The Definitive Guide to the Arbiter Fuzz Face

Arbiter Fuzz Face Description: The Fuzz Face is an effects pedal used mainly by electric guitarists, and by some bass players. It is a stompbox designed to produce a distorted sound from an electric guitar. This "fuzz" sound is sometimes compared to the sound of a damaged speaker. In fact, early efforts to achieve this type of sound included actually ripping or poking holes in guitar amplifier speakers. http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Fuzz_Face effects pedal used mainly by electric guitarists, and by some bass players. It is a stompbox designed to produce an overdriven sound from an electric guitar. This "fuzz" sound is sometimes compared to the sound of a damaged speaker. In fact, early efforts to achieve this type of sound included actually ripping or poking holes in guitar amplifier speakers. Such guitarists as Jimi Hendrix (one of the best known Fuzz Face users), Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Syd Barrett, and others have used the pedal to make their legendary sounds. The Fuzz Face is sometimes confused with the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff fuzzbox due to the resemblance of their sounds on recordings; Jack White and Mudhoney (who named an album Superfuzz Bigmuff ) have erroneously been said to use the Fuzz Face instead of the Big Muff Pi, just as guitarists such as Hendrix were mistakenly have been said to have used the Big Muff. The Fuzz Face is also a big part of the Stoner rock sound, bands like Kyuss, Fu Manchu and Nebula try to recreate its smooth-raspy- Psychedelic edge. The Dallas Arbiter company first issued the Fuzz Face in 1966, although the first fuzz faces were simply made by "Arbiter", the second batch then introduced the "Dallas" arbiter addition. The distinctive sound of the Dallas Arbiter version of the Fuzz Face is said to come from the germanium transistors used in its manufacture. Later versions of the circuit changed to silicon transistors. These provided for a more stable operation. It is said that some of these versions sounded harsh to the ear. However, many Jimi Hendrix recordings in the latter part of his career feature this type of fuzz face. The electronics are contained in a circular-shaped gray, blue or red metal housing. The unit was originally intended to replace the base of a microphone stand. The pedal uses two knobs, one for volume, and one for the amount of "fuzz" the pedal produces. The arrangement of controls on the box suggests a face, with the volume and "fuzz" controls as eyes, the "in/out" stomp switch as the nose, the logo as a smiling mouth, and a wedge-shaped rubber mat suggesting a beard. http://www.reference.com/browse/fuzz+face History: Arbiter Electronics Ltd. first issued the Fuzz Face in 1966."Fuzz Face" by David Morin Later units bear the "Dallas-Arbiter", "Dallas Music Industries Ltd.", "CBS/Arbiter Ltd." or "Dunlop Manufacturing Inc." name. The electronics are contained in a circular-shaped metal housing. Ivor Arbiter "got the idea for the round shape when he one day saw a microphone-stand with a cast-iron base". The pedal uses two knobs, one for volume, and one for the amount of "fuzz" the pedal produces. The arrangement of controls on the box suggests a face, with the volume and "fuzz" controls as eyes, the "in/out" ;’stomp switch as the nose, the logo as a smiling mouth, and a wedge-shaped rubber mat suggesting a beard. The original Fuzz Face was discontinued in 1974 or 1975. The first, albeit short lived, reissue made by Crest Audio came out in 1976. A second reissue by Crest Audio was released in the 1986. About 2000 of those were made until 1990. 1980's Crest Audio FuzzFace reissue story Foxrox electronics scrapbook In 1993 Dunlop Manufacturing, Inc. took over production. In the late 1990s Arbiter reissued the pedal as well. Due to its simplicity and status as a classic, the Fuzz Face soon became a favourite among DIY stompbox builders and is a popular beginner's project. Many variations and modifications are documented. Common modern additions are status LEDs and 9V jacks. http://reference.canadaspace.com/search/Fuzz%20Face/ The Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face has been around since 1966, and it shows no signs of dying any time soon. Through this design's past you'll find all kinds of different variations in the basic original circuit, from PNP Germanium to NPN mm,,Silicon, and a countless number of fuzz pedals that are based on it. One of the most notable Fuzz Face-based distortion pedals is my personal favorite...the Sola Sound ToneBender MKII. The Fuzz Face has been played by almost every famous guitar player that has ever lived, and this trend will most likely continue for a very long time to come. http://fuzzcentral.ssguitar.com/fuzzface.php Arbiter Electronics Ltd. first issued the Fuzz Face in 1966.[1] Later units bear the "Dallas-Arbiter", "Dallas Music Industries Ltd.", "CBS/Arbiter Ltd." or "Dunlop Manufacturing Inc." name.The earliest units used germanium transistors. Later on silicon transistors were used. These provided for a more stable operation, but have a different, harsher sound.The electronics are contained in a circular-shaped metal housing. Ivor Arbiter "got the idea for the round shape when he one day saw a microphone-stand with a cast-iron base".[1] The pedal uses two knobs, one for volume, and one for the amount of "fuzz" the pedal produces. The arrangement of controls on the box suggests a face, with the volume and "fuzz" controls as eyes, the "in/out" stomp switch as the nose, the logo as a smiling mouth, and a wedge-shaped rubber mat suggesting a beard.The circuit is based on the shunt-series-feedback amplifier topology - a standard in engineering text books. Sola Sound and Vox had been using the same circuit topology for some of their Tone Bender pedals earlier in 1966.[2]The original Fuzz Face was discontinued in 1974 or 1975. The first, albeit short lived, reissue made by Crest Audio came out in 1976. A second reissue by Crest Audio was released in the 1986. About 2000 of those were made until 1990.[3][4]In 1993 Dunlop Manufacturing, Inc. took over production.[1] In the late 1990s Arbiter reissued the pedal as well.[5]Due to its simplicity and status as a classic, the Fuzz Face soon became a favourite among DIY stompbox builders and is a popular beginner's project. Many variations and modifications are documented. Common modern additions are status LEDs and 9V jacks.As of 2009, a wide variety of clones and Fuzz Face inspired pedals is available. Dunlop Manufacturing, Inc. currently owns the Fuzz Face and Dallas-Arbiter trademarks and still makes the pedal.[6] Germanium and silicon transistor versions are available. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzz_Face#Components The Fuzz Face is a classic guitar pedal, originally produced in England by Arbiter in the mid-1960s. The company was later sold and became known as Dallas-Arbiter, and they continued to produce the pedal under that name.The original (Arbiter England) Fuzz Face pedals first began being imported into America in 1966. A strong argument could be made that it's introduction contributed greatly to the burgeoning hippie movement, and the psychedelic rock scene that first took shape in the late 60s.So what made the original Fuzz Face so special? One of the most unique aspects of the pedal is its smooth, transistor-based fuzz sound. It produced this rich, smooth tone with the use of the (now rare) PNP germanium AC 128 transistors.Later editions of the pedal began using more modern components, and replaced the original germanium transistors. Unfortunately, modernizing the components of the pedal also took away much of the warmth and color of its original sound. For this reason, original Arbiter England models are now considered rare finds. A unit in good condition can sell at auction for more than $1000. Pretty expensive guitar pedal, huh?Fortunately, you can also find good deals on these vintage guitar pedals if you shop around at online auctions, or local pawn shops. Many times an individual will have an old pedal lying around and decide to sell it without knowing how rare and prized this classic stomp box actually is.In these situations you might be able to buy one in great shape for as little as $100 or less. Of course, you have to do some shopping around to find bargains like this, but it is possible.Tone-wise, the original is an amazing guitar effect. Legendary guitar heroes such as Jimi Hendrix and Pete Townsend have immortalized the this pedal on recordings from the 1960s and 70s. Many modern rock players also go ga-ga for its "creamy" transistor produced sustain. In fact, it is probably more popular today than ever.Unfortunately, there is a great deal of confusion about what an original Fuzz Face pedal actually is. Various companies produce stomp boxes that use the name "fuzz face," but are in fact very different pedals, using completely different components.For example, Jim