Friday 4 July 2014

Joe Davisson Antiquity Fuzz

Noticed this one and thought i'd do a quickie. Here you go with Joe Davisson's improvements on the classic fuzz face.
Note from Analog Alchemy website:
Placing a diode at the input of a silicon Fuzz-Face type circuit improves the tone by preventing saturation of Q1. Adjust the 5.6k resistor until Q2's collector is near 4.5v for the best sound
Posted by at 14:26
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13 comments:

  1. TW9 July 2014 at 12:19

    Thanks mirosol, very neat and logical layout! Awesome work. Only substitutions were 2N4123s instead of the 2N5089s as these are lower gain and reduce that edgy silicon harshness. Tune the trimpot to suit.

    I don't have a 2K pot for the gain so not sure of the taper, but apart from that consider this verified!

    I'm half tempted to put a germanium diode in place of the 1N914 to see if it makes any difference to the warmth of the circuit. Overall it's a nice little fuzz. Thank you.

    Tommycataus

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    1. mirosol9 July 2014 at 17:51

      Cheers and thanks for the notes.

      I personally feel that the best taper for any fuzz face style circuit's fuzz control is reverse logarithmic, but linear will work ok.
      +m

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    2. TW9 July 2014 at 22:11

      Thanks, I did wonder with this as I tested it with a 10k linear since it was all I had. The gain was bunched up at the cw end.

      Like most people I don't tend to have any reverse log pots to hand. The other fuzzes I've built have used 1 or 2k so this is good to know.

      Now to wait for my parts order...

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    3. roccster30 September 2014 at 19:40

      Thanks alot for this!
      First Fuzz that I actually got to work after alot of trial and error. Yes I am new to this pedal-building addiction :)
      I couldn´t get hold of the 2N5089s but tried it with a pair of BC169B. It´s fuzzing allright :D Atm I get a fair ammount of static noise (connected to a breadboard) when the fuzz is cranked, any thoughts on that? Also the fuzz seems to dissapear real quick when rolling off the gain knob.
      Another thing I would like to try is to run it with some ger. transistors, but then I need that pos. ground, is it just to reverse the polarity for this?

      Cheers!

      / Richard

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    4. Unknown21 March 2017 at 01:22

      This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    5. Unknown21 March 2017 at 01:24

      +mirosol I've looked everywhere for 2K reverse log pots but can't find any. I was able to find 2.5K. Would that sound better than the 2K linear? Thanks for all your layouts!!!

      Brad

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  2. Travis15 November 2014 at 01:45

    http://www.diystompboxes.com/analogalchemy/sch/antiquity.html

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  3. Travis15 November 2014 at 16:27

    You're welcome. Good luck debugging

    This is a pretty simple circuit so you should get it working. It's a fuzz face

    What transistors are you using and what are their voltages?

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  4. Hozy3131 May 2015 at 15:08

    Nice fuzz. Built initially with 1N4148 but volume was a bit low so tried a few other diodes and found the MA856 to give the best sound. The gain pot is all bunched up at the end though, any suggestions as to why and what could rectify it?

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    1. Unknown1 June 2015 at 02:15

      Maybe try a reverse log 2K pot instead?

      Delete
  5. Marc9 November 2015 at 12:46

    I know it's been covered a lot, but I trust you guys more than multipke fora..

    I haven't boxed it yet (testrig with alligator clamps), but I have a lot of hiss. I've used 5098s

    The fuzz sounds great, there is just a lot of hissing and crackle.

    I adjusted the trimpot to get the collector to read 4,5 volt. Just before he gets there, there is no hiss. The fuzz is a bit gated there, en the notes die off too quickly and not in a nice way. But as soon as I turn it further the hiss is there.

    Fuzz control is no good till 85% and by then gets to max fuzz very quickly. Before that it's useless. I will try a different pot there (the aforementioned reverse)

    Is it really the nature of the beast, and is luck involved?

    Could it be the transistors?
    The pot?
    The fact it isn't boxed?
    Should I put a cap from the outer lugs of one of the pots?
    I read a cap between the legs (..) of 1 of the 2 transistors would help.. Where would that exactly be soldered?



    Hope someone can tell me what my next step would be! (The pedal sounds very good otherwise)

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    1. Ricky Sheaves24 December 2015 at 19:33

      I know it's been a while since this question, but hopefully this helps someone:

      With high gain Si transistors in FF clones, putting a 220p (or 330p or 470p etc.) across the C and B of Q1 helps with hiss, static, and harshness at max fuzz. For this layout, you could add an extra column to the left of Q1 to make room (that's what I did). Experiment with different values and tune to taste.

      Some circuits go so far as to put a 47p or so across the C and B of Q2 as well.

      For some examples, see mirosol's layouts of 1-Knob FFs:

      http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2013/04/1-knob-fuzz-bonanza.html

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  6. Unknown20 March 2017 at 18:24

    Just built this up and it sounds great minus the exceptions listed in this post's comments. Will add the cap on Q1 to reduce the static/hiss, but does anyone know of a good source for Reverse Log 2K pots? Thanks!

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