Fave silicon Fuzz Face circuit?

[Gone Fission]

I now have a spare SD Tweak Fuzz so it's time to get serious about modding at least one. I might npn germ one eventually, but I don't care enough to spring for that now. Keeping the front-end tone switching on both in any event, but interested in trying other tricks.

So I'm treating this as pretty much the family rather than the trade name. So Colorsound one-knob Fuzz , DAM Meathead, and two-transistor Tonebenders. I'm sure a bunch of other boutiquey things.

So whaddya like and why?

[eatyourguitar]

well first I should say that I don't have a favorite. they all have a purpose when chasing some sound for some project or song. then you multiply that by how many guitars you have. there are a few that I don't like. I build them on breadboard and if they suck, thats is where they die. the best ones get every component swapped until it is just the way I want. I recently found a silicon NPN that has a gain of 5000Hfe. yes 5000. sounds great in a fuzz face in Q1. there are a few pedals that I would like to buy or try. not sure if they are fuzz faces but yeah. I don't say things like MEATHEAD is the BEST. its just a really thick sounding one knob fuzz if that is what you want.

[Jero]

That's a pretty good way to put it. TBH, a lot of them don't sound similar enough for a laymen, to say "are those the same thing?" npn silicon with a 5000hfe?! That's more than most darlingtons isn't it?

[eatyourguitar]

it is a darlinton

2N6426 datasheet

[Jero]

well there you have it. that's nuts.

[Rygot]

I can say I have a favorite, but there is definitely a place for all of them...

I believe the schaller fuzz is a fuzz face and I love it.

[multi_s]

mpsa14 has 10k-20k typical hfe.

5000 is for pussies.

[eatyourguitar]

the datasheet for my 2N6426 says 20,000 to 100,000. my atlas DCA55 will give me a different number every time. it is probably so far out of range that the meter does not know what to do with it. the meter is probably the worst way to check the gain here.

I have MPSA13 and MPSA18 but I did not try the MPSA14

[multi_s]

haha ya probably. or just at that level of gain its way to sensitive to noise. i dont think mpsa18 is darlington. I think its a Motorola equivalent of 2n5088 which is high gain but not a Darlington ~500 hfe maybe.

mpsa13 is very similar to mpsa14 but a bit less gain.

[eatyourguitar]

ohh snap, your right. I always thought it was a darlington.

[Jero]

haha ya probably. or just at that level of gain its way to sensitive to noise. i dont think mpsa18 is darlington. I think its a Motorola equivalent of 2n5088 which is high gain but not a Darlington ~500 hfe maybe.
mpsa13 is very similar to mpsa14 but a bit less gain.

Yea, mine are right around 600 (mpsa18)
...my meter doesn't even register darlingtons

[multi_s]

ya i don't think mine does either. 3 digits of glory only.

i bought some bc108s recently just to make a fuzz face actually. well see how that goes.

[Jero]

I've actually been thinking of trying 108's and 109's in a muff I'm building, 2 of each.