Dunlop produces a "Jimi Hendrix Fuzz Face" pedal that is quite popular, but is NOT the original. Like the Dunlop model, many manufacturers produce a reissue or "reconstruction" of the classic Arbiter English version. And although some of these "remakes" are very good, and have established solid reputations in their own right, none are as revered as the original English version.Even the Dallas-Arbiter version is slightly different from the original English model, and lacks a certain "bite" that is difficult to describe. Mind you, they still sound pretty great -- just not quite as great as the original.Trying to get your hands on original is not always easy, but with a little bit of persistence you can usually find one at a decent price by searching around. If the price tag of an original English model is a bit out of your league, consider one of the many high quality reissues such as the Cornell AC 128. Next to an authentic English-manufactured Fuzz Face, it's one of the sweetest sounding fuzz boxes you're likely to hear. http://ezinearticles.com/?Classic-Guitar-Pedals---The-Fuzz-Face&id=915344 Components The circuit uses fewer than a dozen electronic components. At the time the box was first made, the consistency of quality of components, especially transistors and electrolytic capacitors, was poor. For instance, "tolerances", the allowed differences between the quoted values for a component's properties and their actual values, were 50% in the case of electrolytic capacitors. Transistors varied considerably in terms of their important parameters, such as gain, saturation level, and leakage current. As a result, two circuits utilizing the same components might sound quite different, especially to a musician. In addition, germanium transistors tended to be sensitive to temperature, so the sound produced using the box would change as the equipment heated up. According to some sources, professional musicians would try different units from a batch in order to find one which sounded the best to their ears. The circuit uses the property of transistors known as "saturation". When used as an amplifier, a transistor's output level is directly related to the input level, but if the input level is high enough the output reaches a maximum and goes no higher, regardless of the input level. The effect is to "cut off" the peaks of sound waves leaving a flat line instead of a rising curve. This introduces extra harmonics into the sound, producing the distortion or fuzz. The circuit of the basic Fuzz Face uses one transistor to amplify the input signal so that it partially saturates the second transistor, from which the output signal is taken. In extreme cases the smooth input wave is converted into a square wave which sounds harsh. This tends to occur using transistors with very high gain (output current divided by input current) where the first transistor's output is so high that the second one saturates quickly. Germanium transistors have low gain compared to silicon transistors, which may explain the preference among musicians for the models made with germanium transistors. There is debate amongst Fuzz Face enthusiasts as to which were the first transistors to be used in the unit. Most people generally agree that the AC128 transistor was the first, though a few say that the NKT275 was the first. Still others claim that the "Arbiter" Fuzz Face , (the first run of the unit) had SF363 transistors in it (See 1992 Guitar Player Mag. Distortion Special). Modern Fuzz Face clones and modifications to the circuit use a variety of transistors, and given the subjectivity of guitar tone, there is no clearly preferred transistor. http://www.reference.com/browse/fuzz+face The circuit uses eleven electronic components, plus a battery.[7] At the time the box was first made, the tolerances of electric components were not as tight as they are today. As a result, two circuits utilizing the same components might sound quite different. In addition, germanium transistors tend to be sensitive to temperature, so the sound produced using the box would change as the equipment heated up. According to some sources, professional musicians would try different units from a batch in order to find one which sounded the best to their ears. Inside view of the pedal showing the comparatively simple two transistor circuit board. The transistors in this model are the BC 108C Silicon variety.The circuit uses the property of transistors known as "saturation". When used as an amplifier, a transistor's output level is directly related to the input level, but if the input level is high enough the output reaches a maximum and goes no higher, regardless of the input level. The effect is to "cut off" the peaks of sound waves leaving a flat line instead of a rising curve. This introduces extra harmonics into the sound, producing the distortion or fuzz. The circuit of the basic Fuzz Face uses two transistors that both amplify the signal in sequence. The first transistor is biased close to the edge of saturation, so the amplified waveform is asymmetrical. The closer this is biased to saturation, the more "gargle" and fuzz effect you will get.In extreme cases the smooth input wave is converted into a square wave which can sound harsh. This tends to occur using transistors with very high gain (output current divided by input current) where the first transistor's output is so high that the second one saturates quickly. Germanium transistors have low gain compared to most silicon transistors.Early units used NKT275 germanium transistors. Later on BC183L, BC183KA, BC130C, BC108C and BC209C silicon transistors were used. The Crest reissues used BC109C transistors[1][8]Modern Fuzz Face clones and modifications to the circuit use a variety of transistors, and given the subjectivity of guitar tone, there is no clearly preferred transistor. http://www.tutorgig.com/ed/Fuzz_Face Modifications The Fuzz Face is also notable among modern effects pedals for its lack of an input for a 9 volt power adapter; some have modified their Fuzz Face to accept adapters, or use adaptors that connect to the leads for the 9v battery. The pictured box has another modification: a power switch. Most guitar effects pedals have the input socket wired so that the battery is connected when a plug is inserted. The plug must be removed to avoid draining the battery, especially in early models with "leaky" transistors. The power switch allows the box to be left connected, an advantage where the musician might have several effects connected together. Many copies and reissues have been introduced and had little success due to different materials used in their electronic components. Jim Dunlop Manufacturing currently makes the pedal, but schematics and DIY plans to build your own Fuzz Face clone are abundant on the Internet; its simplicity lends itself to experimentation with different components to alter the sound. http://www.reference.com/browse/fuzz+face Users of the Fuzz Face The Fuzz Face's continuing popularity and status as a classic may be explained by its many famous users. Among them are Jimi Hendrix,[9] David Gilmour,[10] Pete Townshend[11] and Eric Johnson.[12] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzz_Face Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face UK company Arbiter Electronics released in 1966 what would be one of the most beloved guitar effects of all time, the Fuzz Face. The simplicity of the circuit has caused much debate and lore, but two transistors, three capacitors and a couple of resistors still sounds like magic. The first version produced from 1966-’68 had NKT 275 germanium transistors and in 1969 Dallas switched to the bit more relying silicon transistors. - The smiling Fuzz Face. David started out with a basic set up in 1968: Vox wah wah, Binson Echorec and a Fuzz Face. Between 1968 and 1970 he used germanium NKT 275 models. The warm overdrive tone can be heard on songs like Corporal Clegg, Let There Be More Light and Nile Song among others. Then in early 1971 he went over to silicon transistor units (BC108), which had lot more gain and a brighter tone. Compared to a germanium model the silicon tone is more difficult to control only by using the guitar volume so David also incorporated a DeArmond volume pedal into his setup. The silicon Fuzz Face can be heard on songs like When You’re In, Time and Money among others. David’s Fuzz Face settings: fuzz 100% and volume 70-100% - David would roll down the guitar volume to adjust the gain for a milder fuzz/overdrive on rhythm parts. Between 1971-1975 he also used a Colorsound Power Boost with the silicon Fuzz Face to add even more gain and sustain. The silicon transistor Fuzz Face is recognized by it’s bright, edgy fuzz with rich sustain, while the germanium transistor Fuzz Face is slightly muddier, warmer and closer to an overdrive. David used the Fuzz Face on the recording of his first album with Pink Floyd, – Saucerful of Secrets and it remained his main fuzz/distortion unit up until 