GGG Shin-Ei FY-2 Fuzz Pot

[mutagenic]

Hi folks,
I just built the GGG Shin-Ei FY-2 companion fuzz and it sounds great.  The fuzz pot doesn't really seem to attenuate the fuzz level though, it's acting more like a tone knob.  Can anyone tell me if this is correct, or if I need to do some debugging.  It would be nice to be able to dial down the fuzz a bit to get more of a blend of the clean signal. 

[GREEN FUZ]

I built one of these aswell. Mine`s the same.
I believe it`s meant to be the way you describe, with the Fuzz control acting more like a sort of Tone control.

[daveshave10]

Hey,
I finished building one a couple of weeks ago as well. It was my first pedal build and turned out pretty well.  I was also wondering about the fuzz control as I was expecting it to control the amount of fuzz and not the tone. I'm pretty sure thats how it is meant to be though.
Have you found that your FY-2's are lacking a bit in the volume department? Even with the level fully cranked mine is not as loud as the bypassed sound. Bit annoying as its otherwise a great pedal. I've read that there is a mod which bypasses the mid scoop circuitry and restores some volume. Might be worth a try. Alternatively I was thinking of adding a basic boost into the same box, probably an LPB2.

[GREEN FUZ]

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=57082.0

Haven`t tried it. Another one of those things I keep meaning to get round to.

[Mark Hammer]

Hi folks,
I just built the GGG Shin-Ei FY-2 companion fuzz and it sounds great.  The fuzz pot doesn't really seem to attenuate the fuzz level though, it's acting more like a tone knob.  Can anyone tell me if this is correct, or if I need to do some debugging.  It would be nice to be able to dial down the fuzz a bit to get more of a blend of the clean signal. 

The original has the Fuzz pot wired up in an odd way.  The output of the first transistor goes to the Fuzz pot wiper, the 2nd transistor (dirtier stage) goes to one outside lug, and the other outside lug goes to the scoop-filter network.  I was looking at the schematic one day and happened to see the Mosrite Fuzzrite schematic the same day, and noticed the huge similarity between the two.  The Mosrite has the Fuzz pot set up as a true blend/mix pot with each of the two gain stages sent to the outside lugs, and the wiper providing the output.  I wired up my FY-2 this way and far preferred the result.  It had a greater contrast between the two tones.

Having said that, there is not a HUGE difference in degree of distortion any way you wire it up, and I suspect the description of the "Fuzz" pot being more like a tone control is apt.  In tandem with changes to the scoop circuit (including a scoop-lift pot, as described in the linked-to thread), however, there are a wide array of tones attainable.