are referenced to 9v instead of ground. Controlling fuzz to clean sound with volume knob of guitar works well. A clone of the legendary late60s fuzz face, only much, much smaller. Get that late60s early 70s fuzz tone made famous by jimi hendrix, david gilmour, pete townshend and oth.
Jimi hendrix himself had switched to a later siliconbased fuzz face and custommade mayer axis fuzzes by the time of his band. The new fuzz face is actually surprisingly good it is the red one that uses germanium transistors not the blue one with silicon transistors. The orpheuzz i really like fuzz dogs pedal parts as a company, their boards and parts are great and the guy who runs it is a really helpful chap. Its uncanny ability to add harmonic richness and hair around clean tones at lower settings is as satisfying as the fullon roar it wields when dimed and raging. We designed the face the fuzz with a few key changes to make it more useful to the modern musician. This fuzz face is possibly the best sounding germanium fuzz pedal ive ever owned or built. Its a great time to upgrade your home music studio gear with the largest selection at. Apr, 2012 dunlop eric johnson signature fuzz face ejf1 there is an ongoing discussion on fsb about this pedal, because we know that there are some hidden surface mount components underneath the board, and so this is based on a best guess by marc ahlfs after some experimentation he did on the circuit. Where the fuzz face is batteryonly to get around the limitation of germanium transistors, this one uses a reverse polarity input, so youll have to get a suitable power supply or a reverse.
What is the best fuzz pedal in detail germanium vs silicon description. The vox tone bender not to be confused with the colour sound tone bender was a copy with only minimal changes to the the component values, and adapted to npn silicon transistors. Ive played a lot of great boutique fuzz faces analogman, monsterpiece, original dunlop ej, bonamassa, hendrix, and standard models and i have this one, if that says anything. A bit of fiddling will get you anywhere from creamy smoothness to earsplitting youch with the rightwrong selection of those allimportant transistors sitting at q1 and q2.
Originally in regular production from 199497, fulltone was forced to discontinue the 69 for some time due to an inability to acquire the necessary transistors, but as of 2011 the 69 fuzz is back in production in its mkii version, featuring the original germanium transistors. The original schematic is not exaclty what is shown above, it had a very. Fuzz silicon npn negative ground kit instructions warranty. Hey guys, i recently ordered a fuzz face clone but it comes with silicon transistors and ive read that the fuzz face hendrix used had germanium trans. And while its still crude and simple, it has about 5x the components that youll find in a fuzz face. Fuzz face effect 2x top quality, proffesionally made pcb stompbox pnp. We want to take a moment here to explain how you can do this on your own for both the kit version and completed versions. The new fuzz face pcb and layout that i have drawn is based on the axis face circuit board, which is quite possibly the smallest and most compact fuzz face circuit board available. I also received a new dunlop fuzz face that i got from someone for christmas this year santa must really know what i like. Fuzz face the proprietary name of the transistor circuit being explored in this. Technology of fuzz face is a mustread if youre considering building or modding a fuzz face. I may have a go at building a tonebender pnp fuzz clone, but not until i tackle a few more npn circuits.
It uses oldstock, matched germanium transistors to nail that raspy, 60s70s tone, but has the features that let it play gracefully on a modern pedalboard. Fuzz face shootout comparing many different transistors. You can plug it to your pedalboard or amp without any problems but if you use a daisy chain or nonisolated power supply to power it, they will. This component was not part of the original fuzz face circuit. The flare is a clone of the zvex fuzz factory, a really interesting little box that lets you create everything from a really thick but musical fuzz to some messedup oscillations. Ff5 project fuzz face tm replicas instructions version 2014november19 copyright 2007 2014 jd sleep permission refused for postingserving this file from any. At the end of the 60s, dallas arbiter began using bc108 transistors. The input stage will first hit mushy saturation on one polarity of signal and then if driven hard enough, hit cutoff on the other polarity. In order to have this circuit sound like a fuzz face, you must use transistors in the recommended gain hfe ranges and correctly bias the circuit. The 470k pot results in greater high frequency loss and a darker sounding fuzz. Colorsound tone bender mk ii project documentation deimos fuzz. Jun 14, 2012 npn silicon fuzz face germanium emulation from an older thread on fsb and diysb about using two pairs of piggybacked silicon transistors to have control over the gain. Besides, in a fuzz face, usually the first transistor needs different biasing resistors as well to operate optimally.
If you take a look at the circuit board picture and the schematic below, youll see that its not exactly a reissue, but an improved version of the original. Sep 04, 2012 hi, i made a clone of a woolly mammoth, i think its an upgraded fuzz face i finish soldering and all and it came out roaring like how its supposed to be however, it came to my mind, why not use the ever so popular ac128 so i started searching about it i got a few of the ge transistors, but when i switched it to the mammoth there. Small mods in circuit added 10r resistor between q2 emitter and fuzz pot plus small ceramic cap 39pf to lower noise and prevent oscilations on higher fuzz settings. The only germanium transistor used by arbiter in the fuzz face was the newmarket nkt 275. A brief hobbyist primer on key fuzz transistor types and. It is designed to produce a distorted sound referred to as fuzz, originally achieved through accident such as broken electrical components or damaged speakers. The fuzz eone is a clone of the famous gibsonmaestro fz1a, the satisfaction fuzz. Note, however, that this kit uses silicon transistors.
When i began building effects, i dismissed the fuzz face as a circuit for hendrixworshippers. The dunlop mini fuzz faces are totally legit, and can be had inexpensively on the used market. Germanium fuzz face bias and settings fuzz pedal demo. The 2 minicaps could have been larger ones, theres enaugh room for better ones. The fuzz pedal is surrounded in mystique and legend, from specially selected pedals for hendrix to expensive, no longer stocked transistors originally made in the 60s. Fuzzface with germanium nkt275 transistors and the later dallas arbiter fuzz face.