1976 when he went over to the Big Muff and Pete Cornish P1. Still, the Fuzz Face was included in his boards until 1981 (then with BC109 silicon transistors). In the earliest days, David used the Fuzz Face both as a lead unit and as overdrive by adjusting the guitar volume for more/less gain. You can hear a milder Fuzz Face setting on songs like Cymbaline and Fat Old Sun, whereas Echoes, Money and Time has the distinct full set FF sound. David used many different looking Fuzz Face units, like the original grey/silver hammertone chassis and the classic red and a blue. In the early days, before he got his first pedal board in 1973, the Fuzz Face was simply lying on the floor hooked up with the other pedals. He also had a second unit hooked up to the slide guitar (lying under the guitar) in 1974-75. http://www.gilmourish.com/?page_id=73 The Fuzz Face was originally released in the mid 60's with players like Hendrix, Clapton and Jimmy Page instantly recognizing their value in creating an overwhelming rock/fuzz tone. The first Fuzz Faces used germanium transistors, which were capable of producing a wide range of tones, but they also came with their share of problems. The pedals were so inconsistent. In a batch of 10 Fuzz Faces you might find 2 that sounded great, and the rest were average at best. This is due to the lack of quality control in the manufacturing of the transistors. There are many stories of guitar store staff eagerly awaiting the next shipment of Fuzz Faces so they could go through them and find the few good ones for themselves. Also the sound of the pedal changes in different temperatures, again due to the instability of the germanium transistors. So in 69 they started using silicon transistors, which had much better consistency. They do sound different than the germanium Fuzz Faces with a touch more gain and a tighter bottom end, but it's a different flavour that indeed many prefer. The Fuzz Face is a completely different concept than overdrives or distortion pedals. As such many people don't know how to get the most out of them. A classic OD pedal such as an Ibanez Tube Screamer with its rugged op-amp design is always going to sound pretty good no matter what you plug it into, but not so with the FF. It is VERY sensitive to the guitar and amp you use. They can sound great into a wide range of amps including Marshalls, Fenders and Voxs but if the core tone isn't there, forget it. Make sure the Fuzz is the first pedal in your chain and use the volume control on your guitar to go from clean to insane. Final tip is to be aware that the Fuzz Face will expose any mistakes. There are many effects such as delay and reverb that let you get away with murder, but the Fuzz Face will expose any faff. It's this character that has many guitarists revisiting the Fuzz Face after they've reached a certain standard of playing. http://www.thegigrig.com/acatalog/TheGigRig.com_Dallas_Arbiter_Fuzz_Face.html One of the problems with the fuzzface circuit is that the best sound comes from germanium transistors, which are difficult to find, often leaky and vary in character with temperature changes. No doubt that the sweetest sound comes from Ge devices but these limitations can be difficult to overcome, especially for a bginning builder. A simple solution is to use silicon transistors but there is unanimous belief that Si devices make for a much harsher sound. The Fuxx Face was my original attempt to produce a fuzzface clone with silicon transistors that had a solid but more flexible tone, and it has served well in that capacity. In the 6 or 7 years since I published that design I've come up with a variation that is closer to the original fuzz but has smooth distortion charactersistics. O problem with silicon transistors is that the gain is typically much too high for the best sound in a fuzzface. I measured a bag full of 2N3904 transistors and the minimum hfe was 250. Other silicon NPN transistors that I had on hand measured even higher. Gain of 85 to 120 is thought to produce the best sound in this circuit. A quick search of my sources turned up the MPS2369, which has a minimum hfe specification of 85. I bought a dozen from radioshack.com and they measured in the range of 110 to 120 for gain - perfect for fuzzface use. The MPS2369 is sometimes called a 2N2369 or PN2369. Merely substituting this transistor instead of the usual 2N3904, 2N5088 or BC108 will make an big improvement in tone. There are numerous other silicon transistors with similar gain specification that will be suitable for this circuit. I decided to take the idea one step further for the YAFF, and changed the basic circuit slightly to add a couple of resistors, R7 and R8. The 100 ohm R7 resistor induces some local feedback into Q1 which reduces the gain. R8 has the same effect of Q2. By using a small amount of degenerative feedback, the gain is lowered and the response of the circuit is more useful for milder distortion effects. Note that the value of R3 has been changed from the original fuzzface to set the bias at the collector of Q2 at 4.5v. It may be necessary to tweak the value of this resistor slightly to get the bias perfect, though any voltage on the collector from 4v to 5v will be acceptable. On the first prototype, R3 was reduced to 5.9k to get exactly 4.5 of the Q2 collector for testing purposes. What does it sound like? I had a shootout with an original 1972 Fuzzface that contains BC108 transistors and the YAFF clearly was the better sounding effect. Its only drawback was that gain and fuzz was not as extreme at the max setting of the Fuzz pot. The YAFF was smoother with a tone more like a Ge version and with a good range of settings available. Build "Yet Another Fuzz Face" and give a whole new sound to your clone tone. http://www.muzique.com/lab/yaff.htm 2N3904 The 2N3904 is a small, common NPN BJT transistor used for general purpose low-power amplifying or switching applications. It is designed for low current and power, medium voltage, and can operate at moderately high speeds.It is a 200 milliamp, 40 volt, 625 milliwatt transistor capable of amplifying up to 100 MHz, with a beta or current gain of 100 on average. It is used in a variety of analog amplification and switching applications.It is available in a variety of small through-hole and surface mount packages including TO-92, SOT-23, and SOT-223, with package-dependent thermal ratings from 625 milliwatts to 1 watt.A 2N3906 is a complementary (PNP) transistor for the 2N3904. The 2N2222 is an NPN transistor that can safely switch three times as much current as the 2N3904 but has otherwise similar characteristics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2N3904 Over the last ten to fifteen years there has been an increased interest in older effect pedals, mainly from the sixties and seventies. As a result a host of reissues of the most popular models are produced today; MXR, Electro Harmonix, Ibanez etc. These reissues often cost less than the original units and have the advantage of being readily available in almost every music store around the globe. There is however reason to think twice before buying one of those reissues, a lot of times there is a huge difference in sound and/or construction when compared to an original unit – despite the fact that the manufacturer claims the opposite! So use your eyes and ears and, if at all possible, compare the reissue with an original before spending your hard-earned cash – otherwise chances are you may be disappointed. My intention with this article is to give you the history, an overview of what’s out there and how you can distinguish the different models apart. First Sight. The Fuzz Face, produced by Arbiter Electronics in London, first appeared on the market in the autumn 1966. The goal was to design a fuzzbox with a different look, and 30 years later one can safely say that they succeeded with their intention. Ivor Arbiter, still active in the music business today, says that he got the idea for the round shape when he one day saw a microphone-stand with a cast-iron base. It can’t have been that hard to name their new baby. The control layout and the cutout "smile" in the rubbermat make it look just like a face! The Fuzz Face quickly became popular. A certain London newcomer by the name of Jimi Hendrix soon discovered its tonal qualitys. One must in all honesty say that there wasn’t that many different fuzz pedals to choose from in those days, but fact remains; when musical history was made, this gadget was right there at the epicenter. Even today there are many guitar players that swear by their Fuzz Face and the sound it produce; Eric Johnson, David Gilmour, and the late Stevie Ray Vaughan just to name a few. Among well-known Swedish players Claes Yngström and Staffan Astner comes to mind. Swedish guitar-legend Kenny Håkansson could during one period be seen with two (!!) Fuzz Faces hooked up in series. True Bypass. All attempts trying to find the person responsible for the actual Fuzz Face circuit has so far