Warming up a Sili Fuzz Face

[dstrats]

Hi all,

I was on here a few month ago where some of the good folk here helped me build a silicone fuzz face which I love.

Well, I was just wondering if there was a way to warm up the tone of this pedal. I have a .1uf in the input capacitor and it's still not warm enough. Is there a higher value I can go? I know if it too high it sounds farty and bad, so I definitely don't wanna go too far. Is there a certain value of a resistor that I can run parallel to either my 4.7, 330, or 33 resistors?

Thanks in advance, I look forward to some replies. 

[LucifersTrip]

I have a .1uf in the input capacitor and it's still not warm enough. Is there a higher value I can go?

Yes, it actually calls for a 2.2uF !



Also, a 50-100pf cap across the B-C of each tran will cut out more highs.

good  luck

[Chugs]

You can place a cap parallel with the 330R resistor to smooth out the highs a bit. Try caps between 0.01uf to 0.047uf.

I like a 0.1uf input cap on a fuzz face style fuzz. Plenty of low end.

[LucifersTrip]

Is there a certain value of a resistor that I can run parallel to either my 4.7, 330, or 33 resistors?

It's fun to experiment.

It would've been best to sub pots for each of the resistors before you finished it so you can try higher values.  Without unsoldering, you can only lower the resistances, but nonetheless it's still fun.

Try it for each of the resistors and see if you like a change.


Remember to choose a pot that's much larger than the resistor you're putting it in parallel with so you can see most of the full range from the value of R down to 0.

For instance, if you put a 5K in parallel with the 330, you will be able to experiment from 309 down to 0.
http://www.1728.com/resistrs.htm

good luck

[mac]

Try this simple mods,

a) Variable treble cut,



Experiment with cap value

b) A 50 to 220 ohm resistor at Q1 emiter to reduce gain of high beta transistors like those on the schematic posted.

mac

[Gus]

[dstrats]

Awesome guys!

Thanks for the great replies and tips! I'll warm up my iron and start experimenting! 

Thanks again!

[joegagan]

i have built the above gus fuzz. i stayed very close to the values listed, i think i used a blend of bc108 or bc 109 with some other (2n5088?), i socketed the transistors till i found some i relly liked. al i recall is it was one bc 10X and one something else .

gus did a great job with this. my friend laroosco still loves it.

[mattumbi]

I'll second gus' fuzz face circuit! My Crest Audio Fuzz Face has this circuit inside & it sounds great.

[Gus]

Adjust C1,C3,C4 to taste, Make C4 larger more high end cut.  You can use a 8.2K for R3.  One can make the bias pot R1 a fixed resistor around 1.1K.  "designed" at the time so one could buy most of the the parts from Radio Shack.  2n3904s were in the drawing program one can use all kinds of Si transistor numbers for the transistors I tend to like it with Moto(On Semi) 2n2222's

It seems that this adjustment of the 2 transistor FF like fuzz does not get posted about much.  It has been in schematics for years(90's).

[LucifersTrip]

I believe the OP stated he already built a FF and wants to alter it, not build another pedal...

[joegagan]

yeah, sometimes these threads go off a little. my post was for future generations who may stumble across this topic, but also to suggest to the op a few circuit ideas that have in the past warmed up a sili FF for some guys.

[mac]

Sometimes it is easier to build a new one.

Back to the original post, there is a simple mod you can do to the input cap in your existing circuit. IIRC it was Joe's idea. 

Put a 250K pot + 2.2uf in parallel with the 0.1uf in your pedal. When the pot is at max you have almost 0.1uf, when at min 2.2+0.1uf.

  -----||-------/////-------
  |     2.2       250K      |
-|                         |--
  |          0.1            |
  ----------||--------------


mac

[WGTP]

Also at RunOffGroove, there is a Sili Face II and Tantalus Project that are Fuzz Face variations with different values you might try. 

http://www.home-wrecker.com/tantalus.html

[joegagan]

the input cap blend was sent to me from oscar bruil back in 2001. he attributed it to jack orman.

it got the nickname "gagan input cap blend" because i used it on a bunch of circuits. quite possible there were earlier examples of its use, but i publicized it pretty widely. in my mind, it is the "jack orman input cap blend".