This is a library of perfboard and single-sided PCB effect layouts for guitar and bass. I'm not an electrical engineer by any stretch of the imagination, just a DIY'er who likes drawing layouts. It is meant for the hobbyist (so commercial use of any of these layout is not allowed without permission) and as a way to give back to the online DIY community.

Friday, October 23, 2015

Lovepedal Silicon Fuzz Master

For #fuzzfriday, here's an interesting take on the Fuzz Face circuit. It uses silicon PNP transistors, but is still a negative ground effect (so daisy chaining power supply is still ok). I guess Sean had a bunch of extra 2N3906s lying around. I took a few liberties with the power filtering and polarity protection, but nothing that will effect the original sound. The yellow/ceramic 100n cap going from 9v to ground is optional, as it's not all that necessary, but is in the original. It's setup for board mounted pots if you so desire.



You can find a 1590B drilling template for this effect here.

11 comments:

  1. My fuzz quest continues.
    Mark this one as verified, though I'm going to have a play with the trannies again tomorrow to see if I can get a smoother fuzz. Liking the blend knob... Thanks again for the layout.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sounds good, but it has low freq oscillations with max gain or max blend or together.
    What's wrong?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Check potentiometers or some ground feedback (any bad contact).
      I had the same problem in a Fuzz Face, was the Bias pot.

      Delete
  3. What the10k trimpot does?
    Its BIAS?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks!
      I see that the "blend" knob is some kind of "smooth" pot in the input, used in some Fuzz Face's

      Delete
  4. Recently finishing one: super happy!
    One of the best SI fuzz pedal I've heard.

    Suggestion: replace the 10k trimpot for a 5k if you want an external bias.
    Over the 5k the pedal turns noisy and the fuzz is "gated", in the bad way.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I excuse myself: use 10k, it'll vary depending on the transistors.

      Delete
  5. Does it not matter the hfe value of the transistors??

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not as much as germanium versions of the fuzz face. 2N3906s are in the 100-300hfe range, so you can substitute with something similar.

      Delete