failed. With it’s two transistors, four resistors, three capacitors, switch and two potentiometers, the circuit is nothing but primitive by today standards, but I still feel that the circuit designer should be awarded in some way for his or hers contribution to musical history!! The idea to use a DPDT-switch as standard part in the circuit, something that only can be found on the most exclusive, handmade pedals today, is worth eternal respect. DPDT means "double pole/ double throw" and enables "true bypass" – your signal isn’t affected by the pedal when in "off" position and there isn’t any treble loss etc. Today mass-produced pedals never have DPDT-switches; it would be too expensive for the manufacturer! Despite its simple circuit this pedal has a remarkably wide array of sounds at its disposal. Depending on your playing technique and the type of gear you combine it with, you should be able to get sounds that range from true psychedelic fuzz to fat, compressed overdrive. Around –74, -75, original production of the Fuzz Face stopped. During its lifetime, the pedal went through some minor cosmetic changes but major sonic changes. Colors, Smiles and more. The earliest models were covered in red, light- or dark gray hammerite paint with the Fuzz Face logo painted in white or black. In the cutout "smile" it said ARBITER • ENGLAND. As the Arbiter Company fused with Dallas Musical Instruments around –68, the text was changed to DALLAS - ARBITER • ENGLAND. Both models have pots with date codes imprinted on them. Look carefully and you should be able to see it on the housing, just above the lugs – if the pots are original that is! There are two types of codes and they may look like these two examples; 10 – 6 or 8 – 68. In the first case the pot is made in October –66 and in the other it was made in august –68. The pedal should have been manufactured within the following months from the given date. The painted logo was later replaced during the Dallas Musical Instruments production period with a thin decal that, qualitywise, resembles the fake tattoos that once could be found in certain corn-flakes boxes. These decals are so delicate that original units from this period often have a pretty worn logo. These variations are also true for the IN, OUT, FUZZ and VOLUME markings. Some time, in the beginning of the seventies, the "smile"-text was changed for the third time. This time it said DALLAS MUSIC INDUSTRIES LTD. and some people claim that production was now moved to USA. All Fuzz Faces I have seen or played from this era, all had English parts in them. Some even had a "Made In England" sticker glued to the bottom-plate – so what’s one to believe? Anyway, the "smile"-text is a pretty accurate way of dating a Fuzz Face. The bottom-plate was chromed and shiny during the first production years and a battery-clip was attached to it. Later on the bottom-plate got thicker, its surface dull and the clip was moved to the inside of the pedal. The dull bottomplate in combination with a rather worn logo sometimes leads people to believe that the Dallas Music Industries Ltd. models are the earliest type of Fuzz Face when they’re not. Dynamics To Beat It is impossible to write anything about the Fuzz Face without touching the subject of transistors. Have you ever heard NKT 275 or AC 128 mentioned before? These types are the original PNP germanium transistors found in the first series Fuzz Face. NKT 275 was made by Newmarket Electronics in England and most people regard this "grey can" regarded as the "magical" transistor tonewise. This is what Jimi Hendrix had in some of his early pedals. Today the NKT 275 is long gone, original production ceased years ago and only with unreal amounts of luck will you find original samples. There was also a third type of germanium transistor called SF 363 E. This was more unusual but had roughly the same sound characteristics as the other two. The great thing about germanium type transistors, when matched properly, is their tube-like responsiveness and fat even harmonics. Proper matching and biasing was however something that weren’t performed routinely during production in those days, and as a result pedals differ in sound dramatically, even from the same production period – you had to pick and chose which one you liked best! If you use a germanium equipped Fuzz Face and lower your guitars volume from 10 to 7 your sound cleans up in a dynamic way much resembling an old, slightly overdriven Fender amp, and with no loss of treble. The late Stevie Ray Vaughan once said in a 1989 interview that playing with the Fuzz Face on and your guitar volume lowered gave a cleaner sound than turning the Fuzz Face off and raising the guitars volume. Try for yourself and hear what he meant! Unfortunately, germanium transistors also have their drawbacks. The worst is their temperature sensitivity and relatively short lifespan. If the pedal gets to warm or cold, the sound may suffer and, at worst, the transistors might become damaged. So be careful! Some golden-eared players can actually hear a sound difference between outdoor shows in the sun and indoor shows. In an attempt to better the pedal, the germanium’s were replaced in about 1969 by the new and also more stable NPN silicon transistors. Tonewise, this would be the start of a whole new era in life of the Fuzz Face. More Gain & Radiosignals The first NPN silicon transistors were the BC 108 C and, a bit later, the BC 183 L. Then came the BC 109, BC 109 C and BC 209 C in that order with the BC 209 C being the final type before the original production of the Fuzz Face ceased in 1974/75. Photo Robert Lundberg. Inside 70´s Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face with BC 209 C transistors. Silicon transistors were silver colored at first and only half the size of it’s germanium relatives, but pretty soon all silicon got the black plastic look they still have today. These transistors have huge amounts of gain, especially compared to a germanium. Increased treble + decreased bass and lower midrange also makes it work well with all types of pickup-positions, even on a Strat. Germanium on the other hand, is best suited for lead-pickups. However, silicon won’t give you the same warmth as it’s predecessor but will keep their original sound year after year – something which isn’t always the case with germanium. It can actually be very hard to find an original unit from the Arbiter-period that still sounds great today – transistor deterioration being the most common source to this. Eric Johnson mentioned in an interview that he had to go through 30 to find a couple that he liked! But obviously it was worth it! The greatest drawback with silicon is their ability to pick up radio frequencies and the general noisiness – especially if you use a lot of fuzz and single coil (strat-type) microphones. If you’re the kind of player who wants a totally hiss-free rig, you should probably stay away from this type of Fuzz Face! To further study the sound differences between silicon/germanium; listen to some of Jimi Hendrix’s live recordings from –67 and compare them to the sound heard on "Band Of Gypsys" which originally came out in 1970. He uses a silicon-equipped unit on that CD/LP. Like I said, it’s not easy to find these units today. Price ranges from 100 dollars up to about 500 dollars– depending on type, condition and originality. The first series with NKT 275 is without a doubt the most coveted of all. But the early silicon versions with BC 108 C or BC 183 L are also "hot". At guitar-shows in Sweden I’ve only seen two(!) Fuzz Faces for sale so far and these were sold almost immediately – both had silicon transistors inside. Reissues Since the original production of the Fuzz Face ceased 25 years ago, a host of reissues has seen the light of day. Some are very good but most of them fail to replicate the sound of its ancestors. Manufacturers often claims that their reissue is an exact remake of the original unit but the truth is that, so far, NO EXACT remake of the Fuzz Face has yet surfaced. Some come amazingly close, especially sound-wise, and instead of criticizing the ones that don’t, I’ve chosen to highlight the ones that do come close – or even dead on. Crest Audio, type 1: The first reissue to come out during the second half of the seventies was made by Crest Audio in New Jersey, USA. Their model was physically higher than the originals and used the BC 109 C silicon-transistor. The housing was painted thin in a light-gray color that failed to resemble the original hammerite paint. The "smile"-cut out said DALLAS – MUSIC or DALLAS – ARBITER. They sound roughly like a seventies original but with midrange a bit too harsh compared to an original. Crest Audio, type 2: Towards the end of the eighties Dave Fox at Crest Audio made a new try. This time with full-page ads in Guitar Player Magazine. The production-run was painted in an ordinary red or gray color, no hammerite paint and in the "smile"-cut out it said DALLAS - ARBITER • ENGLAND with