Dunlop Fuzz Face | Germanium vs Silicon, fuzz before/after wah, history and more! 

"Do you use the Fuzz?" "No, I just like the way it looks, like a landmine." - Yngwie Malmsteen

What's cool about Fuzz Faces is that your tone brightens as you roll your volume back. This counteracts the top-end roll off that the volume potentiometer introduces. Also, the cleaning up effect from rolling down the volume sounds like it's blending as well as lowering the gain. I don't know if this is what is really happening or my aural interpretation of it, but it sounds amazing.

I think this is the most evident and useful JDF2 vs JHF1 video on RU-vid. Many thanks!

"...depending on your cat's mood...." Classic! Thanks for the lesson.

Very informative, my friend recently gifted me his old germanium fuzz face pedal and I've been trying to get the hang of it. Looks like I will be rearranging my pedal board. Thanks for a good watch.

I'll always be a germanium lover when it comes to Fuzz Faces.

Perfect demo! I was left with zero questions aaaaand I was entertained. Great job!

Excellent! Thank you for this detailed walk-through comparison, and the history! From my speakers, the germanium seemed to have a little more upper mid definition than the silicone version, but both are very sweet.

There's something haunting about the way germanium sounds at lower volumes. It gave me chills.

This is a fantastic video. Thank you so much for taking the time to put this together! I make videos where I'm trying to cover a lot of material too and I know how much work goes into these things. Really excellently done, thanks again.

Well done. I appreciate the "history" part of the lesson. I've been shipping for a fuzz for a while and this will definitely help. Cheers!

TIP: If you want to swap the input/output sockets, don't bother with soldering. All you need to do is unscrew them and swap them over. I undid the nuts with my fingers, no spanner required, and it took less than two minutes.

peter firth Many years ago I built my own fuzz face clone using a matched pair of germainium transistors and I used it again today and had fun. Thermal runaway was a common issue with germanium transistors but this is not an issue for back bedroom players like me. good show

Thank you for this video. I almost returned my blue fuzz face until your tutorial. I couldn't get the right sound with the fuzz and I am new to adding the effects so this was a major help.

Love the Germanium Fuzz sound, simply is more alive, it stands out! Also the audio amplifiers with Germanium transistors. I had in my childhood an Akord-203 pickup (good schematics) with Germanium transistors and I used it as an amplifier for a while. I remember one neighbor coming to my home and hearing the sound amplified by that pickup amplifier and saying ”How good it sounds” and I remember his stunned face.

Awesome demo, JJ, very informative. Well Done!

Excellent video! Thanks for posting this. I learned a few things for sure.

great demo, you know how to use effects in all areas of fuzz. i like the way you used clean up and wah before and after, great vid.......cheers.

Outstanding video,very informative and interesting. Well done.

Very nice! I enjoyed your explanations and demonstrations. Oh, and the drawings! :-)

Great video ! Learnt alot about Fuzz faces, like the blue more since it was a bit more articulate sounding.

All Fuzzfaces, original and copies works different but very good, we only need to apreciate them.

nice work clear concise to the point an getting it all done with no fluff wonderful

That was so informative. Very well done and thanks a lot!

Dude!!! What a greattttt video!!! Thanks a ton! :) Best regards from Brazil!!!

18:04 sounds like my kid when he wants ice cream and I say no.

Thanks for this video. I recently built a FF pedal using two Italian ATES germanium transistors that came from a Radio Shack experimenter's kit in the late 1960s or early 1970s and some other vintage parts, including a big 0.1uF ceramic disk cap from a 1960s tape deck through which the output passes. I had originally worked all this up on a socket breadboard not expecting much but when I put it between my guitar and amp I knew I had something special, so I put it all in a Hammond enclosure and I play it regularly. The two transistors were the same type but to JJ's point about "matching" them, I discovered that if they were swapped the circuit was simply unusable. Unfortunately I broke a lead off of one of the two transistors while I was trying to run some tests and I was unable to repair it. It so happened that I had a third transistor - a Toshiba - and when I put it in the broken transistor's place (I socketed them instead of soldering them), the pedal sounded just like it had before, best as I could tell (I have since resolved to *never* disturb the transistors in the pedal again). I have since made a prototyping box for FF components so I can mess around with transistors and other components easily, and I have some 1980s Soviet-era Russian-made transistors that I want to run some experiments with. I don't know if I can make it worth my while, but I've thought long and hard about assembling some pedals for sale using those transistors if I can work out the values. I have to tell you - when I use this box, I feel like I'm in the Who. It's saggy and brash, and it's also dead quiet. I get carbon-zinc batteries in two-packs for it at a nearby dollar store. I don't care to run it with the "FUZZ" knob flat out; I keep mine at about halfway or a little less and let the guitar volume control the distortion amount.

Great video! Learned alot! Have been searched for the rigth fuzz pedal for year. Have played the guitar for 8 years now, and it seems like a reached the level where it's acutally sounds queit good. I think it's time to try the fuzz face now ;)

I almost forgot to smash the like button, but then I saw the drawing of the germanium transistors in the heart and I remembered.

Good video and excellent playing and information. Personaly I think the silicon FF cleans up better, but both sound good.

great informative video. helped me a lot! now i'm sure i'm gonna go for the fulltone soulbender. thanks, greetings from germany

Very informative, Thanks ! Great riffing, too !

Man, I've bought a red smiless like this. I've searched for its year, using the serial. I couldn't find. Good to know it's from the 90s.

