Axis silicon Fuzz build report

[Aharon]

Took about 3 hours,including the board etch........not bad considering that ended up being a really good sounding fuzz.
Got the PCB from Fuzz Central and proceded to find suitable transistors from my stash of old pulls.
I had a fistfull of 5117 and 5115 left over from my wha build so I started measuring hfe till i found about 5 that could be used and found one metal can BC108,that measured 140......
SO ended up with a 5115 as Q1 (hfe 70) and the BC108(hfe 140).
Sounds really warm and not harsh at all,for the SMOOTH control I used a trim figuring that I would set it to where I like it and leave it there just cause I wanted to preserve the 2 knob arrangement of the classic FF,might as well,left it at full.
Used a 22uF for the fuzz control instead of the 15 and a 0.033uF instead of the 0.047.Input cap is a 0.22 and set the bias by ear but will do it when I stop playing with it.
Really chewy fuzz and nothing to envy any of the other germanium fuzzes I've heard or built,lots of sustain without loosing dynamics.........all the good stuff.
There's no gating at any bias point.
Keeper!!!!!!!!!!!
The 5115/17 pinout is ECB flat side facing you ,just in case somebody needs it.
Take care and thanks
Aharon

[phillip]

Glad you like it!  Sure sounds nice, doesn't it?  Mine's been seeing daily use for over a year now!  I couldn't have done it without Brett Robinson's circuit modifications, though!

Phillip

[Aharon]

Who would've thunk!!........silicon FF sounding better than your average germ counterpart.
Thanks Phillip and Brett.
Aharon

[phillip]

Another reason to not waste money on a fistful of Germanium transistors that may only yield one that's suitable for a fuzz circuit!

By the way, the 0.033uF that you used is the correct value for the circuit...the layout was still incorrectly labeled 0.047uF.  If you get ahold of one of Small Bear's 16mm 1K reverse audio taper pots you should drop that into the circuit.  Talk about REALLY being able to dial in the fuzz intensity!

I got lucky by finding 50 Nichicon 15uF electrolytics on eBay for super cheap.  They're a bit hard to find in that value, but I believe that Mouser carries some radial 15uF electros.

Phillip

[JimRayden]

Have built it too and without digging into the delicte nuances of the sound spectrum differences between Si and Ge in a FF, I say it makes a great and an explosive fuzz. Explosive. That's what it sounds like when full bore. And full bore is how I like my fuzzes.

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Jimbo