Black Beauty Fuzz Face

[G.G.]

Hi Folks,
Here's a Fuzz Face variant I built up a while back from Storyboardist's Jack Deville (Mr. Black) Vintage 2-Knob Fuzz layout. I had tried a couple Fuzz Faces before but had never been that impressed, maybe I didn't understand how to use them, but this one sounded interesting so I gave it a try. It was ok, but it wasn't until I got it back out, put the right pot values in  and tried out several different MP38A's that I found out I really like this circuit a whole lot. I was looking for something that would dirty up my super clean Fender amp, and it sounds great with my Tele. The enclosure is one of BLMS powercoats that I relic'd up with some steel wool and sandpaper, I thought it came out kinda cool looking.

[storyboardist]

Looks great! Nice work 

[gordo]

Nicely done.  Reminds me of the PRS "scraped" binding.

[oip]

looks excellent!  love the knobs and styling

[matmosphere]

That is a great look.

I'm going to have to look up the circuit. Fuzz Faces have always struck me as a little meh.

[G.G.]

That is a great look.

I'm going to have to look up the circuit. Fuzz Faces have always struck me as a little meh.

With the fuzz and guitar volume all the way up it's got very squishy super smooth sustain.  I didn't realize how much range,  from boost, overdrive to pure fuzz you can get just by turning the guitar volume knob a little. I know that's old news since that how Fuzz Faces work, but it works great with my Tele. I didn't like it quite as much with the humbuckers on my Gretsch.

[jimilee]

Smooth lines


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[selfdestroyer]

Love them knobs on there!

Cody

[stringsthings]

Purty! 

[chordball]

Looks great! Do you have the schematic? I searched but came up empty handed.

How does this version sound compared to stock?

[G.G.]

Looks great! Do you have the schematic? I searched but came up empty handed.

How does this version sound compared to stock?

Maybe Storyboardist can chime in on how it's different than stock, the only info I have is the layout on his blog:

http://effectslayouts.blogspot.com/2015/05/jack-deville-vintage-two-knob-fuzz.html

[storyboardist]

It's a pretty standard Fuzz Face, just with a few minor tweaks. Most of them are just value changes from a stock FF. The trimmer to bias Q2 is a pretty standard mod and really the only component added is a the 820Ω resistor off lug 1 of the Fuzz pot. All that does is limit the minimum setting. Here's Jack's schem (he originally posted it on TGP a while back):

[chordball]

Thanks a lot! I had seen a fuzzy thumbnail of that schematic but couldn't make it out.

So after a little digging, I see that this circuit is very similar to the original Vox Tone Bender with some minor value changes. Interesting bit of fuzz history to see the predecessor to the almighty fuzz face!

http://fuzzcentral.ssguitar.com/vox.php

[Boba7]

This looks fantastic! Really really like it. It does honor to Jack Deville/Mr Black line of pedals!