Really useful video, many thanks for uploading.

iv got the MXR classic 108 fuzz pedal.. its got a buffer that allows you to use a wah pedal with no nasty noise.

Thanks for the great post---really informative and well done

I like the germanium when it's full fuzz maxed out but I like the silicon for the lower volumes cleaned up

EXCELLENT tutorial--good points about getting the most out of these pedals throughout. I have both pedals and agree with the half-assed idea of reversing the IN/OUT jacks on the original design. One thing about both pedals that does bother me a bit is that they really sound better with the volume almost all the way up. you would think a classic design like this would have more at lower volumes.

Excellent video. Very nicely done.

Really well done video. Thanks!

Great job. Thanks for the info! Would love to see one on Tone Benders

Very informative!! Thanks man!

amazing explanation! thanks!

The video we've all been waiting for - thank you! Although I could have used a little more of the red one.

Nice video. Thanks JJ.

thanks for the upload!

I was trying to make a decision on whether to go with silicon ff or a tone bender. I needed this vid-you put it all in perspective. Thanks, JJ! I'm prolly gonna get both, though LOL

Excellent. Thank you so much.

JJ, your videos are great!

Great demo! love from Philadelphia

Great informative Video, Thanks

I like that you used the black keys to open the video. they have my favorite fuzztone

Goede review, bedankt!

My fav. pedal!

I really like germanium diode fuzz for some things - I would describe its effect as "sounds like the speaker's f****d". Not as strange as it sounds as studios have been known to use knackered speakers. Nice demo.

Great stuff, thank you, very interesting information :-)

that's a pretty tele also, very good video, very informative, thanks for the share

If you have to choose just one...? great video! thanks

Great Vid! Thank You

Hendrix used fuzz with wah ..... He backed the Volumen back to get a thicker wah sound .... this trick is also used by Phillip Sayce .... he explained it in one of his rig demos

Cool and informative video. I think on a live version of "I Don't Live Today", Jimi used the oscillations to good use.

I am the orignail owner of Dallas-Arbiter England Fuzz Face. Replaced the electrolytic capacitors today and it sounds like brand new.

To me the germanium fuzz was much more warm and organic sounding, less harsh.

Great video!

good job bro! very helpfull.

Great video dude! tnx

Thanks, JJ.Excellent lesson and demo!

I love the black keys at the beginning

Nice video! I've got the newer red one (with the white smile) and I love it. :)

Anyone hear a ton of clipping in the recording ?! Or am I going insane

great demo, love the wah -> fuzz combination, might try that with keys some day. sorry for your socks ;)

Really like the silicon

Nice review

Great video.

great video!

I've built several fuzztone pedals and the sound of germanium just seems better. Problem is finding suitable germanium transistors. I like running my fuzz into a Fender reverb unit then into my amp. Gives a pretty cool sound.

I be Never had a great sound like yours. Many years ago I ve bought a nice wha pedal, really looking good ( all chromed) but it sounds so " nosely" ( with the nose) that I thought depended from wrong daisy chain pedals. Your pedal sound really good..

They're both great fuzzes aren't they? I have the JH-F1 and two 90's red Dunlop fuzz faces - one of them has really low-gain transistors and cleans up fantastically well.

Thanks! Maybe do a demo on tuning next!

simple. raw. rocks. found the tone im chasing. tele+fuzz face. what more do you need? oh... a phaser and digitech whammy would be fun with this mix.

Nice video!

I like the blue. Is more bright and not so blurry.

I just finished building a "Fuzz Face" clone from a Synthrotek kit. Uses 2N3905 silicon transistors. Still sounds pretty decent, though.

Great video man. I could be wrong, but I believe that some of that self oscillation between the wah and a fuzz (or other distortion device) was used by Tom Morello on a lot of recordings to create some sounds in conjunction with the Whammy pedal.

Awesome video, gringo!

I prefer the wah first. Might be b/c I'm so used to running wah into amp gain w/out any pedals (which made me very interested in hearing the difference). To my ear, wah after the fuzz was a screeching wash of envelope filter with very little note articulation. When the wah was placed before fuzz, the envelope was less pronounced (with a nice bite), and the notes made it through more clearly. Thanks for making this.

great vid !

Excellente video! even vermelden. zeer goede engelse uitspraak trouwens

He likes making a fuzz face :) Nice Video

Hendrix's wah was wired so that he could use it before the fuzz.there are buffer's that you can put in your wah wah(Analog Man makes one) so that you can use the wah first..listen carefully to Hendrix live..he also switches the wah off and on to create very cool sounds like in Voodoo Child(Slight return)..also you can set the fuzz differently(as in lowering it a bit..) to find a sweet spot..anyway thanks.cool video.

Thanks so much for this. I think the Mini Fuzzfaces sound has too much treble and not enough bass or low end compared to the vintage. Do you concur JJ?

nice video!

Really useful. I realise I didn’t know how to use FF

what about the mini fuzz face line dude?!

Your tele sounds as good as your licks :)

Great video Man, also I really liked that riff in the intro to this video, what key was that in

Thanks!!

I love your videos!!! Man i have a boss fz 5 that you demoed. Do you think that the boss sounds reallu close to the germanium analog fuzz face??? Do you really like the boss?

I have a JH silicone I like the volume even less than 2 .Try the real subtle settings for early rock and blues

dit is geweldig! Great video and perfect English. If us Americans could only speak English so well nevermind Dutch :-) Oh yeah sweet tele!