VTF MKII Fuzz

[Ben Lyman]

My Vot The Fock fuzz has been reworked. You will notice right off the bat that it's almost exactly a TB MKII but it's NPN and has a few extras. Not a revolutionary design or anything but I... ahem... think I have... (ducks head and covers privates) maybe improved the TB MKII 
This is an incredibly versatile and great sounding vintage tone fuzz, and pedal board friendly NPN with DC jack. 
All I did was start with cozybuilder's power plan, which I use exclusively for all my pedals now, 47k to the LED, 1N5817 and 47r in series, 100uF to ground.
Then I added the variable input cap from the Deluxe Bazz Fuss. Full CCW gets 10uF input cap like the Marshall Supafuzz (ok, 10.001uF if you wanna nitpick  ) a slight nudge gets closer to the Vox/Solasound 5uF and any further goes into Rangemaster territory.
Lastly, the main thing that I feel makes it way better, or at least makes me way happier with it. A little treble bleed, 1k2 and a 56nF to be precise. For me, fuzzes have always had one use, full on fuzz, anything less sounded muddy and useless. I know there are plenty of people out there that crave that certain special something you get when backing down the gain knob on a FF or TB or BMP, etc. but not me. Maybe there are a few of you out there that wish you could get a good "low gain" rhythm sound from a fuzz pedal or a "low gain" bluesy lead sound.

[duck_arse]

huh. I'd always thort the mkII was a fuzzface w/ input buffer. now I look your circuit, I see it's a fuzzface w/ a whack-load of gain in front. thanks for that, do I need to BB one now?

[Ben Lyman]

huh. I'd always thort the mkII was a fuzzface w/ input buffer. now I look your circuit, I see it's a fuzzface w/ a whack-load of gain in front. thanks for that, do I need to BB one now?

Yes. Yes, you do. 
If you haven't experienced the MKII on your breadboard, then go for it. Try Philip's stock PNP schematic from Fuzzcentral maybe just to see how it differs from a FF. I like it just as much as an FF but for different reasons, they are completely different sounding pedals to me. I have read many times here and there that a TB is just a FF w/extra gain transistor up front, and that you can remove that 1st stage and get a FF and vice/versa (make FF, add extra tranny and get MKII). I disagree with this, as I have tried both experiments on my BB, none of this worked but then again, what the heck do I know? Nothing really, that's what 
I have also heard people say what you thort to be the case, FF with buffer. Also probably not true? Not entirely false? I know nothing. So here's a question for some experts to help edjumacate us:
If you add that extra 1st gain stage transistor to a (FF) two transistor fuzz, is that 1st stage actually providing *some* amount of *extra buffering*?  or rather:
Does the MKII have *some* amount of *extra buffering* as compared to a FF because to the extra tranny up front? 

[Ben Lyman]

Here's a vid, the tone control is cool (to me anyway) but the treble bleed on the fuzz pot is what I think makes this pedal a little more useable at lower gain settings.