Schematic and circuit blueprint does not differ that much from Fuzz Face, so it's safe to assume that this was german made FF-clone of the seventies. Some values are slightly different, but, it basically sounds just like any other silicon Fuzz Face. Built it myself, and i like it. Not a bad thing to have. Use as low hFE transistors you can get. 2N2369 and 2N3903 are good candidates... Built mine with 2n2222 TO-18 metal cans, and.. You guessed it.. It's not that far from my 2N2222 Si Fuzz Face clone - or from my Vox Tonebender '66 clone. So it's not super pretty, but interesting FF adaptation anyway.
If your Q2 bias needs some tweaking, that 3K3 resistor is good place to start. Replacing that with 10K trimmer wouldn't be too back of an idea. One could move that electrolytic connected to 3K3 three columns left and place trimmer as simple variable resistor between rows four and six. Did that to my board, and it's at its sweetest around 4K7-5K.
NICE! Saw Dungen last year, and Reine was rocking one of these. Sounded great, of course!
ReplyDeleteMichael Karoli from CAN was thought to be using a Schaller fuzz through a Farfisa cabinet. If you like Can and the ear piercing guitar riffs on their albums from 1970-1974 then this could help. I still use a silicon FuzzFace play CAN covers.
ReplyDeleteThanks, it's a good sounding circuit.
Cool advice! I love Karoli's playing.
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I deffinetly love this blog... Hope one day i could find the koko boost stripboard here (so hard to find). All the best guys.
ReplyDeleteForgot to mention rockett pedals > allan holdsworth. unfindable!
DeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteIm not planning to build this but was looking through the build info and just curious. The 3k3 resistor, if I was going to replace that with a trimmer, how would I do it.
Would I use the 3 and 2 of the trimmer and stick them where the ends of the resistor are and the 1 to ground? If so, there would be at least 2 strips spacing inbetween and I dont know of any trimmers with leg spacing like that. The only way I can think of is to put it on a piece of vero and run leads to the main board. Is there any other way?
Thanks
I have a few values of Alp RH06 which have long legs and can basically span any gap. It's a little image but this shows what they are like: http://www.potentiometers.com/Images/RH068th.gif
Deletehttp://mirosol.kapsi.fi/varasto/boxes/72Fuzz.jpg
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Hi,
ReplyDeleteThanks for this, I bought my Schaller Fuzz Box back in 75 and it was stollen in 1979. I've been searching for another one for years and I just found your scheme. I'm not an electronics expert, so I've been decoding your scheme and have a few questions : are the four following parts polarized condensers ?, where do you wrap the switch.
I'd be so glad if you had a photograph of the final mounting board.
Sorry for my silly questions, i'm just a guitarist !!!
This negative ground right? I'm guessing with 2n2222 or bc109 it would be.
ReplyDeleteYes
DeleteHey mirosol, I found a video demo for you if you want it.
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/iE_P8Zft2ec
I just built this, and I love the sound of it. One question though. How would I go about rolling back the low end. It doesn't need to go down much, just a little for my taste.
ReplyDeleteCant find 25uf capacitators anywhere. Replacement or an i just bad at googeling?
ReplyDeleteI'd say you can use a 22uF cap with no much difference.
ReplyDeleteIf you really want to get a closer value you can try to put a 22uf and a 3.3uF in parallel (getting about 25.3uF). I think there's space enough on the same two stripes, between the 47k resistor and the Fuzz 1 and Fuzz 2 wires.
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DeleteHi. You can also use a tester to sort out 22uF capacitors that are on the higher side of their tolerance. It is not unusual to have 22uF caps that are actually 24uF. Also, capacitors in vintage units are probably closer to 22uF and even less now because of how electrolytic capacitors are getting out of specs with aging... So all in all using a 22uF should be ok in any case ;-)
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