I have been watching at least 20h of YT Video until I finally found someone to explain the basic functions of the component and the schematic. Thank you so much!!!!!
Great run through. Inside baseball for grasping how the parts, the ingredients and the meal they can make. Now I have to figure out how to fix mine which has the bias mod. It’s a rehoused circuit by analog man. Might have been a fib. Who knows? Beautiful man! Cheers 🥂 and thank you Marcus.
Has to be one of the best instructional videos about what is happening on a schematic. Wish I would of found this when I was trying to figure it all out. Great tip about AC and DC
I was about to give up on building pedals after a month of so of trying but it makes so much more sense when you explain how the variations on components effect the circuit. Guess i should finally finish this fuzz! Thanks man!
Yes brother-keeping it QUITE fuzzy, since ‘95 ! Marcus, you’ve created an ideal 101 for me to find my way into building my first effects pedal-and of all things, a FUZZ unit. ( I love it : ) Now having greater-confidence, I’ll initially practice soldering ( of course ). Previously, I’ve only reconnected a loose wire, and replaced a faulty output jack. Personally rewarding, though I’ve always dreamed of comprehending the technical nature of a simple circuit-ultimately, in which to actually build something I love. In example, a Fuzz Face : ) As well, perhaps a Tone Bender ? Big Muff ? ( I 🤍 nostalgia ! ) ⚡️🎸⚡️
Nicely done. I watched Josh of JHS with his Hendrix Fuzz Face mods video and now having watched this video of your's I feel like I'm starting to have some idea of what is going on in this circuit. Really excellent, thanks!!!
3:31 Boy that's simple, for something that was so important to Jimi Hendrix's sound and changed the world. 2 transistors, 3 capacitors, and 4 resistors (plus 2 pots), .1 switch, 2 jacks. That cast metal housing probably cost more to make than all the components. Great explanation too.
Absolutely the best schematic breakdown I've seen so far, learned so much in such a short time after months of detective work... specifically doffed my anonymity and logged in to offer you kudos and gratitudos. Subscribed.
I remember learning that dc and ac voltages could exist simultaneously at the same point, or on the same wire etc. In a circuit. Like alot of things with learning these concepts i suspected it a long time before i confirmed it. But things sure made alot more sense afterward. I taught myself electronics by tinkering with everything i could all my life. Also being a guitarist i ended up working on guitars, pedals, amps everything else in the signal chain! Now this was wayyy pre-internet, information was scarce and just as often incorrect but i did get better and more knowledgeable all be it at a slower rate. When the internet came along that boosted my knowledge and abilities greatly also being an electrician by trade, i got a job in industrial electrical and learned alot there as well.
I put this together and it works, used two BC547B's (didn't have any of the others), didn't have a 20 uf but had a 22. Fuzz worked nice but only with the 1K knob all the way up. Thank you for putting together this great video
Thanks for the great video! One little correction at 3:56: The capacitors are actually "coupling" caps and not "decoupling." Coupling passes AC but blocks DC, while decoupling does the opposite.
Audio signal and feedback discussion was great. Best I’ve heard. You didn’t talk explicitly about the signal from the battery though. Can you explain that path?
Awesome video! Learned more in 30 min than in 30 hours of painful search among forums. Suggestion for a future vidéo: schematic of the FuzzRite! Cheers
I really enjoyed watching this video! Taking all this info into consideration, what values would you use to make a fuzzface that works well with bass guitar? I have the big blue Hendrix FF and have gotten great results but how to tame the fuzz a little and make the fuzz knob more usable??? I generally don’t have a problem with loss of low end freqs. Thanks for your time! ❤
The difference in schematic symbols with resistors is between the different standards - the box is the international one (IEC 60617, most commonly used) and the other is the ANSI Y32(older standard mostly used in the US)
a great deal with pedals is intertwined with ethics, for example, a gunked circuit has more things to hide than to protect. This time you've set a great example, by being a great teacher you have paid respects to all your great teachers, and that makes you a scholar, because not only you inform pedalmakers, but musicians and audio engineers alike. That adds true weight to "if you know, you know" , thanks a lot.
