My first fuzz face! HELP PLEASE

[MrTonesNZ]

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.

Thanks for that advise.
It's quite a messy looking thing. I used whatever I could recycle, so all the wiring is currently black. Might just label it somehow. Resources are a bit limited in this part of the world, there aren't exactly any shops i can drive down to, as they're mostly piles of rubble, or just inaccessible. Silly earthquakes!

[MrTonesNZ]

Awesome thanks that does help. I wonder why my OD2 fixes the problem then? Can anyone answer that??
[/quote]
^ Still very curious about this. Why does my FF work properly when plugged into my boss OD2?

[jasperoosthoek]

The OD2 is not true bypass. I found a schematic here http://www.schematicx.com/schematic/boss-od-2-turbo-overdrive-pedal-schematic/

Looking at the schematic the output stage is always on. Whether bypassed or not the signal always passes through Q2. So the output stage helps the Fuzz Face work.

I think that you might have forgotten the first capacitor in your fuzz face, or you miswired it somehow. If you forget it the guitar signal is never loud enough to pass a signal though. Maybe you will get a chopped distorted sound (squelch knob on a scanner) with a very hot signal. If this is true the OD2's output cap takes the function of the missing FF output cap and it therefore works. The 100k resistor in the OD2 messes up the FF bias though.

I hope you guys in NS are able to pick up the pieces! Last year I went to Tokyo, that made the quake there come awfully close.

[MrTonesNZ]

The OD2 is not true bypass. I found a schematic here http://www.schematicx.com/schematic/boss-od-2-turbo-overdrive-pedal-schematic/

Looking at the schematic the output stage is always on. Whether bypassed or not the signal always passes through Q2. So the output stage helps the Fuzz Face work.

I think that you might have forgotten the first capacitor in your fuzz face, or you miswired it somehow. If you forget it the guitar signal is never loud enough to pass a signal though. Maybe you will get a chopped distorted sound (squelch knob on a scanner) with a very hot signal. If this is true the OD2's output cap takes the function of the missing FF output cap and it therefore works. The 100k resistor in the OD2 messes up the FF bias though.

I hope you guys in NS are able to pick up the pieces! Last year I went to Tokyo, that made the quake there come awfully close.

Mmm maybe, I havn't missed any components, so maybe the input cap is just bung? I'll try changing the ground first and see if that helps. If I can't fix it, I'll probably just run with what i've got, sounds great, that's the main thing! I've got enough components to make another few anyway.

Thanks, about the quakes. We are doing ok

[jasperoosthoek]

Maybe you can give me the transistor voltages of the fuzz face? That tells a lot. The input cap could indeed be shorted, that would of course be similar to not having one.

[MrTonesNZ]

Maybe you can give me the transistor voltages of the fuzz face? That tells a lot. The input cap could indeed be shorted, that would of course be similar to not having one.

No I can't i'm affraid. Havn't got the tools to mesure that kind of thing yet, I just went for the "try them all and see what sounds best" method. I used a variable resistor for the bias, come to think of it though, maybie it's somthing to do with my bias? I found I couldnt actually hear a difference when turning it, didn't think much of it.

That could proove that the cap is gone, or maybie the pot? I don't know. If it is somthing like that, I think i may just start again from scratch, because boy it's a royal mess. I was using a blunt solder iron, and in my noviceness, I figured it would be easy enough to use the exact same layout for stripboard, on perfboard. And I just connected the curcuit using lines of solder. THAT WAS A MISSION, NEARLY KILLED ME .... Definitly re-think the layout, possibly use a few more jumpers... Haha, gotta learn somehow though aye! 

[MrTonesNZ]

By the way Jasper O, thanks for your help, you are officially the first person on my buddy list  Cheers

[jasperoosthoek]

Your welcome man .

Put a DMM on the first place of your to buy list. Mine came from a German budget supermarket. I think I paid something like 6 euros. Cheap tools that do the job make you come a long way, try ebay. Mine even measures Hfe and diode forward voltage! The 200 euro Fluke at work doesn't .

