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Does anyone use a "dying battery" unit?


Riffster

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My Joe Bonamassa Fuzz Face sounds great but when the battery started dying slowly it got smoother. Idecided to get one of those dying battery simulators on eBay. I could have made one myslef for half the price but I do not want another project.

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Guest Farnsbarns

My Joe Bonamassa Fuzz Face sounds great but when the battery started dying slowly it got smoother. Idecided to get one of those dying battery simulators on eBay. I could have made one myslef for half the price but I do not want another project.

 

You could just mod the pedal to reduce the voltage entering the DC side of the fuzz circuit. It's a fairly simple calculation to get the required resister value. Is the fuzz silicon, germanium, etc? NPN or PNP?

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Well I already ordered the unit, plus I do not want to mod the pedal, this is one of those copper JB Fuzz Faces they don't make anymore. Germanium NPN I think. It does not have a DC jack so I will be rigging a battery snap connector.

 

I also have other fuzzes so I will be using the dying battery unit on those, since the device uses a potentiometer you can dial in whatever sound you like.

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Yea, I read about that. I have a One-Spot wall wart so no options there.

 

This is what I bought.

 

3C71AB3E-0F39-4462-A988-B16995D4E300_zpstfij80se.jpg

 

By the way the battery on my JB fuzz died faster because I kept unplugging the wrong side plug since they are reversed just like the original fuzz face..,I feel mildly stupid.

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If your FF doesn't have a DC jack then you won't be able to use this with it. This is just a variable resistor between your wall wart and your pedal

 

I believe your model uses Russian PNP germanium transistors, so don't try to daisy chain it with one of the one spot battery clip adapters or you will destroy the pedal

 

Sorry dude

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Germanium PNP transistors were the first available, and they were widely operated in circuits with + (plus) to ground. Using a dedicated power supply for each effect pedal is recommended to avoid shorting out.

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And if you're wondering why everyone doesn't just use NPN germanium so that you can daisy chain there are a few reasons why

 

1. NPN germanium is usually considerably more expensive than PNP

2. NPN germanium is generally inferior to PNP. The different manufacturing process required for NPN results in a much less consistent, usually very leaky transistor.

3. Higher leakage usually results in worse temp stability, (so the bias of your transistors will shift much more in different temperatures) so your pedal will perform inconsistently. Sometimes it may sound great, other times not so much

 

I've been making some great PNP Fuzz Faces that you can daisy chain (because I added a charge pump which inverts the polarity) but the additional power filtering that the charge pump requires does slightly alter the sound of the fuzz.

 

So for the most "true" performance from your FF you'll just want to use a battery

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So for the most "true" performance from your FF you'll just want to use a battery

 

Yep. So when the battery sounds awesome, take it out and measure its voltage... 6 volts maybe? 4.5? Then you just need to find a way to discharge batteries to that level. Maybe use them in something else that sounds awesome with a full 9v until they run down sufficiently.

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Well it is not like I will be making any non reversible mods at all, I am sure if I do not like this unit I won't use it much.

 

I have seen the JB fuzz plugged into a regular wall wart adaptor, all of my other 3 fuzz pedals have always run on DC adapters. I'll see what this thing does.

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I was going use a 9v battery adapter with the JB fuzz face, my other fuzzes have the standards dc inputs.

 

DC is just a polarity right? It can be reversed, or am I understanding it wrong?

It can be reversed and you can run it off of your power supply, but this is important.. You can't daisy chain it with your other pedals. It has to be on an isolated power supply or you will probably ruin your pedal.

 

The problem is the PNP transistors work with a positive ground. All of your regular effects use negative ground. To put it simply, you can't mix the two.

 

There are some solutions to this problem, like the charge pump that I mentioned (I use ICL7660SCPAZ) but I doubt you want to go down that road. It's easier to just get an isolated power supply. They're handy anyways and the prices have come down to a reasonable level

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The best, smoothest, creamiest distortion I've experienced was the final few minutes of my '58 Fender Champ, cranked, right before the output transformer blew. New transformer in, but that sound is gone. Is there a dying transformer unit?? [rolleyes]

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I've been playing with this unit and it is amazing how something so simple works so well. I have plugged 3 of my fuzz pedals and my range master pedal and dialing in different sounds is easy.

 

I am going to try it with my wah next.

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