Problem with biasing a Fuzz Face

[gigimarga]

Hello,

Sometime ago I'd found three SFT358 at a local store and i'd wanted to build a Fuzz Face with them.
I measured them using R.G.'s method and i selected two of them which had the gains 120 and 135 with a leakeage around 250uA.
When i've put them in a Fuzz Face with a 10k trimpot for bias i couldn't lower the Q2's collector voltage under 5.35V using a 8.90V battery.
It's that a problem?

It sounds good, but i can't test it on a professional setup yet.

Thx a lot!

[tehfunk]

You simply need a larger trimpot value in order to bring the voltage down to 4.5, i had to do this as well. let me know how it turns out because you have almost exactly the same gains i have.
-Sam

[gigimarga]

Thx tehfunk...i know that i can use a larger trimpot, but my question was (or intented to be, because of my poor English) if this is a sign for something bad with my build (especially with my transistors).
I built over 20 Fuzz Faces (almost all types), all sounded good (or almost) on my cheap setup, but only 7-8 sounded good on a professional setup.
Moreover, all the Fuzz Faces that i biased using a larger trimpot than 10k sounded very bad on a professional setup.

[gmr1]

I find it's the nature of some transistors that they just wont hit -4.5v without a little more resistance. I use the 2SB17* Japanese transistors a lot, and use a 20k pot, and find the sweet spot somewhere around 13K or so. Seems to work great. I tend to go more for a 70/120ish hfe pair. Just sounds more "right" to my ears.

[Toney]

 Yep,

Had the same crap with a Rangemaster last week.
I needed  13k and 100 base and emitter to bias it.
It was a 2sb77 PNP , but neg ground. The values are out but it sounded great, abeit with a little distortion at the lowest volumes. There is not much that's consistent in the world of germanium with 'predicted outcomes' .
Your ears are the only rule.

[gigimarga]

Thx a lot all!
I will replace the trimpot with a 25k one and i will test.
The third transistor have the gain around 70, so i will try it for Q1.