text that was printed on a plastic sticker rather than painted on the housing, exactly like today’s Dunlop reissues. Once again the BC 109 C was used with same result as last time. Jim Dunlop: Dunlop took over production 1993 and started to use PNP germanium transistors almost straight away since their first units that used silicon sounded bad. Since then they have been using different brands of germanium transistors which have been relabeled NKT 275. You could argue about the moral/ethical aspect of re-labeling but since a few years back, Dunlop’s units sounds surprisingly close to the originals – you just have to pick and choose the best from a bunch. Expect limited dynamics and low gain compared to a prime original. Others (edited): The "boutique" pedal market has bloomed and there are so many great versions of the Fuzz Face theme it's impossible to mention all. There are great fuzz pedals from Austone, Barber, BJF, Black Cat, Diaz, Foxrox, Jacque's, Lovetone, McFuzz, Menatone, MJM, Prescription Electronics, Zvex .... just to mention few. Some people may think; what about Roger Mayer? Jimi’s own pedalman, what about his pedals? Well, Roger Mayer makes fantastic pedals for sure, but none even attempts to be a reissue of an original Fuzz Face. Mayers "Classic Fuzz" and "Axis Fuzz" are pedals containing copies of the heavily modified Fuzz Face circuits he made for Jimi Hendrix. This is why his pedals have been kept out of this comparison. Tone-recipes Just like I mentioned above, it is possible to get a wide range of sounds out of a Fuzz Face. The pedal is very sensitive to what type of playing technique you use and type of equipment it’s combined with. If possible, try experimenting with many different types of guitars and amps and you’ll see. Even the type of battery used makes a difference! Be sure to use carbon-zinc batteries for the most musical tone. If you’re going to use the Fuzz Face in series with a lot of other pedals you must be prepared to put some effort into finding the right place in the signal-path. Placement greatly varies the tone! Are you one of many players who likes the sound of wah-wah before fuzz/distortion? Most players do. Unfortunately your wah-sound will suffer if the pedal is put before a germanium equipped Fuzz Face. You will loose the treble - bass sweep and only get a strange hollow, shrieking sound. This is due to impedance differences between the two pedals and totally normal – nothing is broken or wrong. You can do like Jimi did at first and use the noise in a musical way or you can let a qualified repairman modify the circuit to "normalize" the sound, it’s not hard to do. A Fuzz Face sounds IMO absolutely best when put in front of an overdriven tube-amplifier. Preferably an old Marshall "plexi" 50 W or 100 W from the sixties. This will take away much of the fuzz characteristics and you’ll get a fat, pure overdrive-sound instead which you can control with your guitars volume. Turn down your amp and the fuzz characteristics will return. A Fender Twin Reverb with volume set at 3 combined with a Fuzz Face is like razorblades – psychedelic as it gets. http://www.custom-sounds.com/epages/Gagar.sf/fi_FI/?ObjectPath=/Shops/CustomSounds/Categories/articles/fuzz The BYOC E.S.V. Fuzz comes with a hand-selected set of the extremely rare NOS Philips AC127/01. Like the E.S.V. 2-Knob Bender kit, the E.S.V. Fuzz was inspired by our recent acquisition of a large lot of pristine AC127/01. These are, in our opinion, the holy grail of negative ground vintage fuzz tone. Very thick, very wooly and very dark sounding. But with focus, clarity, sustain, and the ability to clean up into a nice grindy overdrive just like a vintage fuzz face should. And since these are NPN transistors, as opposed to the PNP NKT275 or AC128 that work best with a positive ground, the AC127/01 works best with negative ground. So they get along with all your other pedals and can run off a normal power supply, but still produce the vintage fuzz tone you expect. The high price of boutique versions, the inadequate reissues, the pantheons of rock legends who've used it, and the extremely low level of build difficulty has made the fuzz face one of the most popular pedals among DIYers. You can't be serious about copping vintage tones without a good fuzz face...and this is one of the best. http://www.buildyourownclone.com/fuzz.html A Peek at the Circuit Let's look at the circuit. This is simple almost beyond belief for distortion devices. Two transistors, four resistors, three capacitors, and two controls make all that tone. The first transistor is set up with the simplest of arrangements - input through a DC blocking capacitor directly to the base, emitter grounded, and a single collector resistor; the driven load is a second transistor base, directly coupled. For DC purposes, the second transistor acts as an emitter follower. The voltage at it's emitter must follow the first transistor's collector, although it is lower by the amount of the base emitter drop of the second transistor. To the first transistor, that means that the 100K resistor from the emitter of the second transistor to the first transistor's base is effectively a feedback resistor, passing a current proportional to the first transistor's collector voltage to the first transistor's base. This arrangement is called the "voltage feedback biasing" circuit, and some of the Fuzz Face's unique properties stem from this. The Voltage Feedback (VF) circuit has the properties that it offers the potential for the highest possible gain from any given transistor - good for a distortion device. It also has a very low input impedance, which means that it heavily loads anything trying to drive it. This will be an important point later. Finally, it can't really hard saturate like many other transistor hookups. When driven with a large signal on the base, the collector voltage moves toward the emitter. This lowers the bias voltage through the 100K biasing resistor, and steals some of the input signal The voltage swing in the other direction, when the input is trying to turn the first transistor off, is not as constrained as the swing towards saturation. Fuzz Faces naturally tend to bias with only about half a volt on the collector of the first transistor, so there is a lot of room upwards. The input stage will first hit mushy saturation on one polarity of signal and then if driven hard enough, hit cutoff on the other polarity. The second transistor serves a couple of purposes. The base is directly coupled to the collector of the first transistor; the bias current then is largely set by the value of the emitter resistor - in this case a 1K pot. The pot forces the static current through the device to be equal to the first collector voltage minus the base emitter voltage of the second transistor, divided by the 1K resistance. That same current, essentially, flows through the collector resistance of the device, and the voltage across the two collector resistors is equal to the static current times the sum of the resistances. Because the first transistor biases up so close to ground, there is still plenty of room for the second transistor to have some collector-emitter voltage left over for a linear swing. The gain of the second stage is approximately determined by the ratio of the AC load in the collector to the AC load on the emitter. The AC collector load is just the sum of the collector resistors, and the emitter load to AC is the portion of the 1K pot not "shorted" to ground through the 20uF capacitor. So the gain can vary from a low of about 8 to as high as the transistor's basic internal gain when the pot is maxxed out. There is a secondary effect in that the AC gain of the FIRST stage is also set by the AC feedback from that pot through the 100K resistor, so when the control is turned full down, the feedback reduces the first stage's gain most. As the control is turned up more, less AC is fed back to the input, so the effective gain goes up. The split collector load resistor of the second transistor acts like a volume pot permanently set to a low value. This is because the power supply is effectively at AC ground because of the low AC impedance of the battery. Incidentally, this is why the FF sounds different with different batteries and with the same battery as it gets run down - the impedance of the battery can change the effective value of the smaller resistor by an significant amount. The amount of signal tapped off at the junction of the two resistors is deliberately small, not much larger than the input signal to keep the (relatively!) huge amount of signal available from overdriving the input of the amp following it. The output volume control is an entirely ordinary volume pot. The output capacitor blocks the DC level from saturating any device following the Fuzz Face, as well as determining the lowest frequency that gets out. Making this cap bigger will let more low frequencies out. The value of the output level control has been the subject of