schizoid face rev 4 (final)

[pinkjimiphoton]

i know some peeps are butthurt over this. oh well. if ya are, just go away now. i'm not gonna even listen to the bullshit. peeps on "the other forum" are hip to it and building it. good enough for me.

this is the final and full revision of the thing. if ya like it, cool. if ya don't, cool. i'm not looking for suggestions or props or any of that shit,
just presenting a complete project to the community. it includes the footswitching, etc etc...

i ditch the snubber caps in mine. they take too much "edge" away imho. some transistors DO sound better with them, but not the ones i'm using.

i just revised the project to version 1.4, including all the in/out switching, effects switching, the led's etc... will post it soon as i can up load it.

i'm telling you, them @#$%in videos don't do it justice. so far every one who has tried the actual schizoid face live has bought one. in some cases TWO. i can't seem to keep enough of them around. i HAVE used it live on a couple occaisons now, and can absolutely replace my germanium with it with no issues at all. less noise, less hiss, and dependable regardless of temperature.

you should really try it. i can guarantee you will be surprised. it sounds/works WAYYYYYY better than the videos can show it to be. also useful for hot muddy humbuckers, gives a real nice "edge".

the final (ha!) revision includes the led's. it's a happy/sad face. in sad  mode (stupid face) the two eyes on the smiley light blue. in happy mode (photon face) they light green.
in bypass, all 4 light up red. cuz i'm an unabashed stoner

just the blue leds for stupid, just green for photon.

use rgb's, common ANODE... then you only need one CLR per led pair. 27k seemed about the best for the CLR.
the rgb's at tayda go from left to right, with anode being longest, red, anode, green, blue


the basic graphic looks like this:

:(:

people advised to add anti pop resistors, but they really aren't necessary other than one. take it right from the footswitch where it goes to board in to ground. that's it. the other stuff is sufficiently isolated to not cause popping issues. i reccomend 4.7m. works perfect

a pair of 3pdt footswitches allows not only true bypass, but also the light show aspect for the graphic. the layout i'm about to post shows how to do it.

i use 9mm alphas. 1k audio for fuzz, 250k linear for volume.

the vero is verified and has been built many times now. a metric shit-tonne of wiring involved. just keep 'em short an point to point, and you'll be fine. keep audio and power wires separated where feasible, and try to make them cross at right angles if need be and you should be fine.




at some point, when i build the next batch of them, i will shoot a stupid pedal trick video of the full gospel pedal. its hard to do, they are selling faster than i can build them. believe it or don't. this is indeed a si fuzzface that don't suck.

rock on.

[EBK]

i'm not looking for suggestions or props or any of that shit,
just presenting a complete project to the community.

You are accepting a simple "thank you" though, right? 

[pinkjimiphoton]

lol... if someone wants to say thanks, it is gratefully accepted, but not necessary.
the best compliment is for peeps to build them and enjoy them. that's the only reason i put it here,
not to get in any "you should do this and this and this like i do" pissing matches.
it sounds great. it reacts right. the peeps who've built 'em agree. i've built or breadboarded thousands of fuzz face variants at this point.
out of all of them, as far as silicon goes, this is the only one i've seen yet that works right. i can a/b it with my dallas arbiter reissue pos germanium and can't tell the diff. well, other than less noise, less hum, no bacon frying and always working no matter how cold or hot and sounding the same...
sorry to be a dick, but i take less @#$%s than i give

and i apologize if i come off like a dick.  but if i wanted to build someone else's stuff that i've already tried that isn't the damn basic fuzzface circuit in the first place, i would.

try it on your breadboard. by all means tell me i'm wrong. 
takes maybe 5 minutes. i think you'll be surprised.

rock on

[pinkjimiphoton]

ps. if ya find it too brite when the guitar is turned down on the stupid face side, make the input cap 390 or 470n instead of 47n. that will drop the range down about 2 octaves and give it a little more ass to work with, and help equalize the slight difference between the two "sides" of the circuit.

and again, only use the snubber cap on q2 if you need to. i find it tends to nuke the treble sustain too much and would rather have the little bit of extra noise than the muffled part. i gotta tone control on my guitar and know how to use it.

finally, if ya wanna go crazy, use a 4pdt and switch the 470r with a 1k.  i'd do it so the 1k was on the stupid face side, it will bump the volume up a little bit. i don't find it to be necessary, but YMMV

[pinkjimiphoton]

pics.... will get video shortly. gonna a/b it with an actual germanium fuzzface.

[rutabaga bob]

That 1590A near the bottom is one tight mamma-jamma of a build!   

[pinkjimiphoton]

yeah that particular one has dissappeared.... :poof:
looks like some dipshit lifted it on me. sad for them, i had dropped it and messed up the toggle switch and hadn't replace it yet. oooopsies.

i can't believe someone woulda just grabbed it. man. i guess i gotta start watching guests. @#$%ed up.

edit: luckily, i'm an idiot. it fell inside a box. too much crap in the dungeon. 

i have the other 1590a here still, the one with the top mounted pots. the one in that pic sounded really good, shame it's gone.
oh well.

getting ready for video a/b ing in with one of my germ fuzz faces...

it was a REAL tite build, and had everything but the light show part

[pinkjimiphoton]

stupid pedal trick for the schizoid face, a/b-ing it with a germanium DA dunlop reissue fuzz face so ya can hear the differences and similarities. does it sound identical? nope. but this is the closest i've ever found. check it out.

[Cozybuilder]

Sounds really good to me! Like you say, its real close to Ge without the thermal issues. Thanks for sharing this project 

[pinkjimiphoton]

thanks russ, honored, man.
if you build it i hope you dig it as much as i do.
peace

[Cozybuilder]

Well, its on the breadboard, and sounds great! I made a couple of minor mods to supporting circuits, as some suggested; 22uF is used as the bypass. I didn't have any MPSA06 transistors, so subbed a couple of BC547Bs with about the same Hfe. This is good enough to box!

[pinkjimiphoton]

cool. looks like the biggest change was in the power supply filter.
glad you like it bro, its a really good circuit.

i am convinced that to get these kinds of fuzzes to sound best, you gotta not only bias from the collector, but limit the gain from the emitter. it takes silicon fuzzes into a whole new ballpark.

my only suggestion would be try a 470n output cap instead of 47, it will be a bit more robust and not as thin when your guitar is rolled way down.
thanks for trying it out. so.... am i crazy? or does it not suck ?

[Cozybuilder]

It does not suck!! I'll definitely up the output cap, although this is not that thin as is. Cleans up well with the guitar vol pot, a wide range of tones available. Yeah, I like it!

The jury's still out on the other

[pinkjimiphoton]

 

i like 390n for the output,, but 47 is nice. but when ya try the bigger one, i bet you'll like it.

[EBK]

Jimi, do you still have your pics (schem and vero) for this?  I think I'd like to throw it in one of my build queues. 

[goo]

broken link(((

[goo]

i saved it somehow

[DoofusMaximus]

Sounds great pinkjimi!!

[EBK]

Thanks, goo!    I assume the only difference between this and 1.4 is the LEDs and switches.

[pinkjimiphoton]

thanks goo!!

yeah erik, the only dif is the one goo posted has the switching for the leds and stuff.
you can leave all that crap out of course, i just did it to make the thing look cool, but i think
personally that adding led's to some fuzz circuits seems to increase their noise.

but the basic circuit is there to extrapolate, if you need a legit schem layout or vero, let me know, i do have all the files for this.

i think i may even still have some pcb's if ya need one.