weird silence after stacatto notes on fuzzface?

[janus]

Hello built a silicon fuzzface and it sounds really good. Just get this weird sort of silence/gating if I hit a muffled note it's note-dead-live sound. If that makes any sense. Almost sounds like the transistors are switching too slow? is that possible.Like whan I chugga chugga on chords it becomes really messy and sounds jumbled like a milisecond delay... have an old npn germaium with a 73hfe in q1 and a 2n4401-hfe134 in Q2 all the voltages read right so not sure what it is. Should mention that I am listening through headphones...so it's rather critical listening to the pedal.
any help appreciated,
brian

[Sir H C]

What circuit did you build?  Is there a series resistor to the supply an a small capacitor between V+ and gnd (internal)?  If so, when you hit it hard, you are pulling the voltage down internally, and then when you stop, the bias is out of whack, and takes a second to recover to the right bias point.

[janus]

hello I built this one (the npn version)
http://www.muzique.com/schem/fuzzface.gif

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

May be a bias problem, on peaks the signal might drive one of the transistors into saturation or cutoff, and it stays there until a cap discharges. That's usually what is happening when a transistor circuit clips followed by a silent period.

[janus]

I think it was a bias problem I fine tuned it and it seems to be gone..luckily I used a trim on q2 collector.

[janus]

well I'm back with the same question. Seems like the weird cut-off silence will only go away when I bias q2 collector to about 6.5..at the recommended 4.5 it sounds great just gets that cuttoff thing happening. I put a trim on q2 collector but that's it. Would it be wise to replace the 33k resistor with a 50k trim?would that help getting it biased in the 4.5v region? The analog alchemy caculator for fuzz face tells me I should have a 42.1k there to bias it correctly, given my hfe on q1 and 2. Seems like any transistors I use (high gain, low gain) it will give this silence/rebias sound unless I get q2 collector up to 6.5v..so I'm stumped any help or experience appreciated.
thanks,
brian