How do I make a Red Fuzz Fuzzier?

[OSeanEC]

Hi. I'm new to this forum and a couple months new to DIY also. The Red Fuzz is the 6th pedal I've built. Just recently built the BSIAB2 and after a couple changes am pretty happy with it. I cannot read schems yet but am learning. So that's my short history with DYI. Still crawling. Just to let you know.

Now the question. How do I get alot more Fuzz/Distortion( I don't care which) out of the Red Fuzz?

I did do some testing last night running 2 1n914's in parallel, then the 2 in parallel and in series with an led. Basically frankenstein testing or, I should say guessing. Not much success.

Also, I did search for this answer over the last day and a half with no result. So if the answer has already been covered in the forum I apologize.

Thanks so much, Sean.

[newbie builder]

If you lower the clipping threshold by using different diodes, such as germanium ones, you can get more gain, but it'll sound much less crunchy than the LEDs, which you may or may not like. The Red Fuzz is basically a RAT with more gain because of the larger gain pot and the clipping diodes moved from after the opamp to being in parallel with the gain control (which gives less aggressive sounding gain more like a tubescreamer). That is all to say that as is you've taken a medium distortion pedal and added more gain, so I'm not sure how much more gain is going to really sound good with that design- you might just want to start off with a higher gain project and leave this as a more medium gain kinda thing.

[OSeanEC]

Yeah I agree Newbie Builder about building a higher gain project. Next up on my table is the Rocket. Already have the pcb, I just built this one first and was hoping to dial it to my liking before I move to the next build.

Which germanium diodes do you suggest? I tried 1N34A's that I have and they didn't work. Are there others that are the right ones?

Anyway, thanks for the input, even though I didn't understand most of it.    Trying to learn though!

Thanks again so much, Sean.

[OSeanEC]

bump please.