Easyface build report

[dennism]

Just built the Easyface this morning using the layout in Dragonfly's Gallery.  This is a great fuzz, exactly the sound that I had in my head as I have built various fuzz faces and derivatives over the past months and years.

With everything maxed out, it is creamy smooth and just absolutely perfect.  When you back off either the gain knob or the guitar volume knob, you get two different jangly distortions which are both great.  Individual notes in chords can be heard in either of these rolled back positions. 

This is a fuzz pedal that sounded great not only with single coils in a Strat, but with humbuckers as well.  From my experience that is a rarity with anything that could properly be called a fuzz.  What an incredibly versatile fuzz this is!  I can't believe I have never tried to build it before.

I used a 2N3906 for Q1 and a NOS Raytheon germanium with hfe about 250 for Q2.  I take it this circuit is quite forgiving of what trannie you use for Q2.  Why is that?

Also, I tuned the trim pot by ear, I couldn't find any guidance on what voltage to set it to.  Anybody know?

If you are sitting on the fence as far as building an Easy Face, don't.  Get your stuff out and build it.  Highly recommended.

[joegagan]

that is a great report, congrats and thanks for posting that.
I don't know the electronic reason that Q2 position is forgiving, but having Si in Q1 seems to give Q2 a nice signal to work with.
I personally like a strong gain ge for Q2 (125+), but i am a fuzzfreak

for more intersting jangle when you turn down your guitar or the gainpot, put a .003 uf silver mica cap in parallel with whatever your input cap is now.

[dennism]

Joe, thanks for that info, I will try that mica cap when I get my hands on one.  You are the designer of this pedal, are you not?  Great job.  I think that the only reason that I hadn't built it before is because the name said it was "easy" and I think we tend to equate easy with mediocre.  That is clearly not the case here though!

[joegagan]

yes, i drew that schem to publicize the succcess of my modded dunlop fuzzface reissue. there was a lot of bla bla on the net back then about biasing fuzzfaces, but the easyface could easily be tuned by ear.

thanks to ampage, aron nelson and all the cool people online back in '00 i learned how to make it sound pretty good.
My band was touring constantly back then, we would go to music stores on our time off. I compared my modded fuzz to everything available commercially at the time, it compared very well, most music store dudes preferred mine...

there were a couple commercial pedal builders that started with the easyface ,  I am glad to have helped inspire a few guys to go commercial

I still love the easyface, I use them all the time

[Solidhex]

Yo

  Just built an Easy Face a couple nights ago. It's definitely the most versatile fuzz face variation I've tried. I used the new General Guitar Gadgets fuzz face pcb which is great. Used a greenie for the .01 input and a .043 for the output cap. used the recommended 2n3906 for q1 and settled on a hitachi 2n217 for q2. I popped in a couple different Germaniums but that one had the most fuzz texture and saturation not sure what the gain or leakage is on it. Anyways, The combo of the sweepable input cap and pre gain control make it work with just about any guitar. There's an interesting relationship between how the fuzz drive increases when you sweep to the larger cap and how you can clean it up with the pre gain. Its fun and every setting is usable. Think I might sell my Fuzz Head pedal now!

--Brad