I bought two issue 2 Fuzz Face pcbs online from the Pigeon FX website, nice quality ones too, I bought them so I could re-build my Jim Dunlop JD-F2 Fuzz Face pedal using some BC108C NPN transistors I bought on eBay , I selected two of the BC108C transistors that had the highest gain of the lot of 8 transistors, one had a gain of 635 which I used for Q1, the other had a gain of 660 which I used for Q2, these may sound like monstrously high gains for use in a Fuzz Face circuit, but they seem to work fine, resistor values are 330 Ohms, 8k2, 33k, and 100k, with the usual capacitor values, I did have to solder-in a 1nF greencap in parallel with the 100k resistor to stop high-frequency self-oscillation though, but it didn't have any negative impact on the sound, anyway, my JD-F2 Fuzz Face sounds really good and smooth, with a good amount of sustain, bias voltages were 1.19 on the collector of Q1, and 4.5V on the collector of Q2, battery voltage was 9.6V.
Thank you. This was an amazing explanation of the circuit to one who is clueless. I see various builds that call for electrolyte capacitors or film capacitors. What are the capacitors in your schematic? Maybe Electrolyte are polarized and film not polarized? Also you list several transistors. Is there a preference? Thanks again. I'm glad to have stumbled on your channel!
When you're checking the bias voltages of a silicon Fuzz Face circuit, Q1 should have at least two forward-biased BE voltages on it's collector, the usual BE forward-biased voltage for a silicon transistor is about .6V so you should see at least 1.2V on Q1's collector if you're building a silicon transistor, and it is biasing-up properly (i.e. two forward-biased BE voltages).
regarding output, I once bread boarded a FF circuit and moved the .01 cap from it's original position to between the collector and the 8k2 resistor. Sounded pretty massive too.
Yeppers. Old tube amps put high voltage dc for plate voltage and run the ac audio voltage through the same wire too. The dc is filtered out, decoupled, when fed to some grids with a cap - some values can really mess with tone too. A transformer won't pass dc either.
Great video! I have a question, regarding the bias control you add to modify the voltage supplied to the transistor. Wouldn't that also change the "attenuation" of the audio signal heading for the output?
Wow what a great video!! So much awesome info. I have been playing around with NPN hFE values for Q1 and Q2. It seems the BC108B transistors I have are all 431 hFE. Is there a favorite hFE value you have or favorite transistor? What of transistors don't you like and why.
If you piggy-back two 2n3904s (300+ hfe) you can tailor hfe to whatever you fancy with the bases joined and resistor between the emitters. Use variable resistors and you can choose what hFEs sound best.
Great vid! Where in the circuit does the oscillation come from? Is it possible to tune the oscillation or make it foot switchable or add mods to the oscillation
Hello again thanks for this - quick questions if that is OK regarding silicon ff, first question is regarding hfe, do you know what the standard hfe is for q1 and q1 forthe schematic you had, so that the ff will biase roughly right with stock resistors, sometime even with trimmers I've had bother biasing a silicon ff, with germanium hfe of the 80/120 camp or there about I never have any bother, but silicon because of the higher range used I had bother in the past? Also do you know for that classic silicon fuzz face what was the hfe used, I've heard 200s even 500s? Thanks so much for this
You've inspired me to post my first fuzz face - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zNZ04Kd8ua4.html the feeling of overwhelming joy when it worked, 🤣 couldn't bloody believe it
I've been able to successfully make two high-gain BC108C transistors work in a Fuzz Face circuit, in my Jim Dunlop JD-F2 Fuzz Face there are two BC108C transistors, Q1 has a gain of 635, Q2 has a gain of 660.
i love your explanation of how it works but you are way off on the count of how transistor work transistor is just a resistor for all intent and purposes when you aply dc to it when you aply ac signal to the base you basically voltage controll the resistance, and you can simulate it with aplying dc voltages transistor does not amplifi signals by itself, it mirror the signal by adjusting it's resistance in real time and it forms a resistor divider with colector and emiter resistors and "the signal" is just a swing of those points up and down in voltage while transistor dc resistance changes and output can be taped anywhere above 2nd colector you can give it 8k resistor and 520 ohm instead of 8,2k and 330 ohms and it would just be louder because you just taping on the signal closer to the transistor
There is nothing to it. You could build that circuit board from scratch fast, the time would be in connecting and packaging the whole thing. Only issue I have is not having any 2N or even Japanese transistors referenced.
