GGG Boutique Early 70's Fuzz Face - Where Should Pots Be When Biasing?

[slacker]

I'd put them both in. You can probably go up to about 470p for even 1n for C4 without any noticeable change in sound. Try 100p for C5.

[Dragonfly]

"Another tip : insert a small (47-100 ohm) resistor between the fuzz pot lug-1 and ground."

Dragonfly, I haven't heard of this one.  Does this bleed some of the high end off the signal?

alters the gain structure a tiny bit...helps keep it from reaching too high a gain when using silicon transistors

[afrogoose]

Dragonfly

Thanks dude, I'll have to give this a try on my GGG Boutique 70's.  I swear I've tried every mod on this thing and I still can't quite get it to sound the way I want it to.  My chief complaint is that it just doesn't have enough mids.  It seems that every thing I do either increases or decreases the bass but nothing gives it more "girth"

[Rocket Roll]

Can this help, perhaps? This is how signal dynamics look in AudaCity:



Hum is pretty prominent for a program itself, though one doesn't really hear it. Interesting, but I don't know what to make of it.

[Rocket Roll]

I've put two 10pF caps at C4 and C5... No dice. Maybe a tad less noise.

Decided to call it a day. 98% of that noise disappears if I keep the "Fuzz" pot just a hair under full turn, so... As that doc said to that patient, "If it hurts when you do that, just don't do that." 

While keeping the "Fuzz" pot just a hair under a full turn and "Mid" pot all the way up, this fuzz is a heavy rocker. Some tests:

1) This fuzz vs. Little Big Muff (first the fuzz, then LBM): http://www.box.net/shared/gbio627cw4

2) "Clear-up" test (since there's too much gain, it doesn't clear up all the way, just goes from a medium overdrive towards a wall of fuzz): http://www.box.net/shared/fepjplegwc

[afrogoose]

Dragonfly,

I just got around to trying this mod.  It looks like lug-1 of my fuzz pot is already wired to ground.  Did you mean to put the resistor between the outer lugs of the fuzz pot, or should the resistor go in series between lug-1 and ground?

Thanks!

"Another tip : insert a small (47-100 ohm) resistor between the fuzz pot lug-1 and ground."

Dragonfly, I haven't heard of this one.  Does this bleed some of the high end off the signal?

alters the gain structure a tiny bit...helps keep it from reaching too high a gain when using silicon transistors

[Rocket Roll]

Fixed!

Changed the transistors for 2N2369A (Q1, 89hFE) and 2N2219A (Q2, 131hFE) and "sizzle" is gone! Sound is pretty much the same.

Thanks a million, people!

[Rocket Roll]

Added the decal (printed on PET foil, not the best solution - I'll know better next time) and therefore finished it. After a couple of years spent in searching for a good fuzz...