Pedal Build - Fuzz Face

[davidallancole]

Hello,

I haven't been here for a long time as I have been focusing on my young family for the last 6 years.  I recently decided to build up a pedal though and here it is!  I made a Fuzz Face using stripboard in a Hammond 1590BB box.  I am not very interested in using old stock germaniums, so I used SS9014A silicon transistors.  These are low level, low noise pre-amp BJT's that are sorted into an hfe range of 60-150 so I thought they would work well in this application.  As I am not good at graphics I just used a Sharpie to label things.  Anyways, here's my pedal:


My Fuzz Face by davidallancole, on Flickr


IMG_0974 by davidallancole, on Flickr


IMG_0979 by davidallancole, on Flickr


IMG_0977 by davidallancole, on Flickr

[amptramp]

The original fuzz face had the electrolytic cap for the emitter of the second stage connected to the slider of the pot and the emitter resistance did not change with the pot setting.

Check the polarity of your electrolytics.  If you use the normal convention that the curved plate is negative, then both of them are the wrong way around.  It may work for a while as drawn, but reverse polarity on the electrolytics will end their lives quickly.

[davidallancole]

Yes, the original Fuzz Face did have the cap attached to the wiper of the pot in the emitter leg of the second transistor.  I prefer to have my Fuzz Face turned up full and use the volume pot on my guitar to adjust the level of fuzz out of the circuit.  So I just used a 2k pot as a variable resistor to bias up the circuit as opposed to the more common 10k in the collector circuit.  Why?  For poops and giggles.

Thanks for pointing out the polarity of the electrolytics.  I can assure you I put them in the physical build properly.  I failed to notice the polarity when modifying a pre-existing PNP schematic, but I did change them and modified my original post to show the correct polarity.

[davidallancole]

I got some colored Sharpie markers and upgraded the graphics:


IMG_0988 by davidallancole, on Flickr

[knutolai]

Nice graphics. Very FlowerPower 60s

[davidallancole]

Thanks man.  I figured it fit with the 60's nature of this pedal.  Plus the center of the flower glows green when the pedals on.

[seadi123]

Realy great look

[zombiwoof]

Watch out, you might get sued by Dunlop!.   
Al

[davidallancole]

I better not show them the waterslide decal I'm designing!

[seadi123]

The only thing missing is some sound clips

[davidallancole]

Sorry, I have no method of obtaining those at my disposal.