Fuzz Face Gating

[Guitar Dude]

Hey,
I just made my 5th Fuzz Face and I'm having a problem that I think is quite common.

I'm making the NPN Negative Ground version from GGG and I'm using 2 BC548's with an Hfe of about 550 and the higher one is in Q2...is that too much? I thought Q1 had to be around 80 and Q2 had to be about 110, I've always (naively) put BC548's in 'cause I've got a tonne of them and they sound fine, I thought maybe PNP Germaniums may have smaller Hfe's...

Anyway, I soldered it all up using the layout from GGG and I put Millenium 2 switching in it and a DC jack. I've never used either of these in a pedal before, I think the DC jack was wired up fine, but wiring up the Millenium was like shooting in the dark...where EXACTLY do the Ground and Switch connections go to? As you can guess it didn't work at all so I took out the Millenium, then the DC jack and finally the DPDT switch and it still didn't work.

I measured the resitance of the 100k resistor and it had changed from 100k to 55k which is odd 'cause I've used it in a previous working Fuzz Face and I also measured it before and after soldering it into this circut. It's a metal film resistor, I don't know if they're prone to magically changing their resistances. So anyway, I put a 100k resistor in and wired the switch back in (Still no Millenium or DC jack) and it WORKED PERFECTLY...well...it was a little too fuzzy, probably due to those transistors, but I didn't care 'cause it worked!

So, my next step was to put it into my very cool looking metal box. I had it all sitting inside looking very tidy, I screwed the bottom on and I had everyone gather round my amp to show them that I could make stuff that actually worked. Maybe it was Murphey's law or something, but as soon as I played the first note it spluttered out and each succesive note faded to nothingness before my Fuzz Face finally died a slow and painful death.

So, finally, my question is: Why was it gating and why did it die despite working earlier when it wasn't boxed? I've since opened it back up and checked for shorts and stuff but it all looks fine...Whats going on!?!?!

Tim

[Oliver]

Hi,

i dont know, if its the same, but i build a RogerMayerClassicFuzz
exactly after the Specs from fuzzcentral.tripod.com, but it didnt
work... only sounding, when strings hidded harder and farting out then.
The Trannys where on sockets, so i tested, if i put the transistor
in wrong direction, but they where right..

So i played with resistor values at the collector from Q2.
Stock is 18K and the Resistor i soldered in had 18K (measured).
I took some Resistors and holded them to the Solderjoints while
playing the Fuzz.... a 10K in parallel sounded really good.
So i soldered it in parallel to the 18K.
Measuring the resistance after the Soldering got a value about 5.6K

I wondered if that can be right, but dont ask me more questions, because
that fuzz sounds fine and fat!

so try to play around with some Resistors... maybe it works

bye
Oliver