FAIM Fuzz original circuit pictures

[mac]

I posted this fuzz in 2006,

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=51210.0

I took some photos of the original circuit which was inside a crappy FAIM guitar.









mac

[Manny]

Hi mac,

I've got a couple of 2SB56s around somewhere and have been wondering what to put them in for a while now.
The schem link in the original post is dead, do you still have a copy of it?

I'd be interested to give this a go.

Cheers! 

[mac]

The schematic is at the bottom of the page,

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=51210.msg739415#msg739415

mac

[tcobretti]

Thanks for the pics, that is great stuff.

Almost looks like some of my builds!

[analogguru]

I think this should be a clone of the Sekova (Crestwood) - FA-II:
http://analogguru.an.ohost.de/193/schematics/Sekova_FA-II.gif

analogguru

[Manny]

The schematic is at the bottom of the page,

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=51210.msg739415#msg739415

mac

Cheers! 

[tcobretti]

How does it sound?

[mac]

I always believed that this was not an original design, but taken from an older pedal.

I have to record a sound clip of this wierd circuit.
The first transitors is biased at 8.5v-8.7v depending on gain and leakage. It sounds exactly as a Tonebender MKII first stage,  a kind of misbiased octave up; a member of the forum posted some similarities between octave up and a transistor biased near vcc.
The second stage sits at 6.3v - 6.5v, no mistery here except that it clips asymetrically the wierd signal coming from Q1. The diodes smooth the output signal.
At low guitar volume it is very bluesy, and you can hear that kind of "octave up" coming from Q1. Silicon diodes sound good at this levels.
At max volume it gets nasty and fat. If you want a race between your amp vs. the washing machine, max things up and use your neck HB. I bet $10 to the amp

The good thing about this circuit is that you can use ANY transistor, ge or si, without having to adjust bias. Just use hfe: 100-200.
YOu can use higher gain si transistors like 5088 or 549C but I recommend to put a 10k in series at the input, and another 10k between q1 and q2.
I built a si unit for a friend, just added small 101 caps from C to B to roll off highs.

mac

[tcobretti]

Thanks.  I have been looking for the nastiest fuzz I can find, and this one sounds pretty bad!