some debate. Eric Johnson supposedly favors 100K over the stock 500K. This could have some effect, as the 100K acts as a load on the collector resistor. More importantly, it cuts more lows out by it's interaction with the output coupling cap, and is less subject to stray capacitive loading cutting highs than the 500K; a 100K should sound somewhat brighter. What sounds good in there? We've just hand waved the transistors as being there; there is a whole mythology that has grown up around those transistors. The earliest FF's were made with AC128's, a common Euro type at the time the FF was designed. It seems likely that the AC 128 was picked for it's cost and availability (in retrospect) rather than any super sound qualities. It's hard to remember for people who were not into electronics 30 years ago, but transistors were not all that good or reliable. The tech community went to silicon for transistors because germanium is prone to leaking (can't turn the thing off!) and heat damage (solder too long and it dies). Silicon is much better about both of these things, and modern processes turn out closely clustered gains and very high frequency responses routinely. The fact is that the AC128 is not a super high quality transistor, and wasn't at the time. It is a moderate gain (90 typical) device with only modest frequency response. It was HIGHLY variable in gain. I have measured several hundred AC128's for gain, and they vary from a gain of 16 to probably 180. I say probably because the measured gains actually turn in numbers up to 500 or so, which are clearly leaky devices, not high gain devices. The semiconductor industry was new back then, and had not developed the technologies that let us make cheap, reliable, identical-as-peas-in-a-pod devices like we have become accustomed to. The variation in gain is important because it is crucial to the tone of the FF. Reliable reports from people who actually bought and sold volumes of FF's in the "golden years" say that out of a case of fifty units, they all distorted all right, but only a few would sound really good, right out of the box. It was common for guitarists to make deals to presort a batch to get a good one. This practice continues today, with Eric Johnson's tech supporters tracking down and interviewing FF's to find the few "magic" ones. Fuzz Faces per se do not necessarily sound good without tweaking and transistor selection. We can understand this today. I've done a lot of circuit simulation on the FF, twiddling the values of the transistor gains, and looking at the clipping waveforms and resulting harmonic spectra. There is a definite sweet spot for musical sounding clipping at transistor gains of about 80-110. If you allow combinations of one high and one low gain device, the range widens out to 70 or so on the low end and perhaps 130 on the high end. Keeping in mind that preferences for distortion tone are definitely a matter of personal taste, the range of gains for unselected AC128's in this circuit would produce some really clunky-sounding devices. This seems to be borne out in practice. Mike Fuller, maker of the Fulltone "69" pedal, posted his preferences for Fuzz Face transistor gain to the usenet news groups, and they fall right in this range. He noted that he feels that he can affect the relative amount of symetrical versus asymetrical distortion by selecting for non-identical gains in the two positions. (Mike also prefers transistors with only certain colored epoxy sealant, which I can't see making any difference except coincidentally, but then, who knows?) The frequency response of the transistors matters, too. The AC128 originals were not particularly stellar; this also turns out to be a happy combination, as we now know that clipping with razor edges sounds -- well, like listening to razor blades. Most guitarists (there's that personal preference thing again) seem to want the rough edges smoothed off. At highest gain, any amplifier exhibits frequency response limited by the device characteristics. The AC128 has parasitic capacitances typical for then-current germanium devices, meaning that it was working hard to do the full audio range. This almost certainly has something to do with the softened edges of the sound. In simulation, I could play with the parasitic capacitances of the simulated devices, and found that adding high junction capacitances from collector to base made for softer distortion. The lesson here is that you can soften the sound of a FF even further by connecting a 10-100pF capacitor from the collector to base of the transistors. This dodge was used in later silicon versions of the FF. Picking transistors for FF Clones If you have a batch of germanium transistors, how do you tell which are going to sound good and which will not? To a first order, you can just gain select them in a DMM that has a transistor checking range. However, all modern DMM's assume that the transistor being testing has no leakage at all. They just put a metered amount of base current in and look for how much collector current comes out. With germanium's inherently higher leakage, this just makes a leaky device look like a higher gain device. This is one way to sift the leakage from true gain. You hook up a couple of resistors and a DMM to the device, and the resistors set up conditions you can control to see what is what. If you really want to do this, get a 2.2M resistor and a 2.4K ; better, get one each 2.2M and 2.49K metal film 1% resistors. This will set you back about US$0.30 if you get them from Mouser, and slightly more or less than that from other sources. If you're going to do much of this, get a transistor socket to, so you can easily test a large number of devices. If you are satisfied with an indication of gain but are willing to settle for lower accuracy, you can carbon film at 5%, but recognize that the accuracy will be less. If you can, get several 2.4K resistors and measure them. You may find one that's closer to 2.472 ohms, which would be ideal. I'm being picky about the ohms because if you get exactly 2.2M and 2472 ohms, and use a 9.0V battery, you'll find that the voltage across the resistor will be numerically equal to the indicated gain! That's why the somewhat odd resistor values, and the discussion on the values. It makes the final numbers on your DMM come out about right - multiply the voltage by 100, and that's the gain. To do the test, stick the transistor in the socket, and read the DC voltage across the 2.4K resistor. The resistor will convert any leakage current from the transistor into a voltage that you can then read on your meter. A 2472 ohm resistor is 2.472 volts per milliamp, so a milliamp of leakage will cause 2.472 volts to display. That is incredibly too much leakage, so any transistor that does that is not going to be useful for a FF. In fact, although it will differ a bit, any transistor that shows more than a few micro amps of leakage is suspect. Because of the resistor scaling, the indicated value on your meter is "false leakage gain" and will have to be subtracted from the total reading that you do next. To test the total gain, press the switch that connects the 2.2M resistor to the base. This causes a touch more than 4 microamps of base current to flow in the base. The transistor multiplies this by its internal gain, and the sum of the leakage (which doesn't change with base current) and the amplified base current. If the transistor has a gain of 100 and no leakage, the voltage across the 2.4K resistor is then (4uA)*(100)*(2472) = 0.9888V - which is almost exactly 1/ 100 of the actual gain. Pretty neat, huh? But we know that germanium really does have leakage - that's why were doing this little dance in the first place. So, let's say that the device leaks 100uA to start with. We stick the device into the socket, and read the voltage before we press the switch. It reads (100E-6)*(2472) = 247mV. So the leakage is making the meter believe that there's a "gain" of almost 25 with no current into the base at all. How much leakage is too much? 100uA is common, 200 happens pretty often. More than 300uA means the device is suspicious, and more than 500uA I would say is bad. Let's say the device really leaks 93uA, and has a gain of 110 - a prime specimen. What happens when we test? We chuck the thing in the socket, and read (93uA)*(2472) = .229V. Then we press the switch, and read 1.330V. To get the real gain, we subtract 0.229V from 1.330V and get 1.101V. The true gain is just 100 times the reading. . The exact base current is 4.046...uA, assuming that the transistor's base conducts that much with a forward voltage of 0.1V (reasonable with germanium at these currents) and that the battery is *exactly* 9.0000V, and that the resistors are 2.20000M, and... well, you get the picture. 