Build your own Fuzz Face (Part 1) - Germanium, Silicon or both?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 ธ.ค. 2024
- Welcome to Tone Twins TV
In this episode we get all fuzzy building our own Fuzz face.
Building a boutique style Fuzz Face is one of the easiest DIY pedal projects but should you go with Silicon or Germanium transistors?
With our design, you don’t have to choose because you can have both in one pedal and you can even combine them.
You can find all the diagrams, close up photos and technical information you need in Huw’s article on Guitar.com - link below:
guitar.com/gui...
In this episode we show you how to prepare the enclosure and cover most of the build.
The second episode will cover transistor selection, biasing by ear for optimum tone and there’ll be a demo so you can hear how this fuzzbox sounds...
Hope you enjoy and please let us know your thoughts and preferences i nthe comments below.
Thanks for watching
Best fuzz face video, approach and explanation of operation I've found. Thank.
Glad you found it useful
This is the kind of in depth nerdery im here for. Also your build is very beautiful, maybe next time I won't do a rats nest lol.
Thank you.
I’d like to appreciate the amount of research you must have put into this!
Thanks Huw, nice vid. Peter
I have a 1967 grey Arbiter Fuzz Face that was severely modified and wrecked when I was given it 30 odd years ago. It had AC128 germanium transistors in it. It has been restored with AC128 but I don't care for the germanium sound.
The silicon Fuzz Faces are much better to me 👍
One of the most useful tools when you do things like this is blu tack. It's the easiest way to hold components and wires as you solder.
Thank you, I likely never would’ve thought of that myself, and I’ve tried all sorts of things before!
Helping hands are better
Well you have to choose yout tack wisely, as you may have some crumbs remaining.
Thank you for such great information!
I will try it soon!
lovin this, can't wait to give it a go...would you recommend anywhere particular in the UK to grab components from? most of the sites i find sell resistors/caps by the bundle, rather than individually, and i have no use for 50 33k resistors at this point TIA
Try Rapid Electronics, RS Components, Cricklewood Electronics and Farnell.
Ebay is surprisingly good too.
Thank you for your great tutorial video. I'm just building my own fuzz after the article you mentioned here. May I ask some questions to your remarkable work?
It would have been very helpful for me to understand more of your transistor selection requirements. I'm still not sure if the 1st stage transistor has to have a much lower hfe then 2nd stage transistor. And do silicium and germanium transistors are to be in the same hfe range, if you want to change the order with the switches? If you change the order of si and ge transistors you can have a silicium transistor with a much higher hfe value in the 1st stage than the germanium transistor in the 2nd stage. Does this work? The recommended silicium transistors BC108, BC109 have a hfe that is two times higher than my AC127.
It would be nice if you could explain how to connect the negative side of electrolytic capacitors (for input and volume there is no obvious negative side in the schematic) , if you are not so lucky and having film caps. And maybe you could clarify which are the final values of the caps you are using in your video (as you get confused with the caps and their values I lost track).
And one last thing that would also be helpful: Please specify which type of pots (A, B, C) you are using/recommending. I've tryed to read from the photos ;-)
Thanks again.
This also a good source on building a diy fuzz pedal: th-cam.com/video/cagEeiq3u98/w-d-xo.html
Your channel is amazing, thanks for your hard work :)
Ive just build this bad boi! What a tone. I also installed the bass roll off toggle but I cannot hear any percertible difference to the tone?
Awesome. Definitely gonna try this sometime!
hi the 100k resistor has a red lead on the bottom turret, can you please say where that red wire is connected to on the other end?
also the black wire at the top end of the trim pots, at the junction of the upper trim pots.... where is that wire going to please. Overall a great vid just missing a few connections that seeemed to not get mentioned.
Very cool. Ta!
Fascinating, looking forward to part 2. On a semi-related note, somewhere I have an unmade example of the first TGM build -your-own fuzz pedal kit. Must be at least 10 years old, issued around the time when TGM also had the Dave King acoustic guitar kit, I think. I’ve lost track of which issue the instructions were in. Are you aware of this early kit, Huw or any other TT TV subscribers, and if so, do you recall any info about it, such as issue number, the designer, etc? I have a very vague idea that it may be David Peterson (the VOX Guy) but would be grateful for any info. Cheers!
Hey Chris. Wow, that's going back a few years. You're almost certainly correct that Dave Peterson would have been behind that one and he really knows his stuff. Apologies but I'd have no idea of the issue number. I'd guess you'd need to be looking at back issues circa 2002 - 2004 - H
loved it
Link to the diagrams, tech info gives me a big ol' 404! Where can the information be found for this specific build? You mention turning down the temperature on the iron. What temperature? Those details might be needed for some folks.
The link is working as of 19th July 2023. Maybe try again or use a different browser? Around 350C - 380C should be a safe temperature.
How do you get your solder to stick to the pot? It always wants to come off when I try. Do you need a specific kind of solder?
Some are made of different stuff, or plated .. Try giving it a good old scrape before you solder to get the plating off
If the casings aluminium, you may be out of luck - I wouldn't worry too much ;)
@@petegaslondon thanks for the friendly advice!
Sand it first@@reecebower9934
Sorry, i watched you video so many times and i can't understand what you do and what components you are using. Could you make a eletric schematic? I dont understand why you use a 47 k potentiometer and what type capacitor you using?
In your schematic u don´t show this two components.
I loved your video, please make more.
Desculpa meus erros de inglês, eu sou brasileiro.
Thanks Lucas. If you look in the description you'll find a link to my article on Guitar.com which has all the diagrams you might need.
Are the 1k and 47k linear?