Any ideas for a low gain fuzz design?

[Pigyboy]

I have quite a few low gain (20-30hfe) germanium transistors and was wondering if anyone has a design or wants to help make one?
Thanks again for all the help.
Chris

[John Lyons]

Fuzzrite should be good with those. I've used 50hfe before.

[Pigyboy]

Thanks John,
I have a design I have been working on and I will post the schematic when I clean it up and maybe some others can help with my mistakes. It is actually a combo of the fuzzrite with some Fulltone '69 inspired mods.
Chris

[glops]

Definitely report back. I have a to of 25-50 hfe germaniums that I need to put into use.  once I had Gus Npn boost going into a fuzzrite type of circuit and got some good sounds but ended up dismantling it.  post your design when you have a chance.  did you ever get your Acetone Fuzzmaster going?

[LucifersTrip]

I saved a schematic from this forum that the poster (sorry, forgot who) said was specifically for low gain transistors.

[Pigyboy]

I saved a schematic from this forum that the poster (sorry, forgot who) said was specifically for low gain transistors.

Hi Lucifer,
That was the design I had started on a few months ago and posted up but the thread kind of died. I know the schematic works with low gainers. It is a good place to start. I am going to breadboard it all again and see what I get. I just got some new OC81D's and the gain is rather low. I read somewhere that the original OC81's used in the Sola Sound ToneBender MKII were low gain and the design was basically adding a third transistor to a fuzz face to boost the output. Maybe that is what this design needs is another transistor stage. Feel free to wire this up and let us know what you come up with and I will do the same.

post your design when you have a chance.  did you ever get your Acetone Fuzzmaster going? Definitely report back. I have a to of 25-50 hfe germaniums that I need to put into use.  once I had Gus Npn boost going into a fuzzrite type of circuit and got some good sounds but ended up dismantling it

No glops I have yet to start the Ace Tone yet. I ordered some 2SC828's from Little Diode and am waiting for them to be delivered.

Like I said above I know this circuit works but it needs some tweaking.
BTW I got the OC81's from Jan at
http://shop.ebay.ca/elebcz/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340
There is also this thread about his stuff
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=87285.0;topicseen
Write him at the Ebay address because his mailbox here is always full and ask for a list of his transistors. He also hooked me up with a nice deal on teflon wire.
Thanks for the help and interest.
Chris

[Electric Warrior]

Hi Lucifer,
That was the design I had started on a few months ago and posted up but the thread kind of died. I know the schematic works with low gainers. It is a good place to start. I am going to breadboard it all again and see what I get. I just got some new OC81D's and the gain is rather low. I read somewhere that the original OC81's used in the Sola Sound ToneBender MKII were low gain and the design was basically adding a third transistor to a fuzz face to boost the output. Maybe that is what this design needs is another transistor stage. Feel free to wire this up and let us know what you come up with and I will do the same.

Turned out that theory was only a theory. Most Mullard OC81Ds aren't low gain. They're comparable to OC75s gain wise - which is what they originally used in the MKII Tone Bender circuit. Only some of the last units had OC81Ds.

[LucifersTrip]

I saved a schematic from this forum that the poster (sorry, forgot who) said was specifically for low gain transistors.

Hi Lucifer,
That was the design I had started on a few months ago and posted up but the thread kind of died. I know the schematic works with low gainers.

That's funny...small world...I may try it one day since I have loads of low gain germaniums. I would probably sub a pot for every resistor and tweak away
till I got something I liked. I'm working on a low gain circuit now powered by a single AA and the biggest problem is that I can't get a good enough
sustain on the 2 highest strings....

good luck