Fuzz face and buffers

[neiltheseal]

Hey everyone. I wanted to know what everyone's thoughts were with fuzz face type circuits and buffers before them. Is it a good idea to add one and what will it do?

I had the idea when reading the thread about the Pestle Distortion/EQD Zoar which I understand to be a FF but with a JFET buffer before it. I had generally understood that putting anyting including a buffer before a FF was a bad idea but to be honest I have never really tried it out.

I have a few fuzz face style circuits lying around that I want to put into a box (Analogman Sun face and Colorsound one knob fuzz) with other effects like tremolo, octave and cocked wah. I have a few PedalPCB Simple JFET Buffers that I bought for another purpose and wonder if it's worth chucking one if these into a pedal as well.

 

[Robert]

Take a look at the Marsh schematic.

https://docs.pedalpcb.com/project/Marsh.pdf

 

[Sturdag Lagernathy]

R16= 12R4
12.4 Ohms?!

 

[BuddytheReow]

A buffer before a FF type circuit will make the FF sound like crap. I’ve done this by accident and on purpose

 

[neiltheseal]

Take a look at the Marsh schematic.

https://docs.pedalpcb.com/project/Marsh.pdf

Wow that really is a fuzz face circuit, sandwiched in between (what I assume is) two buffer circuits.

What makes this schematic work when generally FFs apparently sound bad after buffers? Does the second buffer somehow negate this?

 

[neiltheseal]

R16= 12R4
12.4 Ohms?!

Yeah wow, does it do anything? May as well just scratch some bare wire.

 

[Big Monk]

A buffer before a FF type circuit will make the FF sound like crap. I’ve done this by accident and on purpose

Not necessarily.

IF you stick a vanilla buffer with a low output impedance in front of a Fuzz Face, then that’s true.

BUT, you can design and implement a transparent front end buffer for the Fuzz Face.

 

[neiltheseal]

Take a look at the Marsh schematic.

https://docs.pedalpcb.com/project/Marsh.pdf

Thanks for sharing this.

Just watched a video. I am quietly obsessed with this now. It sounds great.

 

[finebyfine]

I play fuzz faces with active pickup guitars all the time and don’t mind it at all ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Big Monk]

This is my write up on my site talking about “The Big 3”:

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