StewMac Sun Fuzz weird fuzz knob behaviour

Started by brazorf, June 06, 2024, 02:12:19 PM

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brazorf

Hi there,
I've recently built the Sun Fuzz kit from StewMac.

Unfortuantely the fuzz knob doesn't seem to have any effect until it's turned almost all the way up. I start to hear some distortion when the fuzz knob is about 8/10, and when it's at 9/8 all of a sudden the sound becomes closer to a fuzz effect.
When the knob is at maximum I hear a full distorted sound and a hiss, but the pedal becomes in general much more noisy.
I tried different biasing settings by turning two trim pots placed on the board, but that didn't seem to solve the problem.

At first, I was unsure about the wiring so I rewired the pedal a second time trying to be as careful as possible. However, that didn't fix the issue.

I think that the building process went fine, I just had to use different wire than the one supplied with the kit for the connection between the input and output jack lungs and the on/off switch, because I made a mistake in taking measurements of the supplied 22AWG wire. I had some 24AWG wire available so I used that one.
The rest of the pedal is wired with the supplied wire.

Any advice?
I'll include some pictures

Thank you in advance!
cheers







idy

What kind of pot did they give you? What value, and what taper. Usually A or B.

PRR

Here's what is supposed to be there:

Agree that the workers might throw the wrong parts in.
  • SUPPORTER

idy

Fuzz faces usually have a 1kB pot for fuzz. Your pot will have a value, and probably an A or B on it. An "A" would explain your issue.
One sad thing about the Stew Mac kits is no schematic. You learn to follow directions and solder, but don't get an opportunity to learn to read a schematic.

duck_arse

granny at the G next satdy eh.

brazorf

Hey, thanks a lot for you replies and for the welcome! :icon_biggrin:

I cheked the pot and it's a 1KB as it's supposed to be.I also checked it with a multimeter (without removing the pot from the board) and to me its behaviour seems undoubtedly linear.

Yes, unfortunately the manual doesn't explain how the circuit works. I found this web page which explains how the fuzzface circuit works:
https://www.electrosmash.com/fuzz-face

Any other suggestion?

thanks again