Newbie Silicon FF questions

[Danhorse]

Hi Guys,

I am aiming to build my first fuzz face, after my fav pedal - a Dunlop JH-F1 got fried when we had a storm.

The thing is, it sounded great, cleaned up ultra bright, had a real brightness to it anyway, but the replacement i got was awful in comparison, warmer, wasnt that bright and was more 'buzzy' which i dont like. Tried another new one, same result. Gutted. lost 'my' tone.

Maybe they changed some values in the JH?

My question is, can the values be changed to make a silicon fuzzface brighter or warmer? and what are they?

Many thanks.

Dan

[jpiddy118]

This great article by RG Keen got me thru my first FF build... enjoy:

http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/fuzzface/fffram.htm

[seedlings]

Why not try to fix your good pedal?  Probably a simple component swap-out.

CHAD

[Danhorse]

Cheers for the link, i had read that, but i cant decode it enough (not got the knowledge) to discern what mods change a FF from warm to dark and 'sticky' to open sounding.

Chad, I stupidly sent it back to the store to get repaired, they said Dunlop would bin and replace it, which was fine by me at the time - not knowing how different the new ones sound! it was too late to get mine back by then  

[LucifersTrip]

hey, you're on a DIY forum...and a FF is only 9 parts...and there's tons of people here to help.

pick up a breadboard, throw down the parts and get it to sound exactly how you like it:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/700-Point-Solderless-PCB-Breadboard-SYB-120-board-/251011940210?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a717a3f72



since there's only a limited amount of parts, it's easy to experiment & swap out one part at a time to see the change for yourself.
that's exactly how I started... though, for this one, since you're looking for brightness, you're most likely only going to need to experiment with the 2 transistors, the 8.2K resistor and the in/out caps

good luck

[Danhorse]

hey, you're on a DIY forum...and a FF is only 9 parts...and there's tons of people here to help.

pick up a breadboard, throw down the parts and get it to sound exactly how you like it:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/700-Point-Solderless-PCB-Breadboard-SYB-120-board-/251011940210?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a717a3f72



since there's only a limited amount of parts, it's easy to experiment & swap out one part at a time to see the change for yourself.
that's exactly how I started... though, for this one, since you're looking for brightness, you're most likely only going to need to experiment with the 2 transistors, the 8.2K resistor and the in/out caps

good luck

Thanks! I appreciate the help, that gives me something to go on, i will beign to get my head around the electronic theory aspect and gets the parts together 

[LucifersTrip]

sounds cool...here's a good place to get started with all the basic components...yes, the parts on the silicon FF board can be bought for less than 25 cents

http://www.taydaelectronics.com/

here's a few easy recommendations for experimentation:

lower gain
http://www.taydaelectronics.com/t-transistors/2n-series/2n5550-npn-transistor-160v-600ma.html

mid gain
http://www.taydaelectronics.com/t-transistors/2n-series/2n3904-npn-general-propose-transistor.html

higher gain
http://www.taydaelectronics.com/t-transistors/2n-series/2n5088-npn-general-purpose-transistor.html

[nobodysweasel]

I just breadboarded the silicon FF and had a lot of fun switching out transistors.  It's surprising how much it can change the tone.  I ended up settling on 2n5088 for Q1 and 2n2222 for Q2, but there were several other pleasing combinations, and obviously your choice will be different depending on your taste.  Also, that article suggests that a 100K volume knob could give a brighter sound, so that might be worth a try.

[Danhorse]

Many thanks for the help guys.

One thing i find confusing, what makes of caps and resistors should i go for? the Dunlop FF has bigger blue and yellow ones, i take it they ' are 'mojo'?

[petey twofinger]

if the blue parts are resistors those are prolly metal film . they are 1% tolerance , so they are more accurate than the tan 5% tolerance "normal" style resistor .

some folks claim they can "hear" the diferences in types of capacitors , some do not . i tried this and found radial tanntalum caps did sound a BIT brighter in one circuit , but ..

resistors and caps wont change tone as much as transistors .

what did your pedal have in it , silicon ?

this , i am guessing would work , but its prolly bad mojo ;

http://tinyurl.com/6m88et3

[snarblinge]

someone somewhere linked to this recently, can't reccomend it enough to beginners, first one isn't a FF but close enough to get the idea. good luck, and welcome to pedal addiction, took me about 5 years to get past the FF, just kept on sourcing new and exciting transistors. have built tons.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/tonefiend/tonefiend-diy-club-projects-resources/

[LucifersTrip]

Many thanks for the help guys.

One thing i find confusing, what makes of caps and resistors should i go for?

pretty much any caps rated >9v (usually 16v+) and any resistors (1/4 and 1/2 watt+) that can fit on your board/in your box

[charmonder]

I hope this all isn't overwhelming, but you can really benefit from building your own fuzz face. It can make incredible sounds if you tweak around and listen with your guitar plugged into the breadboard.

[charmonder]

Good links 

http://home-wrecker.com/sili-face2.html
http://home-wrecker.com/sili-face.html