Fuzz Face not nasty enough..

[eddie83]

Hey ppl,

Thanks for all the help, i've got my fuzz face working on the breadboard... Will transfer it to stripboard and hopes everything works fine...

I did the hendrix mod:
470ohms to 1K,
8.2K to 18 K
1K pot to 2K pot

Still can't make the FF to sound nasty for my artificial harmonics to come out sweet, i've tried searching the forums but to no avail... Can anyone enlighten me? thanks a million!

Eddie

[petemoore]

FF's sound different on different amps.
 GEO technology of the FF, for FF builder reads'.
 ROG has FF info, some of it may be at Homewrecker.
 One's PNP POs Gnd. The Other's NPN Neg Gnd.
 I build them up with sockets and trimpots, then try various Q types and tune them. then I 'race' them for a while to find one that'll stay in it's box, I've done s'ome box swaps with FF's...testing variations of the circuit on the big and little tube amps with other effects. A FF used into an  Si amp may sound different than when used to drive tubes to distort.
 Starting with the 'large value R' with long leads maybe then put another R across it. say the 1k, then parallel a 1k to see what 500ohms sounds like, not that different compared to changes made elsewhere in the Cct.
 Tonebender is more fierce, has FF like qualities.  
 Working with the FF in more of a Rocket style, or three transistor Fuzz configuration, adding a boost stage or buffer to the input may yield the more intense distortion sound you're looking for.
 All Q swaps may require re-biasing Q2, and retuning...gain knob, incap, LP filter cap etc.

[Dragonfly]

 Working with the FF in more of a Rocket style, or three transistor Fuzz configuration, adding a boost stage or buffer to the input may yield the more intense distortion sound you're looking for.
 

related to what Pete said, ive had great luck strapping a lpb-1 circuit on the front end of silicon fuzz face circuits...i use a 100k trim pot between the lpb1 section and the ff input section, so i can tune how much "nastiness" i want...but a regular 100k pot with about a 10k resistor to ground should allow "external" manipulation of the boost section, without it "grounding to zero"....

[bwanasonic]

You might want to check out the Sili-Face II:

http://www.runoffgroove.com/sili-face2.html

As Pete mentioned, there is really no one-size-fits-all, since your guitar and amp figure into the equation. But I think the Sili-Face II should work really nicely for pinch-harmonic-happy players who aren't afraid of a guitar's volume knob. I also like putting another boost stage after the Fuzz Face.

Kerry M

[Dragonfly]

I also like putting another boost stage after the Fuzz Face.

Kerry M

in my experience, this works GREAT for giving you "more" of the fuzz...a bit thicker, more defined, etc.....

putting it before the fuzz tends to make the fuzz a bit "gnarlier" sounding...

either way works, though they tend to acheive slightly different results....

[RDV]

This one is nasty.

RDV

[eddie83]

hmmm, i guess i shld juz let the fuzz face be a fuzz face... i like the tonebender tone man, real nasty! i'll build one after my fuzz face has settle in its box. thx ppl!