0.5% accuracy is doggone fine for work with such blunt tools, and much better than you actually need to make a fine sounding FF. Besides - if you're clever, you'll flip the switch and watch the voltage while you put your finger on the transistor. Simple finger heat will make the gain rise rapidly. What's the real gain? All of them are - at the temperature and conditions of the moment. The right *real* gains are from 70 to about 130. Within that range, people report the best sounds. Some people prefer equal gains, others prefer having a lower gain of 70-100 for the first transistor and 90 to 130 for the second. Silicon versions of the FF??? Yes. The FF was built with several transistor types, including silicon. The first ones seem to have been all AC128's, a PNP germanium device, followed by runs with the Newmarket NKT275, which is very similar. I obtained a batch of NKT275's and they seem to be much more consistent than the AC128, but in other respects very similar. There were several versions with the BC108C and/or BC109/BC109C. These are NPN silicon devices, and the BC108C in particular is a HIGH gain device, typically 500. The reputation of the NPN silicon devices is spotty, although some owners (there's that preferences thing again...) do like them very much. At one point in the past, Dunlop made FF clones. The JH1 and JH2 were both attempts to combine the Fuzz Face circuit with the purchased rights to Jimi's name (bought from the JH estate, as noted on the bottom of the pedal). Both were made with high gain silicon transistors and sounded dreadful (IMHO). The JH2 used the MPSA18, with a typical gain of 900! To my ear, these seem to have a "sticky" or "constricted" quality about them. Later, Dunlop bought the FF trademarks and began manufacturing the FF as a reissue. Dunlop actually arranged for new manufactured "NKT275" germanium devices to be made for them, and is shipping these in its latest reissues. Reports are that these are OK sounding, much better than the ill-fated JH series. The JH1 and JH2 are a great value for the DIY'er. You get that neato round case for cheap because they sound horrible. You can then rebuild the real FF circuit onto the circuit board in less than an hour, and have your own great sounding FF. This all makes good sense - in any device that has so few parts, the qualities of the parts will show through. I've also done some experimentation with germanium devices other than the AC128 and NKT275. I found a number of germanium types, measured their gains, and then listened to them. The results are pretty consistent - get the right gain and frequency response and the numbers printed on the cases don't matter. I like the 2N527 from GE (very consistent!) and the 2N508, also GE. The 508 is a little hotter, for more of a metal tone. Reports of results on the ECG158 are mixed. Some people are very happy with it, some not. I suspect that this can be put down to the variablility of the devices. Measure what you get!! Mods and Magic OK, what about things other than the transistors? Roger Mayer is reputed to have tweaked Jimi's gear heavily, so maybe there's some tone to be wrung from the stones there. There is a set of changes collectively referred to as the "Hendrix" mods or the "Roger Mayer" mods. These are • Replace the 470 ohm output resistor with 1K • Replace the 8.2K resistor at the collector of the second transistor with 18K • Replace the 1K control in the emitter of the second transistor with 2K. This mod primarily seems to increase the output level and gain of the second transistor. Changing the input and output capacitors changes the bass response of the unit. To allow more bass response, you can double each of these capacitors. In the case of the output 0.1uF capacitor, raising it to 0.47uF may be useful. This will prevent the bass signal from being lost by the impedance of the coupling capacitor. Mike Fuller posted some recommendations on the Fuzz Face to the net. Among those are to add a 1K linear pot in series with the 470 ohm resistor in the collector circuit of the second transistor, still taking the output from the top end of the 8.2 K resistor. The pot is set up so it is acting as a variable resistor, wiper shorted to one end lug. Another is to connect a 50K pot, again as a series resistor, in series with the input of the circuit, before the 2.2uF input capacitor. If that last one seems a little odd, think back to what I said about the low input impedance. With a low input impedance, the input loads a guitar significantly; the base can only move a few tens of millivolts before cutting off or saturating the first transistor. If you put a resistor in series with the guitar pickup, it raises the apparent source impedance of the pickup, making it look more like a current source (albeit a tiny one) and less like a voltage source. A signal from a current source lets the input of the effect seek it's own voltage level, and merely supplies a varying current. This can be much more linear than a voltage source drive. As a result, the variable resistor allow you to radically clean up the distortion that the FF produces, producing subtle shades of softer distortion. In effect, the output mod is a "more" control, and the input mod is a "less" control. As you would expect, the two added controls can interact to produce many shades of distortion. One person reverse engineered the Fulltone "69" pedal and has posted the 69 pedal schematic to his web page. In this schematic, you can see Fuller's application of his earlier suggestions. The "69" pedal does enjoy a good tone reputation. If you like softer distortion, you might also like to add some high end taming capacitors. Adding 10 to 100pF from collector to base on the second transistor or 100-680pF across the collector resistor of the first transistor will soften things up a bit. The Fuzz Face also attracted a number of clones even in the Golden Age. The Vox Tone Bender (not to be confused with the Colour Sound Tone Bender) was a copy with only minimal changes to the the component values, and adapted to NPN silicon transistors. There have been several versions of the Vox Tone Bender and the Vox Distortion Booster, all variants on the basic circuit. There is also a new Roger Mayer "Classic Fuzz" which employs germanium transistors and essentially the FF circuit, only a few component value changes. I suspect that there are many other boutique clones, considering the ease and simplicity of making the FF circuit. In fact, any of the circuits shown in this article (with the possible exception of the Fulltone "69" pedal because of the trimmer pots) can be built on the toner transfer/ready to solder boards sold at GEO. http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/fuzzface/fftech.htm The History One of the first/second generation fuzz devices, the Fuzz Face has been around since 1966 and in production in some form or another since then with little change to the original design. The first versions came equipped with germanium transistors up until around 1969 when more reliable silicon transistors were adopted. By far the most noted exponent of the Fuzz Face was Jimi Hendrix, but it has appeared on a great many recordings over the years - if I was to recommend a couple I'd say listen to the late Ron Asheton on the first self-titled Stooges album, or Blue Cheer's Vincebus Eruptum to get an idea of what the FF is all about. The Clone The Fuzz Face has become a staple of the "boutique boom" with many pedal builders offering their own take on this classic; unfortunately most come with sizable "boutique" price tags. With the consensus that the current official reissue is not so good, what is offered here is a great sounding pedal built using top quality components that dispenses with the boutique frills (elaborate paint job/graphics, silly name) and delivers what matters: • Alpha pots and footswitch • heavy duty Neutrik input and output jacks • matched BC108 silicon transistors • reverse audio log fuzz control as found on the posher builds - this gives a much finer level of control than the stock linear pot • true bypass switching that won't sap your tone when the pedal is off Like the originals there's no tacky LEDs and no 9V adaptor - these sound their best with (and come supplied with) a good old Zinc Chloride battery. There are just two controls - volume and fuzz. The clone does have an internal trimmer that allows for precise biassing of the transistors giving you some more tonal options (see below). The clone also adds components to filter out RF interference and stop annoying oscillation squeals which plague some originals. The transistors are socketed - if you're so inclined you can easily swap in your own choice. The Sound Full on fuzz. At the risk of dropping in another too-obvious Hendrix reference, compare his Experience stuff (germanium FF) with the later Band of Gypsies (silicon FF). The silicon is generally considered as harder and grittier. Unlike many other clones, this stays close to the original circuit and sacrifices none of the characteristic low end wallop. The output has been beefed up (by borrowing a little tweak from the Vox Tone Bender Mk.1.5 from whence the FF is derived), and a reverse audio taper pot gives much improved control of the fuzz level. Transistor bias voltage is an important factor determining how the FF sounds - set "correctly" at 4.5-5.5V gives a good clear singing sustain and nice openness, turning the bias voltage down gets you an excellent full blown ripped speaker sound with some pleasingly nasty gating around the edges (which may well be "correct" for your needs). I find that best results are obtained by keeping the fuzz knob all the way up and using the guitar knob to control the amount of distortion (rolling back the guitar volume cleans things up a bit giving thinner grittier tones). Add some overdrive to your amp via a pedal or by turing up the gain to get some true full fat blown out fuzz tones. You can hear why this thing's been around forever. The samples below were recorded using a '75 Music Master and a Line 6 Backtrack using the built-in mic. