My first fuzz face! HELP PLEASE

[MrTonesNZ]

Hey guys,
Give me a hand,
This is my first build from scratch. Made a germanium fuzz face and it sounds beautiful. The weird part is, it only seems to work properly when linked after my overdrive- NOT WITH IT TURNED ON, without that, its quiet and harder to get a nice sound. I think it could be a problem with my grounding or something i don't know. It's as if it needs an active signal going in rather than passive... What do you think?

[vendettav]

may be the overdrive has got a buffer which helps the thing???

[MrTonesNZ]

may be the overdrive has got a buffer which helps the thing???

Maybe. Was thinking about adding a clean boost curcuit. How does a buffer work? I thought  buffer was to eliminate unwanted noise? My problem is i don't get enough noise...

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Is the fuzz face a PNP version? Positive ground?

Are you tying it into the same PS as an NPN (Negative ground) device?

[MrTonesNZ]

Is the fuzz face a PNP version? Positive ground?

Are you tying it into the same PS as an NPN (Negative ground) device?

It's pnp, running off a 9v battery. But it doesn't sound good unless it's pugged in after my boss od2. The od2 doesnt have to be turned on. I thoght it could possibly be that the battery is just dying, but i tryed the same ps that the boss uses, and got the same result.

[MrTonesNZ]

I'm kinda wondering if maybe I've wired the ground wrong? It's pnp right? Does that mean the positive from the battery needs to be grounded to earth? I haven't done that. I've grounded the negative. I know the powers going through the circuit correctly, otherwise it wouldn't  work and sound so great, right?

[vendettav]

ooh yeah, the positive ground means that the positive from the battery goes to the ground,and negative goes to the ..we ll you know where

[LucifersTrip]

I'm kinda wondering if maybe I've wired the ground wrong? It's pnp right?

You're the only one that can tell that. What transistors did you use?  Look it up and see if they're PNP or NPN?
http://english.electronica-pt.com/db/cross-reference.php

Does that mean the positive from the battery needs to be grounded to earth? I haven't done that. I've grounded the negative. I know the powers going through the circuit correctly, otherwise it wouldn't  work and sound so great, right?

It'd be cool if you posted the schematic, so we could help easier...Note the battery hook-up if it's PNP:

[jasperoosthoek]

I always use black and blue wires for positive ground effects. The black is the signal ground and goes to the positive side of the battery. The blue is the negative power supply and goes to the negative side of the battery.

If makes sense when combined with a normal effect. The black wires can be connected and the red is plus and the blue is minus. Now you have a bipolar supply. Never ever deviate on color codes unless you are color blind .

This helps a lot when you have multiple effects in similar boxes and you forgot one was pnp.

[petemoore]

  There's nothing to compare the board connection/circuit measurements to.
   The debugging page instructs what to do that enables us to look into the circuit, with schematic used, voltages/tests..

[LucifersTrip]

specifically, what Pete meant to say was:

[MrTonesNZ]

ooh yeah, the positive ground means that the positive from the battery goes to the ground,and negative goes to the ..we ll you know where

Ok, that's well and good, but wouldn't that make it incompatible with my other pedals?

[MrTonesNZ]

Here's the schematic, I've followed it to a 'T'. I've grounded the black wire, which is going to the "-" side of the battery.

[blooze_man]

OK it's PNP, then. "GND" should labeled something like "-9V" as it is the negative lead of the battery, not ground. If you can take a picture of your circuit, that would help.

[arma61]

ooh yeah, the positive ground means that the positive from the battery goes to the ground,and negative goes to the ..we ll you know where

Ok, that's well and good, but wouldn't that make it incompatible with my other pedals?

yes...  you cant power them with the same source of other Neg_gnd pedals, unless you build into your FF a "polatiry inverter" (don't remember the right name now), I think forummate John Lyons did something like that, do a search     here.

Cheers
Armando

[LucifersTrip]

ooh yeah, the positive ground means that the positive from the battery goes to the ground,and negative goes to the ..we ll you know where

Ok, that's well and good, but wouldn't that make it incompatible with my other pedals?

not if it is powered by a separate power supply

[LucifersTrip]

Here's the schematic
[vero img removed]

that is called a vero layout

[MrTonesNZ]

Here's the schematic
[vero img removed]

that is called a vero layout

Yea i do realise that. Thanks

[MrTonesNZ]

OK it's PNP, then. "GND" should labeled something like "-9V" as it is the negative lead of the battery, not ground. If you can take a picture of your circuit, that would help.

Awesome thanks that does help. I wonder why my OD2 fixes the problem then? Can anyone answer that??

[jasperoosthoek]

Indeed what the other people said, you will need a separate power supply. But if you always use a battery it is the best way.

Using black and blue wires is a way to show internally that it is wired differently. Using black and red wires will make the red wire ground... That messes up your mind when you open it some years from now.

If you power your effects by a daisy chain cable then you might want to show on the outside that it is positive ground. Or you could use a different kind of connector for these effects. Using power supplies that can be safely shorted (using a 78(L)09 chip) works too.

I wasn't very happy with the negative ground conversion on a pnp fuzz face. It was much noisier so I went back to positive ground. I solved it by building my own power supply with isolated outputs.