silicon fuzz face

[bigbud]

Right, I built the arbiter fuzz face a few months back with ac128 and it sounds great using a bit of amp distortion as well ala Jimi but the problem is when clean it isn't very good it sounds great but with not enough fuzz so i tried changing the GE transistors  and still same problem so I decided to use silicon as this sounds more like the jimi plays berkeley, more bite to the tone anyway so I swapped to silicon and the fuzz doesn't work at all when on no sound so I checked wiring it's all fine put GE back in it plays but with silicon it doesn't could anyone help?

[rowla]

Hi bigbud

I built a fuzz face from BYOC and socketed my transistors too. I found that the leads on my germanium trannies were quite a bit thinner and I often had to fiddle in order to get a good connection on them. Sounds obvious but it worked for me.

It was my first build and caused me so much grief I put a photo of my bull terrier on the back of the pedal to remind me of the power of dogged stubbornness.

Did you try a treble booster in front of your fuzz face. I got into fuzzes and boosters after GAS'ing after the Saraceno pedals. This combination still my favourite . Hope to finish a tonebender soon and combine that with the treble booster

Col

[Dragonfly]

Right, I built the arbiter fuzz face a few months back with ac128 and it sounds great using a bit of amp distortion as well ala Jimi but the problem is when clean it isn't very good it sounds great but with not enough fuzz so i tried changing the GE transistors  and still same problem so I decided to use silicon as this sounds more like the jimi plays berkeley, more bite to the tone anyway so I swapped to silicon and the fuzz doesn't work at all when on no sound so I checked wiring it's all fine put GE back in it plays but with silicon it doesn't could anyone help?

did you check to make sure that the silicon transistors you are using are PNP ?

[bigbud]

yup tried that the pins were connected perfectly i even used seperate pins and soldered onto them with no luck.

as for treble booster I wouldn't do that I mainly use the wah for solo's on the heel down treble side, plus the silicon fuzz I want mainly so i don't need an output buffer on my wah.

[bigbud]

Ah I didn't check pnp I didn't think that mattered hmmm so what do I have to do if they are npn silicons?

[rubix cube]

I think you have to reverse the battery supply and the orientation of any polarised components (the electro caps).  Or you could buy some silicon PNP transistors.

[Dragonfly]

Ah I didn't check pnp I didn't think that mattered hmmm so what do I have to do if they are npn silicons?

the circuit, as you built it is PNP...NPN silicons wont work with a positive ground in that particular circuit.

you can either:

A) buy some PNP silicons (such as 2N2907, 2N5087, 2N2907, etc) or....

B) reverse the battery leads (so that negative goes to ground, positive to V+) and the electrolytic capacitors


but dont do both

if you choose choice "B", your AC128's will no longer work in the circuit.

[bigbud]

Thanks everyone for the replies Im new to these boards and have found answers very quickly.

I have some BC559C which are pnp and are a substitute for the 2n5087

also I have these for npn bc549c which are a sub for 2n5088 and 5089.

i will try both ways and see which produces the best sounds.

[bigbud]

Oh no going back to germanium the silicons I have sound really bad not a fuzz face at all will wait till I get some bc108 or 109s but until then no way. maybe put in some nkt275

[petemoore]

  Yep, I don't have a BB.
  So I made a FF board with the polarized cap socketted, as well as input/output caps and...whatever else like trimpot Q2's C resistor, then flippin' supply/polarity and testing out all the different transistors...adjusting bias, changing different input caps/Qs mostly.
  Hybrid etc. Si/Ge combos in FF like EZ Face, extra cap on the ~470ohm like Axis Face/

[solarplexus]

I just built a Si FF myself with two 2n5089 and a 470pf cap (as in the ROG tantalus) and a 1k resistor in the input for RF (as in the ROG sili-face).  I used Dragonfly's "alternate" layout. 

I don't know why, but I put a 1M resistor from input to ground to cut RF (as suggested I don't know where) and the noise/RF was HORRIBLE.  I removed it and no more RF... the pedal cleans up very well, no gating. 

I used to have 2 smallbear germanium trannies but they fried... that's why I am using Si.

I should piggyback them but I never understood how to wire them up!

Anyway, thought this might help.

[col]

Try this for a fantastic Si FF type circuit but you'll have to do a different layout;

http://fuzzcentral.ssguitar.com/axisface.php

Check the pinouts of the transistors you use. The BD139 is BCE rather than the more common CBE/EBC.

[bigbud]

I tried that circuit a while back when I wasn;t any where near as good at electronics as I am now, so I tried again and it's one of the best silicon fuzz's I've heard hey who cares it's the best one I have heard cause I ain't heard more than 3 silicon fuzz, axis fuzz by roger mayer
the germanium fuzz swapped to silicons(oh man that was bad stuff) and this one.

I got my wah output buffer from there so I check out his site often, didn't realize that what the axis face was how dumb am I 

[mac]

The axis face uses a 2n2369 which IMHO sound closer to Ge than any other Si. The problem is that they tend to pick up RF. Replacing the bd139 with another 2n2369 sounds better to me. Same for both tonebenders versions.

I finally decided to build my Si FF with a couple of 2n2219a (110, 120). Sound fantastic. I found another good substitutes like 2n3440, 2n2218, bc140/1, bc394, 2n1613, etc. They are all metal case... curious.

Some says that bc108c sounds very good. Not my choice unless a 100R resistor is used at q1 emiter to lower the gain a little. Same for 2n5088 or bc549/550C.

Now that I know how to stop RF, I'll build a Si-Ge FF, q1=2n2369, q2=2n388, 2sd352 or 2n1114 Ge. In a Ge FF changes in q2 has very little effect on vc2, so having a Si at q1 avoids the temperature run away.

----
My Si FF has a varaible resistor at the input and a variable input cap. This let me use a wah, the humbuckers or the rangemaster.

mac

[col]

I also built this with two 'free' un-numbered transistors I took from a broken low energy light bulb. They looked like BD139s and had the same pinout (BCE). Sounded great! All the broken bulbs I've looked at so far have this type of transistor in them along with loads of diodes.

[aron]

Also try Gus Smalley's Si Fuzz Face designs:

http://www.diystompboxes.com/pedals/gusFuzzFace.gif

[Renegadrian]

Resurrecting topic...

Built a Silicon FF with 2 BC108c - this thing has a good gain (more too much for someone) but can be easily tamed down with the pot, and it really cleans with the guitar volume pot, so let's say the added gain is a good add-on that can be handy and not an handicap. Q2 has 600 hfe, Q1 cannot read it, I cut the legs too much, enough for the socket but not for the DMM.

Maybe I should have used BC108a or b?!
A good pedal anyway...