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fuzz-Face-Clone-BC108-Silicon-CLIPS-/250686439652?pt=UK_Guitar_Accessories The ultimate solution is of course to use a guitar with a low output (like a strat) into the fuzz face and plug the fuzz face into the amp and do all of this in a room that is cold from a good air conditioner. If you want to put other effects in the chain then be sure that they are all true bypass. That is the ultimate solution. The following tips are just ways that I know of for getting as close as to this as I can while still using multiple types of guitars and other effects in the chain. Input Volume - One problem that you find with the original two knob circuit is that if the input signal is too hot you lose much of the control that the guitar volume gives you and the character of the fuzz becomes more harsh and brittle sounding. The solution is the input gain pot that you find on most boutique clones. Some guys put a trim pot on the inside of the box and others leave the control on the outside. I personally prefer having a control that I can adjust with out opening the box up even if I keep it turned all the way up almost all of the time. I play my same old strat at nearly every gig (don't tell the parker fly) so I don't turn down the input gain on my FF clones very often. Heat Sensitivity - A characteristic of most Germanium transistors is that they are sensitive to temperature changes. The idea is that for the genuine fuzz face tone you want to have roughly -4.5V at the collector of the second transistor, but as temperature goes up or down this fluctuates. On a two knob fuzz face the only way to change the bias is to physically exchange the resistor that connects to the collector of Q2 to another value which brings the bias point back to -4.5 or so, which isn't a real solution because you never know how hot or cold the next stage you play on will be. The common work around is to add a bias control to the circuit. You see this feature on many boutique fuzz face clones in some form or fashion. One way is to use a knob that controls how much voltage the entire circuit receives by adding resistance to the -9v source which can bring the voltage at Q2's collector back near -4.5 in most situations. Another approach can be found in the Analog Man sunface where the sun dial controls how much voltage the collector of the second transistor receives. Both ways work to some extent, and I'm sure there are other ways. I like the second approach because I feel like it has less effect on the overall tone of the circuit since it only adds resistance before Q2's collector which is how the bias is set in the first place. Some transistors in some situations just plain wont be biased to the -4.5V area... usually they start dropping down below -4 volts and you end up with a sputtery fuzz face for the rest of the night unless your clone has an internal trimmer to set the resistance at the collector of Q2.Then you can open it up and adjust the trimmer while using a multimeter to check the voltage... You may have seen me at the back of the bar with my fuzz faces open... this is what I'm doing. I suppose another option would be to stick the FF in a refrigerator for a little while. I recently looked at a design that used an opamp to regulate the voltage to Q2. I have not tried this yet but it may be the end all be all fix. Of course I'll put up a page about it when I know more. Signal Buffers Before The Fuzz - With a buffer before the fuzz face you will most likely end up with an input impedance that is too high and also the fuzz face will no longer be able to interact with the guitar pickups. If the FF doesn't load the pickups it loses it's response to your picking and volume control which causes an unnaturally harsh tone. The easiest work around for this one is to have real true bypass switching on everything. I built a bypass loop for my Boss TU-2 because of this. Another way the problem with a buffer in your chain before the fuzz face can be solved is to use a box that has a passive guitar circuit with a transformer instead of a pickup... I've seen it called a pickup simulator and also an anti-buffer. This work around is great when you're just going for that searing lead tone, but when it comes to cleaning up the sound with the volume knob it's a no go because you have to adjust the volume knob on the pickup simulator instead of your guitar. I'm toying with the idea of building one of these in a volume pedal so that you could get that nice clean up with a foot rocker, but I haven't tried it yet. With my wireless system the pickup simulator is definitely the only thing I've tried that made my fuzz face sound anything like it's supposed to. Signal Buffers After The Fuzz - With most buffered effects and buffered bypass systems (like boss pedals) after the fuzz face you end up with an impedance mismatch or the buffer takes away the high end rolloff that gives the fuzz face it's sound so it end's up too bright and heavy in the high frequencies. As far as I know the only way around this is to either use all true bypass effects or to match the buffer's input impedance to the FF's output. http://chrisbrownguitar.com/gear-pages/56-fuzz-face-fixes-and-mods.html history When I began building effects, I dismissed the Fuzz Face as a circuit for Hendrix-worshippers. I had also seen much written about the complexities of proper biasing and transistor selection, which made the Fuzz Face a bit more more daunting for me, still a relative novice. Eventually, I decided to try building a Fuzz Face. Hoping to understand the myth and mystery surrounding it, I built two identical versions: Germanium and Silicon, to hear the sonic differences on an elemental level. The gains of the transistors were all chosen based on the values presented in RG Keen's "Technology of the Fuzz Face" article at GEOfex. Both sounded good, but I wasn't completely satisfied. I found that the Volume had to be turned up quite a bit to achieve unity with the bypassed signal. Also, in a subsequent build of a Silicon Fuzz Face, I tried high-gain 2N5088 transistors rather than searching for the low gain 2N2222 I had used earlier. When the Fuzz control was a maximum, quite a bit of hiss and oscillation was introduced. Additionally, a common complaint of Silicon Fuzz Face builders is the circuit is often susceptible to radio frequencies (RF). improvements I've breadboarded many different variations of the Fuzz Face design, hoping to find the version that met my criteria: • uses common transistors • no oscillation • no RF noise • higher output volume However, I could not find one circuit that satisfied all my demands. I did find elements of these circuits that I thought, if combined, would result in a better Silicon Fuzz Face. Tim Escobedo's Moreface circuits take the output directly from the collector of Q2, resulting in unity volume occuring at about 10:00 rather than 2:00 (with minimum at 7:00 and maximum at 5:00). To block RF and other noise, Gus Smalley suggests a 10k resistor in series with the input and incorporating a power supply bypass cap. A schematic of the Lovetone Big Cheese shows a 47pF cap between the collectors of Q1 and Q2, which supresses oscillation produced by high-gain transistors when Fuzz is at maximum. mods Possible modifications include adding the Gagan Pre-Gain control and/or adjusting the input/output cap values. It may be necessary, depending on your situation, to increase the 100pF capacitor. I found 47pF too low, but it worked for Gary Burchett. I experimented with values as high as 470pF. However, larger values will begin to affect the treble frequencies at output. tips While almost any transistors worked well in my prototype of the Sili-Face, I prefer 2N5088 transistors that measure around 400 hFE. A multimeter is helpful for finding the bias voltage of the Q2 collector, but some builders prefer to simply adjust the trimpot to the most ear-pleasing point. Sockets for the transistors, input/output capcacitors, and 100pF cap are recommended. http://www.runoffgroove.com/sili-face.html

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