Andy's Simple Fuzztone !

[Dragonfly]

I put this on the breadboard a few minutes ago. Low parts count, sounds great, and cleans up nicely with your guitars volume knob !

Anyway, HERE IS A SOUND SAMPLE !, and the schematic is below. If you have a few minutes, build it and let me know what you think !

Andy

[tungngruv]

Sounds great Andy, you really have  knack for the Fuzz circuit!

[John Lyons]

Yes, that sounds nice!
The cleaned up tone has a nice edge to it.
I bet a smaller input cap or a blend circuit before it would be nice as well for variation.

john

[Dragonfly]

It gets pretty "heavy" too....

QUICK SAMPLE WITH DRUMS AND BASS

[foxfire]

well when you here a super simple little circuit like that and look up at all your bins full of hundreds of parts you can't help but to wonder why...
rylan

[Dragonfly]

well when you here a super simple little circuit like that and look up at all your bins full of hundreds of parts you can't help but to wonder why...
rylan

I know the feeling !

[gutsofgold]

Nice! I accidentally grabbed PNP instead of NPN during my last trip to the surplus store. They are rated at ~100 hfe so I think they might work for this.

[slideman82]

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah! I love thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat sound! Really reach sound, full of harmonics!!!!!!! I'll try it with Ge ones and a input cap switching... some day... also, you can try a Mosfet or a JFET as first tranny, try it!

Good work! As I always says, simplest and smallest things are the best, always sounding excellent!

[Branimir]

This thing sound heavy!! I'm perfing it today!

What transistors did you use in your design?

I have some 2N2219A's, they'll work great for first transistor I think, how high should be the hfe of the pnp?

[Dragonfly]

[Dragonfly]

To answer a few questions...

I used a 2N3904 (NPN) and a 2N2907 (PNP) for this one.

Reducing the output cap size might be handy...maybe down to .047uf or .022uf...though I dig how filthy and heavy it is with the 1uf cap.

I havent tried really low gainers...these were 200-300hfe transistors.

approx voltages were 4.6 volts @ Q1 collector and 4.8v @ Q2 with a battery reading 9.88v. Also, the 4k7 on Q1's collector can be a 3k9 pretty easily too..adds a slight amount of "punch".

[Branimir]

hm, its 5am here, and i have only some Ge pnp's, think i'll give it a try with it in q2 position...

[Dragonfly]

hm, its 5am here, and i have only some Ge pnp's, think i'll give it a try with it in q2 position...

let me know how it works...you may have to adjust the 4k7 resistor on  Q2's emitter to 9v

[liddokun]

What's the best value for input cap on this?  I want to do switching for caps, which 2 values should I use?  I know I like the 1uf value, any other recommendations for the second value?  I screwed up on drilling for an enclosure, so with 1 pot, I have to fill the other hole somehow. 

[Dragonfly]

What's the best value for input cap on this?  I want to do switching for caps, which 2 values should I use?  I know I like the 1uf value, any other recommendations for the second value?  I screwed up on drilling for an enclosure, so with 1 pot, I have to fill the other hole somehow. 

i havent tried anything but a 1u honestly...you could try a 0.1u ...

[liddokun]

Or could I add a pregain pot to this?  At the input before Q1?

[Branimir]

hm i must be doing something wrong, the circuit works but when i lower the volume, there is also less fuzz, maybe due 500k pot, should i try 100k? maybe 500k takes too much high end off of it? there is much fuzz only when i max the volume pot...

[Branimir]

Hm or am i only getting huge volume boost, tried 100k now, i put 2N3904 and BC559B and it's still the same, with lower volume setting it's just clean and goes from loud till louder eventually goes into fuzz but that could be preamp being pushed to hard by the pedal...

edit:

no use, i triple checked everything, this thing works as a volume boost only, the fuzz gets on only when the volume pot is maxed out, and i'm pretty sure that i've connected it correctly... tried both 100k and 500k pots

Voltages:
Q1
C: 2.75V
B: 0.65V
E: 0v

Q2:
C: 0V
B: 2.68V
E: 3.34V

Battery is 9.1V

I see I have to fiddle with the 4k7 resistors, damn...

I'm off to bed, it's 7:36am and I haven't slept at all heh

edit #2:

I couldn't leave it alone so I fiddled around with the resistors, eventually I managed to get around 6V and 7V on Q1's collector and Q2's emitter, but the results weren't much different then with lower voltages on the same points... My backs hurt and the cat fell asleep, the fuzz will wait until I sleep it over...

[Steben]

Looks like you nailed the 1tranny-fuzz-followed-by-buffer Andy!
Should really try it with the Bazz fuss in front of the 1k.

Or try an NPN as buffer as well.

[DougH]

Sounds great, Andy!

I'm starting to love these simple fuzz circuits.