Fuzz Face Germanium problem.

Started by served, June 05, 2010, 09:20:46 AM

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served

Hi.

I built a Fuzz Face. Nothing special, exept I wanted it to be Negtavie ground instead of positive.
It works but there are some issues.
1) If I turn Guitar Volume down, it will start to hiss.
2) It POPs like hell. Its because of the Voltage reading in output.

Now I am out of ideas what how to continue or what to do.

Why negativeground Germanium Fuzz?
I dont like the idea of positiveground and I would like to build it the way I like it, but I cant fight the physics so I have to consult how to.

I bassicali flipped the input cap, tied ground to one point and fed it with + and - is shield. But its not thet easy, something has to made different, because it just doesnt work that way.

Could you give me any suggestions?

I had an idea using Diodes... some how, but not shure.

Joe Hart

Are your transistors PNP or NPN? Most germanium transistors were made to work with positive ground.
-Joe Hart

petemoore

It POPs like hell. Its because of the Voltage reading in output.
  Put a DC blocking output cap there.
  Try a MAX1044 voltage converter chip for an inverted voltage circuit.
Convention creates following, following creates convention.

served

#3
It uses AC182 Germanium transistors. I know it is ment to work with positiveground, but its in one enclosure with some other OD and Distortion effects, so I cant just make it positive ground that simple.

Peter by output cap you mean the cap which is after the second Transistor and before the volume control. It has been Added originaly.

I actually used this vero layout.



Now Volume pot is grounded to +9 so is the fuzz pot.
If I turn down guitars volume it starts to feed the fuzz with +V, cap should block it? Shouldnt it? Then there is a question why does it Hiss?

petemoore

  I don't see shown:
  Tone pot value
  Ground for volume, input sleeve and output sleeve.
  layouts are confusing, compare to PNP FF schematic for connection guide at the gain and AC bypass capacitor [also usually grounded].
  Also, the 'tone' pot is usually called 'gain', and the ground for that is also not shown.
Convention creates following, following creates convention.

PRR

Use your DVM to check the polarity actually applied across each elecrolytic cap, and orient the cap accordingly.
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served

Hi.

So I drew a schematic by hand. I hope its Ok and understandable. All the components values are the same as shown above.
I hope I have done something very wrong here.
I will say that case is shielded with - and so is the plug. So its like Signal, and shielding is - ,not + as it should be.