fuzz biasing problems

[shawnee]

Why is it that on the majority of the fuzz pedals that I have built (PCB and vero) that I never can get them to bias right unless I use a resistor thats waaaay out of spec? I'm using tranny's that are in the correct gain ballpark. I just finished a simple fuzz face and needed 30K to bias to 4.5v instead of the typical 8.2K resistor. Same with my Zygote build. I did a tonebender type vero and needed about 80K! What the heck is going on?

[JakeFuzz]

Hmm that's strange. I can usually get to 4.5-5 volts within a 1k-11k range on that resistor with most of my transistors. I have had a couple of Japanese transistors that needed higher resistor values but for the most part the stock values get me very close. Do you test with the fuzz all the way up?

[shawnee]

I test them with the knobs all over the place but the bias doesn't seems to change more than half a volt or so.

[MullisMan]

I'm having the same problem with my fuzz face (Hipster) build.  I'm using 2N3904's for my build.  I can't bias below 6.7 volts with either transistor at the collector, and I'm using the correct orientation.  I've adjusted the fuzz pot all the way up, and I've used a 100kB pot just to see if I could get it to bias down. Again, to no avail.  The fuzz is very gated and won't function when I really hit the strings hard, so it's hitting the ceiling with the supply I think.  Any ideas?