Quick Fuzz Face, Easy Face question.

[Focalized]

Was just reading around and somebody wrote that with a Ge/Si hybrid fuzz the first transistor being germanium was important. Though the Easy Face has q2 to be the Ge. I have a whole lot of old Russian transistors that are mostly 60 - 80 hfe. And lots of silicon around 130.

Any thoughts?

[LucifersTrip]

you'll get more ge sound with Q2 ge (that's where the fuzz is), plus more stability with a si Q1

[Focalized]

Kind of what I figured. 

[joegagan]

i kind of liked Ges for Q2 that had gains of 110 or more, 125+ was even better. low leakage a plus.

lowering the gain of Q1 might help if your Q2 is 60- 80. try a 100ohm to 220 ohm r between Q1 e to gd. or better yet, a 500 ohm trimmer.

[Focalized]

Yeah I still have quite a few Ge transistors in the 120 to 140 range. Can make a regular Fuzz Face with those.

Was just wondering about using all my lower gains for Q1 with a Q2 silicon. How the use of the germanium in either position worked for better or no difference at all.

Did you try GEs in both positions while coming up with the Easy Face? I made a couple some time ago that worked out very nice.

[joegagan]

the easyface was designed in 99 when i first got into building effects. i was on the road with my band a lot with a loud drummer and needed my pedals to cut through the mix and be temp stable. my first  (all ge) fuzz face build was onstage on top of my amp at a lounge at the grand canyon. every time the heater kicked on it blew heat on my circuit and the sound went to hell! the stage had a heating register directly above my amp!

i put Q2 bias trimmer and  2 trans sockets in my 94-ish dunlop fuzzface and messed with every combination until i found i really liked the Si Q1/ Ge Q2 combo the best. it worked well on a loud stage, you could rely on it in different temperatures.

the easyface pregain 250k pot was a mod i had done to the same fuzzface in around 97, just a spare volume pot from a strat installed inside the pedal, again for stage use since the original trans and biasing of the dunlop FF sounded really farty unless you turned the guitar down a little. a mod done while on the road, we always carried spare parts and a toolbox.

i don't know if that answers the Q, but that is how it happened, and i did try many trans combos before settling on that one.

i would take the original fuzzface with easyface mods to music stores in a lot of towns we visited. the fuzz offerings in the stores at the time were fulltone 69, frantone, prescription, MJM, dunlop FF. most music store guys and customers preferred the sound of the easyface over other fuzzes available at the time.
this gave me inspiration to post the schematic on the internet.

[ch1naski]

That heater story... Lol. Gives a bit of new meaning to "necessity is the mother of invention"

[Focalized]

Cool thanks for the info on it.