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Fuzz Face mini


surfpup

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Posted

Got one of these this week. Anyone else using them? I'd been using a four-knob Fuzz Face clone that I built myself on my little gig pedal board, but I wanted something simpler with big knobs that I can foot adjust. I'm pretty impressed so far - especially with a Strat.

 

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Posted

I played around with them when they first came out but because I already have a big case hendrix ff I never bought another. If they bring out more signature ones I might be tempted though. I enjoyed playing the bonamassa ff in the US when it first came out but the transistors weren't compliant with regulations over in the UK so I couldn't find one when I went back home.

Posted

I've seen several demos of this line of pedals and they all sounded good to my ears, I liked the 70's version a tiny bit more due to the slightly more aggresive sound.

 

When these came out I had already bought my Joe Bonamassa Fuzz Face (copper version) and also my Seymour Duncan Tweak Fuzz so I simply could not justify getting one of these minis.

Posted
I liked the 70's version a tiny bit more due to the slightly more aggresive sound.

 

Yeah, I came really close to buying the blue (silicon) one, but for this folkier gig I'm doing now I need it to clean up well with the guitar's volume knob - which I am constantly riding. If I didn't already have some nice silicon fuzzes I'd be all over that blue one too!

Posted

C'mon man just build one!

 

Jk looks cool what's inside?

 

Fuzz is your bag man! Too complicated for me - all that HFE leakage and crap! [biggrin]

 

What I should do is get you to build me one of your those MKIII beasts you build. [thumbup]

Posted

Jk looks cool what's inside?

 

I wasn't able to find out what trannies were inside but you might be better at working it out from this pic I found on tdpri

 

 

zt9ab7.jpg

 

I think they use a .1uf output cap on these as well which might be why they're better with single coils than humbuckers. In the past I've swapped these values for .01uf which seemed to work better with my rig which is already fairly dark

Posted

Gonna adjust that bias trim pot next and see what effect it has on the sound. I never trust the factory settings.

Posted

Gonna adjust that bias trim pot next and see what effect it has on the sound. I never trust the factory settings.

I think it might have been on the gear page but there were a few interesting threads about putting in an external bias pot for adjusting when playing in different temperature environments

Posted

I think it might have been on the gear page but there were a few interesting threads about putting in an external bias pot for adjusting when playing in different temperature environments

 

We don't have different temperature environments in Florida. [lol]

 

 

 

Actually going from inside to outside can be quite drastic and that's a cool idea. The four knob Fuzz Face I built has a bias control. I bought this one to keep it simple - and to run on a regular power supply for gig simplicity.

Posted

Fuzz is your bag man! Too complicated for me - all that HFE leakage and crap! [biggrin]

 

What I should do is get you to build me one of your those MKIII beasts you build. [thumbup]

You can do eet! You don't need to worry about leakage much with this circuit, as long as it isn't too leaky you're good! I typically opt for very low/no leakage because the less leaky germs are generally more temp stable so the bias won't shift much

 

I'm guessing they probably just quickly bias the collector of Q2 to 4.5v and leave it at that

 

My purple MKIII is all yours if you want it!

Posted

I wasn't able to find out what trannies were inside but you might be better at working it out from this pic I found on tdpri

 

 

zt9ab7.jpg

 

I think they use a .1uf output cap on these as well which might be why they're better with single coils than humbuckers. In the past I've swapped these values for .01uf which seemed to work better with my rig which is already fairly dark

Thanks dude!

 

It's hard for me to tell, but looks like Q2 is an NTE158 which seems to be current production germanium.

 

If you wanna brighten up this circuit up, the input cap is much more effective than the output cap. You can also reduce the emitter bypass cap (usually 22u) to 10u or so and that will have a big impact

Posted

My purple MKIII is all yours if you want it!

 

I do love purple! Hit me (pm style) with some $ specifics. I can offer you a killer booster, hand-wired on turret of course, in the deal. :)

Posted

I have an original Sov-Tek "Big Muff Pi" from the 1980's... The green military box looking rig. It has no a/c adapter port and only runs off a 9v battery...

 

I don't even know what's in the thing...

 

I am interested in one of the Dunlop Fuzz Faces, and by the sounds of it I think I might go with the Blue silicon model you guys reference...

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