Nooby question about the fuzz face

[Tomcat706]

I saw this schematic on geofex and wondered "can this be that simple and still sound good!"
The parts seem so minimal, if so this would be a good first project from schematic not a kit
http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/fuzzface/fftech.htm

What caps/resistors would I change to make it more bass friendly?
Thanks for all the help!
P.S. Merry Christmas

[PRR]

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?action=search;advanced;search=fuzzface

[DavenPaget]

I saw this schematic on geofex and wondered "can this be that simple and still sound good!"
The parts seem so minimal, if so this would be a good first project from schematic not a kit
http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/fuzzface/fftech.htm

What caps/resistors would I change to make it more bass friendly?
Thanks for all the help!
P.S. Merry Christmas

Bazz Fuss .
http://home-wrecker.com/bazz.html
Multiface .
http://www.home-wrecker.com/multiface.html
You could try a 0.056uf ceramic or 4.7uf(electrolytic , + facing input . ) ...

[smallbearelec]

"can this be that simple and still sound good!"

Yes.

would be a good first project from schematic

No. The unusual simplicity of the circuit belies a lot of ins-and-outs about getting musically useful results from it. Drop me a message at smallbearelec@ix.netcom.com. I will respond with useful links.

[LucifersTrip]

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?action=search;advanced;search=fuzzface

a better search:
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?action=search;advanced;search=fuzz%20face%20problem

haha...

just joking, but it is deceptively simple for beginners

[jafo]

If you do an archive dive, you'll find thread after thread about problems with FF builds. Save yourself the frustration and discouragement. Instead, I'd suggest the Bazz Fuss and Trostsky Overdrive; they sound great and are super easy to build, even for n00bz like me. Be warned -- building either one will show you that transistors are beautiful.

btw, Gus Smalley's FF tweaks look like they engineer away the uncertainty and fussiness of the FF... does anybody have a build report?

A lot of people seem to start out with the SHO or "Tillman" preamp, both of which are just common-source FET circuits (MOSFET and JFET, respectively). My first build was the former into the latter. Speaking as a n00b, I don't recommend starting with either -- MOSFETs are delicate, delicate devices (although the IRF510 from Radio Shack is pretty darn rugged), and JFETs are prima donnas about biasing (you'll probably spend a lot of time swapping resistors until you build a circuit to measure Vp and Idss (see the Fetzer Valve article on runoffgroove).

Of course, if you've built things form kits before, you're not exactly a n00b, so take all of this with a grain of salt.

[DavenPaget]

+1 on the Bazz Fuss .

[Tomcat706]

Thanks for all of the help, I'm definately going to try the bazz fuss.

[LucifersTrip]

to be fair about the Fuzz Face, many of the newbie problems are with the germanium version or with external wiring of the switches and jacks.

my suggestion would be to buy a breadboard if you haven't already and go to town with a sh*tload of easy schematics you find.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1pcs-700-Point-Solderless-PCB-Breadboard-SYB-120-board-/220890973119?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item336e20c3bf

[petemoore]

  Build Gus's FF variant or get ready to fiiddle around with FF stuff [barring really great luck], it's worth it to mess with the FF, there are a million and one variants already..
   A perfboard with sockets for transistors [I used 6 pin IC socket, very stable physically helps when a lot of swappage is about to occur, the input cap has a wire coming off it [easy place to splice in a second input cap, making the 'big' value by adding to the 'small' side value placed into the board [can go right on a switch lug if a switch lug 'produces itself'...ie you choose for input cap value switch].
  The rest is similar too...the 100k resistor could be 150k to start with, then put a pot or fixed resistor across it to make values <150k.
   Every component 'matters' to some extent or other in the FF, worth a while to study/test try-out various tweeks and mods.
  For the Q2 collector resistor adjustments, a 5k6 or so resistor + a 10k trimpot [or surface mount if you wanna a ''play with mis-bias''/bias control] anyway, the fixed 5k6 + 0.0K through 10k allows bias R to adjust smoothly between 5k6 and 15k6...which is accomodating to most if not all useful FF transistors.