Muddy Fuzz Face

[Deep Blue]

Okay, I build a Fuzz Face using a PCB from JD Sleep, and his layout.  These are the resistor values I used.

R2: 33k

R3: 147k (I didn't have a 150k, so I ran a 100k and a 47k together)

R5: 440ohm  (I didn't have a 470, so I used 2 440s run together)

R5: 8.2k

It sounds very fuzzy and warm, but it's also extremely muddy.  I have virtually no high end at all.  I've got my EQ set to maximum mids and treble, and I'm playing through my bridge pickup, and it's still pretty muddy and has tons of low end.

It may just be that that is how this pedal sounds.  It's totally usable if I tweak it just right, but it's always muddy.

Any suggestions on values to swap?

[brett]

Hi.  I recently cleaned up the tone of my ff by reducing the output capacitor to 0.01uF.  Assuming you're using a 500k output pot, you can go as low as .001uF (cutoff frequency ~ 300Hz) if you don't like/want any bass.

Also. check that the bias is right - especially that there's between 4 and 5 volts at the collector of Q2.

And your transistors might be worth checking.  Especially if they are both old and germanium.  The bandwidth characteristiocs on some old Ge trannies is very poor.  These b-grade transistors will lose highs as the gain is turned up.  

Otherwise, there's not much in a fuzz-face that can go wrong...  

cheers

[Deep Blue]

I knocked it down to .01mf, and it sounds 10x better!  Thanks!

It's still a little muddy, but at this point I think it's just the pedal.

Man, you can do _crazy_ stuff with a fuzz face.  If I crank mine, and then put my DS1 after it and crank that, and then fiddle with the volume knob on my guitar, I get the most amazing, awesome effects.

[ErikMiller]

We had a discussion about this a few weeks back, and it is believed that 0.01uF is actually the original Fuzz Face output cap value.

Of course, in the end (so to speak) it's whatever sounds best. To my ears, that's 0.01uF.

[Ammscray]

The original Arbiters came with .1 but the later silicon versions used everything from .01 to .033 to .047

You can also tweak the bass and muddiness with the input cap, or by decreasing the value of the volume pot to 250K or 100K...

Also, germanium versions are inherently more muddy than the sili's anyways...

[Doug H]

Check out Joe Gagan's tone control for his Easy Face. It essentially adjusts the value of the input coupling capacitance. I installed that on mine and really love it. It controls the thickness of the tone very well, from bassy bombast to a tighter sound.

But compared to other circuits, I think the FF sounds kind of muddy in general. That's part of the sound.

Doug