[MrTonesNZ]

Your welcome man .

Put a DMM on the first place of your to buy list. Mine came from a German budget supermarket. I think I paid something like 6 euros. Cheap tools that do the job make you come a long way, try ebay. Mine even measures Hfe and diode forward voltage! The 200 euro Fluke at work doesn't .

Cool, any particular brand? And do they run on mains or battery?

[jasperoosthoek]

The supermarket is called Aldi and they have electronics from the brand 'Top Craft'. They run on a 9V battery.


Trying to find the thing online made me realize that I paid 3 euros not 6  . They are dirt cheap and very good. Only the (low) current input is broken, the 10A works fine.. Comparable to multimeters that cost tenfold. But you're as far as you can get from where I live (Netherlands) without going into space. 

And there are a lot better multimeters, mine was just a demonstration of that fact that cheap can be much better than expected. I still need a better one that also measures capacitance and inductance. I'd be ordering this one right now if I wasn't going abroad for two weeks : http://cgi.ebay.com/VC6243-Multimeter-Inductance-Capacitance-compared-Fluke-/200596583539?pt=UK_AudioElectronicsVideo_Video_TelevisionSetTopBoxes&hash=item2eb47cf473
I've heard some good stories about that one on this forum.

[petemoore]

Ok, that's well and good, but wouldn't that make it incompatible with my other pedals?
  I could put a 'sure' in here but that'sb the last thing...like after it works.
   Still confusing...
   THe Capacitor orientations aren't marked.
    It looks like PNP, Neg. Gdn. fuzzface, schematics which show each and every connection and nodes is the head of the hammer, though not easily wielded and manipulated to crush shown bug, with a bit of experience is handles more like a flyswatter, very few bugs escape an experienced, equipped debugger.
  A schematic and a DMM, the DMM can veryfy anything on the board to be like [not just look like] what the schematic connections and values are, comparing what the voltages would be to what they are...
   I look for particular markers such as [in FF] B/E diode [which way it is pointing..], and then an emitter that connects to "Gnd.'', then I try to figure out if ''Gnd.'' is the most negative circuit potential, or whether it is the most positive circuit potential [ie as in PNP Pos. Gnd.
  Then place all the polarized components according to where the most + node associated with their placement is, so as to set it up without reverse polarizing anything.

[MrTonesNZ]

Ok so here's the thing. I find this weird. Grounded to positive, It work's, but doesn't sound nearly as good as what I had before. Im a bit sad really   any ideas on how to make my original circuit work well? Are there any threads on pnp fuzz faces with negitive ground? I want to know what it is about my od2 that made my fuzz so awesome.

I find with my new Positive groud. It's cleaner, and i still have the original problem of being a bit quiet...

[MrTonesNZ]

AND, new discovery, My boss rc2 helps it too..

[vendettav]

may be try and put a buffer into it?

[MrTonesNZ]

may be try and put a buffer into it?

How does a buffer work? I always thought it was to stop nosie

[vendettav]

Hmm i can't quite think of an answer to that question but i guess it's just me

try these links i found very informative
http://www.muzique.com/lab/buffers.htm
http://www.petecornish.co.uk/case_against_true_bypass.html

basically buffer helps the signal. so if your tone is sucked and whatnot.. idk.. Ima build the TL071 soon when I get to build my pedalboard :)8 pedals are already a lot for the signal pass

[MrTonesNZ]

Far out! whats going on? I just made a silicon NPN version. And I have exactly the same problem. Sounds fantastic with a pedal behind it, dull and quiet without. Without, it kind of cuts out, and sputters when I play a bit harder, or turn the volume up.

[vendettav]

well the only thing i can think of is what i've already suggested. may be try one? it's not hard at all

[MrTonesNZ]

well the only thing i can think of is what i've already suggested. may be try one? it's not hard at all

I do like your idea, but I just think there must be something I keep doing wrong. This circuit shouldn't need a buffer. But i will try. Can you give me a good schematic?
Thanks V

[MrTonesNZ]

 By the way, this is the shematic I used this time