How loud is a fuzz factory?

[maysink]

I picked up a few 'low leakage' Ge trannys from caps n' such so I figured I'd make a Fuzz Factory. I slapped a vero build together and, although it mostly worked, it was a crappy build that was too quiet--all of the volume occurred in the last tiny rotation of the drive pot & the volume pot was pretty weak all around. Instead of wasting my time with another vero build I picked up a Zombii board from right here.

First off: very easy build. I socketed Q2 & 3 and used the same Ge trannys from the vero. The only difference from the vero build is I subbed a 5KC for the stab pot.

I tested the trannys on a crappy DMM (not for leakage) and I get high 80s for Q2 & ~115 for Q3. Should be good, no?

Well this FF is no longer quiet. It's the opposite of quiet. The volume pot is more than loud at around 10 o'clock and I don't have cables long enuf to get distance from the amp to peg the drive pot. The compression & gate function as they should but the stab has very little play before everything goes oscillation then silent (which should be normal but I expected more play with the pot).

I have no experience with Fuzz Factories so I ask: are they this f'ing loud? Is it supposed to make my BYOC tone bender look like a scared kitten?

[Jamiroking]

I was just about to post something similar. I just finished my build and I think it'll be a while til I get this thing under control. My VOL is with unity at about 9 o clock and thats with the gain all the way down. The ZVex demo is definitely a little milder but when I went in and tried one out in store after I finished my build, it was just as ornery and temperamental as the one I built. I figured it might have something to do with the fact I'm using humbuckers and it sounds like the demo is on a strat or something. Definitely no "light fuzz" setting on this thing

[lincolnic]

Zvex pedals are really loud.

Like, really loud.

If your Zombii is loud as hell, you're doing it right.

[maysink]

Well, I've played with this pedal the last few nights and you guys are right. LOUD.

But pretty cool once you set the vol around 9 o'clock and only take the drive up to 3-4 o'clock. The fuzz doesn't so much clean up with lowered guitar volume. It does get meaner with higher guitar volume, tho.

I don't know why I had a preconceived notion the factory was just a fuzz face with extra knobs. I also don't know why I have such reservations running a pedal's volume at only 9 o'clock...

[Jamiroking]

I don't know why I had a preconceived notion the factory was just a fuzz face with extra knobs.

Yeah, I admit, I wasn't expecting it to be this wild either. I had some problems with the germaniums and ended up having to get a sub of a sub of a sub and destroyed one of the soldering pads as it was my first build and figured I had messed something up. When I saw that the zvex sounded the same I realized its just a crazy pedal. Although I don't know what is worse, building it wrong with an unexpected result or building it right with one. I built it partly because of its abilities as a weird noise machine well  and since I don't play too much heavy stuff, it looks like I'll be using that more than fuzz.

I don't know if you've checked this out but ZVex has a bunch of suggested settings on the website that helped me get some usable tones out of it.
http://www.zvex.com/fuzz.html