Fuzz Face Tweak I have been looking for

[dosmun]

I finally found the magic tweak that worked for me today.

The input cap mod is what made everything come together on my Boutique Fuzz Face.  The Contour and the Bias controls seem to have more than just one sweet spot now.  This pedal is VERY versatile now.  This may be old news to others but the input cap has a HUGE effect on the sound of a FF.

http://home.zonnet.nl/osbruil/fuzzface.html

[u1061810]

I did that too, it's great!

[powerplayj]

I finally found the magic tweak that worked for me today.

The input cap mod is what made everything come together on my Boutique Fuzz Face.  The Contour and the Bias controls seem to have more than just one sweet spot now.  This pedal is VERY versatile now.  This may be old news to others but the input cap has a HUGE effect on the sound of a FF.

http://home.zonnet.nl/osbruil/fuzzface.html

Which cap mod?  The link did not work for me.......  What will allow some treble back into the circuit?  (lowering input or output cap?

[petemoore]

Value of input cap on FF...yupp...
 The input cap makes big differnece on the sound.
 It Blocks DC from passing same as the output cap.
 The cap can block also bass frequencies, it is a High Pass Filter. Making the cap larger lets more bass or lower frequency content into the circuit. Making the cap smaller attenuates lower frequencies.
 The output cap has a similar effect, seems less sensative to small value changes compared to the input cap.
 FF breadboard. or and I love typing this.
 Socket the caps, and transistors, build a multi face or just use a trimpot [20k] instead of a fixed Q2 collector resistor. Try different cap values and transistors on the FF...tune to taste. I recommend that people tweek those FF's for optimum performance.
 There's FF's all over the place, some with big input cap/small output cap, vice versa...Tonebenders with two transistors are FF.

[Oliver]

Hi,

Yes, the in put Cap of the FF makes a big effect to the overal tone.
even the Cap at the FuzzPot. (usually 22uF) can be tweaked to a
better Sound of the Fuzz.

For my taste - a 4.7uF at the Input with a 10uF Cap at the FuzzPot makes
a strong Sound. But i have to add - i build the circuit not after the FF, but after the RogerM.Classic Fuzz Schematic.

The smaller the Cap at the FuzzPot is, the more it sounds like a Distortion, than like a typical FuzzFace.

.... try out  

bye
Oliver

[Karmasound]

God bless the fuzz face!

What about putting 6 position rotary switches for each cap :shock:  


I did that on the input cap with great results, i'm going tpo try it for the others.


I love extremes

[petemoore]

Never tried it.
 Considering the tweeks for FF that can be done on the FF guitar and amp, having switching scheme like this might make it easier to tune guitar amp FF...lol...lotta trubble, I just socketted mine.
 That would be good for Fuzz Face 'fittings', or tailoring FF's for different peoples amps/guitars etc.

[Peter Snowberg]

What about putting 6 position rotary switches for each cap :shock:  

It's a great idea, but it works even better with a 12 position switch.

It's a totally different sound from blending between two caps with a pot.

[powerplayj]

Thanks for the advice.

This was my first DIY build although I have modded a few of my stock pedals from time-to-time.  The boutique fuzz was a bit ambitious as a starter project and I am surprised as hell it worked on my first attempt (except for the LED which was backwards.).  The wiring isn't necessarily pretty but it fits and I learned quite a few lessons especially concerning the electronics layout and better ways to fit components in the enclosure.  I bet this is something that is overlooked by many rookie DIY'ers like me.  

Other than tweaking the Q2 collector voltage to a certain range, I really can't hear much difference except for a slight change in gain.  I did lower the input cap to 0.1uf which brought back a bit of the single coil chime I wanted.  I'm also trying to figure out the contour and bias.  The countour seems like another volume pot while the bias seems like a drive pot.  hmmm?

After playing it for a while I am realizing that I might be more of a Si guy so, I'll either try some Si trannies or move along with a new build all together.

For now its off to build a Rangemaster clone