Furball (EJ Fuzz Face)

[raulduke]

This is my take on the Eric Johnson Fuzz Face which seems to be doing the rounds at the mo.

I used an axial PCB layout for that 'mojo' factor   

I don't have any BC183's at the moment (got some on order), so I threw some BC108's in there with a good hfe range for a Fuzz Face.

Q2 is biased really low (I biased mine at about 3.75V), which is part of what gives the circuit its 'tone' I guess.

It sounds really cool... cooler than I thought it would to be honest.

Nice and 'chewy' and 'furry' would be how I would describe it   

I actually prefer it to my Ge Fuzz Face, which is odd, although it doesn't clean up as well as my Ge face.

Anyway, hope you like the pics!

[night-B]

Nice pics, layout, enclosure and wiring. I love it and wanna give it a try too 

[culturejam]

Looks good, man.

I find that wide open, low-gain silicon can sound pretty much just like germanium. But you may be on to something with the "cleanup" comment.

Maybe silicon trannies have a higher input impedance than germanium?

Raul, maybe you could try a lower-value resistor for R1 (which I assume is there as a pull down)? Like maybe 330K? Or maybe try a 1M pot and dial it down until it loads the pickups the "right" way?

[raulduke]

Cheers Guys!

I've attached the schem I used for my PCB for reference (although the EJ Fuzz schem can be found all over the place).

Also, I used a 22pf cap at C5 on the schem as I was getting a tiny bit of squeel with the trannies I used at max gain (and everybody knows a Fuzz Face gotta work at max gain   ). I also didn't stick religiously to the EJ resistor values with mine; I used the closest values I had to hand.

CJ; I'll try out those tips and see how it pans out, R1 is indeed a pulldown so I can easily stick a pot there and see what happens. The fuzz face is such a cool circuit to play around with. Slight variations can make a big difference. Thanks for the ideas!

This circuit could easily be built up on one of Madbeans Mangler PCB's as well.

Its worth a pop for sure!

[nzCdog]

nice job! looks great and EJ ff tone = win!

[bigmufffuzzwizz]

Great job! Your doing so many layouts, I really admire that!