Build your own clone esv fuzz silicon npn negative ground kit. Setting up a sziklai darlington pair is truly a way to turn trash to gold. It prevents the higher gain silicon transistors from feeding back when you have the fuzz knob all the way up. Arbiter fuzz face clone assembly instructions synthrotek. This fuzz face distortion is constructed to vintage specs, featuring the original germanium pnp transistor design for a rich, creamy fuzz sound. The fuzz was a little weak with classic combo ac 128 and also with 2n404 even combo, maybe my choice should have been for hotter trans. I had also seen much written about the complexities of proper biasing and transistor selection, which made the fuzz face a bit more more daunting for me, still a relative novice.
Dogface with inverter instruction pdf original version instruction pdf. As you can see, its the same basic idea, but with a different biasing scheme for q2. The different transistors will definitely cause some change in the. In stompbox lore, the fuzz face distortion sits among the icons. Therefore quite apart from the usual nkt275, ac128 and cv7005 transistors you tend to find in your typical germanium fuzz face pedals. Best boutique germanium fuzz face clones reverb news. This kit can be purcahsed with either germanium ac128 pnp transistors or bc588 silicon pnp transistors. The fuzz factory is essentially a classic fuzz face with a lpb1 booster in front of it, but with the twist that it uses pnp transistors. It has tons of information on the circuit, how to test and select transistors, some.
While the first version of the tonebender was essentially a slightly tweaked fuzz face, the mark 2 version added a singletransistor boost in front of it. One of the best sounding fuzz face i have had was 68 with bc183l transistors in it. This little guy utilizes two 2n3906 pnp silicon transistors in the classic positive ground fuzz face circuit to deliver loads of gain, loads of sustain and enough fuzz to make any women near the stage start ovulating immediately. Silicon transistors were used in later editions of the pedal. The yaff was smoother with a tone more like a ge version and with a good range of settings available. The fuzz face is an effects pedal for electric guitar, used also by some electric bass players.
Subjectively the sound of germanium offers a smoother, moreear pleasing. Dallas arbiter you build the npn version then the 470 ohm. This simple, two transistor circuit remains for many the very definition of the guitar effects stomp pedal. Dec 15, 2016 in this video i will compare fuzz face tones using different transistors.
There is a 20k trimmer potentiometer on this board designed to help you adjust the bias. One of the transistors that came with the kit had a broken wireleg but fuzzdog was. At the end of the 60s, dallas arbiter began using bc108 transistors instead. The original fuzz face used nkt275 transistors made by a british. It also cleaned up as good or better than a nkt 275 fuzz face.
For my physics 406 project i created a fuzz face pedal. Sep 11, 20 germanium is a chemical element with symbol ge and atomic number 32, thats used as a semiconductor in transistors and diodes, popping up in a few classic effects like the early period arbiter fuzz face, the storied dallas rangemaster and the maestro fuzztone. With the fuzz knob backed off to 80% or so it sounded like the best nkt fuzz face you could probably ever find. Fuzz face fuzz does the fuzz face really need an introduction. You can fix it so that you have one really good sounding, say, germanium fuzz and a mediocre silicon fuzz or vice versa, or compromise and have two lousy sounding fuzzes. Germanium transistors are what were used in the very first dallas arbiter fuzz faces. A complete schematic of the vox tone bender is shown below. What makes such a simple circuit the stuff of legend.
Id been buying lil bits n bobs from him for a while and decided to buy a few kits from him recently, starting with the fuzz dog fuzz face kit. A sample output signal created using matlab with the manual biasing. I have tested several sets of transistors in both circuits, and i found that they work equally well with either biasing scheme. Its uncanny ability to add harmonic richness and hair around clean tones at lower settings.
If you want to go olde school youll need to source your own germanium transistors from small bear. In love or confusion jimi certainly does use a fuzz box on some of the guitar tracks. The fuzz face also attracted a number of clones even in the golden age. Why are germanium transistors in fuzz pedals so popular. Nkt275 fuzz face, 196667these are the most common germanium transistors. Fuzz germanium pnp positive ground kit instructions warranty. To bias the transistor you will require a digital multimeter that has the ability to measure voltage. A couple of years back, the arbiter company made a limited run of reissue fuzz faces, complete with ac128 transistors. Learn why germanium transistors are vital elements of vintage fuzz, distortion, and boost pedals. The fuzz face is a distortion guitar pedal designed in london by arbitrer.
Fuzz factory clone project documentation flare fuzz. Features all throughhole components, including nos bc108 transistors, and fullsized, panel mounted hardware. Fuzzface with germanium nkt275 transistors and the later dallas arbiter fuzzface. The original fuzz face used ac128 germanium transistors. But even though the topology is similar to a fuzz face, the biasing scheme is very different, and.
Electrosmash you can build the perfect germanium fuzz face. The fuzz face is a distortion guitar pedal designed in london by arbitrer electronics ltd in the autumn of 1966. Fuzz faces naturally tend to bias with only about half a volt on the collector of the first transistor, so there is a lot of room upwards. Soldering, clipping, cutting, stripping, or using any of the components in any way voids this guarantee. Fuzz face diy kit good fuzz kit, alpha pots, good quality jacks. These transistors were used in various classic pedals including dallasarbiter fuzz face, colorsound tone bender and maestro fuzz tone to give them a vintage tone. It is meant for beginners who are confused about what devices to use and where to get them, and as a reference for more experienced diyers.