school me on fuzz faces

[eatyourguitar]

npn germanium 2n5133 with power jack and starve knob, tried it. it was ok. i put a 3 pos switch for diodes and filtered feedback in case you get bored with the FF. I have some russian germanium pnp MN16B that i dont really like all that much. probably cause they are cold war era. they just dont sound as nice in a rangemaster with the same gain as my oc44. after all my experiments so far, im still using germanium and silicon, pnp and npn, darlington etc..whatever works, whatever I have.

[retinal orbita]

Pink Floyd-echoes..........................................................................………...............

^^^

I have been cruisin' for a fuzz face for a while now, and apparently the bass player in my bass players other band makes pedals, so I shot him an email asking if he'd make me a clone - he said no problem, I couold pick the germanium transistors out of his stash, etc and it would be about 60 bucks. Not a bad deal considering even the reissues from Dunlop are 150 here!!!

So anyway, he emailed me the other day and I'm off to pick it up tonight after work. Stoked!!! I'll post a gut shot later......

this is great. and you made a new pedal building friend in the process. see if he will let you try different input caps and let you bring your amp and your guitar. at least the guitar anyway.

Dude put a starve knob and a texture knob as well as cool little mods, really cool so far - was on my bike so I couldn't bring my guitar but I'm stoked for Saturday at my jam space to really let it rip!!

[eatyourguitar]

thats sick. I wonder what modded fuzz face the texture knob is from.

[CBA]

BLARP.

The one I purchased on eBay says Dallas-Arbiter England in the smile but has the innards of a Dunlop one. i.e. It's a combo of the two in the GMD video, and I wanted the innards of the bottom one.

WELP.

C

[eatyourguitar]

you got burned on ebay. open it up and post pics of the board and transistors

[CBA]

I burned myself. I don't know why I assume mass market pedal builders will be consistent... lame.

You can't really see the transistors, the board is upside down. I'll get a pic up if you want, but you can't really see anything and I'd just destroy it if I tried to take it apart.

C

[CBA]

Just for my own personal understanding, does this Dallas-Arbiter Reissue Fuzz Face have two different transistors in it? One is skinny and the other is like UFO/top hat shaped.

http://cgi.ebay.com/250871782200?ru=htt ... 500wt_1075



That's not a germanium and a silicon, is it?


C

[Scruffie]

Just for my own personal understanding, does this Dallas-Arbiter Reissue Fuzz Face have two different transistors in it? One is skinny and the other is like UFO/top hat shaped.

http://cgi.ebay.com/250871782200?ru=htt ... 500wt_1075



That's not a germanium and a silicon, is it?


C

Wayyy to hard to tell, i'd guess the skinny is a newer AC128, the other could be silicon or germanium, most likely germanium.

You can mix and match though, check out the Easy Face.

[Seiche]

npn germanium 2n5133 with power jack and starve knob, tried it. it was ok.

sorry dude, but 2n5133 is silicon. Used in the first Big Muffs for instance.

I have some russian germanium pnp MN16B that i dont really like all that much. probably cause they are cold war era.

ok?
You probably mean MP16B (the second letter is like a pi/Π)?

Just for my own personal understanding, does this Dallas-Arbiter Reissue Fuzz Face have two different transistors in it? One is skinny and the other is like UFO/top hat shaped.

the top hat might be a 2n1307 which is germanium. Germanium transistors come in many shapes and colors.

[eatyourguitar]

npn germanium 2n5133 with power jack and starve knob, tried it. it was ok.

sorry dude, but 2n5133 is silicon. Used in the first Big Muffs for instance.

I have some russian germanium pnp MN16B that i dont really like all that much. probably cause they are cold war era.

ok?
You probably mean MP16B (the second letter is like a pi/Π)?

the top hat might be a 2n1307 which is germanium. Germanium transistors come in many shapes and colors.

I didn't even know 2N5133 was silicon I guess I just assumed they were germ cause of them being way old. and yeah the russians are MN16B. I was thinking the top hat in that fuzz face might be a 2N404. they are getting pretty popular now since they are cheaper and available.

[Scruffie]

Those aren't Top Hat transistors anyway... these old Ediswans I had are

Shame you can't see inside a pedal sometimes (don't post a picture of an acrylic cased pedal if you think you're being clever... i'm on to you *glares*)

[D.o.S.]

Shame you can't see inside a pedal sometimes (don't post a picture of an acrylic cased pedal if you think you're being clever... i'm on to you *glares*)

... Shit.

[retinal orbita]

Happy to report is sounds AWESOME.

[CBA]

OOOOOOOOKKKKKKKK here are the pictures I promised.

GMD vid for easy reference:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UchIXsX3OkY[/youtube]



The first Fuzz Face I got resembles the "newer" one in the GMD video:



I don't know what kind of transistors are powering this, and I'm not skilled enough (at all) to take it apart.


The one I just received today (both bought off eBay) is similar to the "older" one in the GMD video, the one I was after:




The second one has two NKT-275 red dots, and I guess those are the hot shit that powered the original ones? I know that these are newer reproductions of that particular transistor, but whatevs. I just wanted the one that sounded really good in the GMD demo; if you had told me it was powered by bananas, I'd still have sought it.

I haven't had a chance to play either one yet, as I wanted to do a true shootout since I have the opportunity (if you remember correctly, I got the first Fuzz Face and expected it to have the innards of the second); I didn't want to taint my ears either way or get used to one or the other, so I'll get some shitty carbon batteries (recommended?) and bonk 'em up tomorrow on my day off.

Should be fun.

C

[eatyourguitar]

looks like you got the two pedals from the GMD video. the analogman sunface is pretty similar if you order it with red dot 275 but it has a bias control right on the front. try your FF with alkaline batteries too. different sounds. you might like it.