A little over a year ago I posed about the germanium Hirstute Fuzz Vintage Deluxe, a shimmery purple affair with a switchable pre-gain and a giant VU meter in the center.
My interest in getting more out of a fuzz face has not ceased. So now I present Hirsute Fuzz Vintage Silicon. Powered by relatively hot vintage Motorola transistors that were pulled from any number of old boards I bought for parts. A pre-gain control, simply labeled “Gain” with the “Fuzz” control set to max with a 1k resistor. “Bias” goes from about 6.5v down to something like 2v at Q2, so anywhere from smooth to broken is available. 4.5v is marked with a dot of paint.
The switch isn’t labeled because I was never sure what to call it. Covering up any more of this very detailed hydro dip would be a crime. The switch isn’t subtle in the least. It goes from the standard 2.2uf in - 10nf out to 22nf in - 1uf out. Not dissimilar to the 3 series fuzz, except I let more bass through the end to compensate. Fuzz to fuzzy distortion, and then you get to add the bias and gain controls to get a wild palette of sounds. The non traditional cap setting can still get really nasty with the bias up a little. It feels very 90’s fuzz.
This is for the person who wants more out of their fuzz face and for anyone who doesn’t like fuzz all that much. A fuzz face on easy mode.
My interest in getting more out of a fuzz face has not ceased. So now I present Hirsute Fuzz Vintage Silicon. Powered by relatively hot vintage Motorola transistors that were pulled from any number of old boards I bought for parts. A pre-gain control, simply labeled “Gain” with the “Fuzz” control set to max with a 1k resistor. “Bias” goes from about 6.5v down to something like 2v at Q2, so anywhere from smooth to broken is available. 4.5v is marked with a dot of paint.
The switch isn’t labeled because I was never sure what to call it. Covering up any more of this very detailed hydro dip would be a crime. The switch isn’t subtle in the least. It goes from the standard 2.2uf in - 10nf out to 22nf in - 1uf out. Not dissimilar to the 3 series fuzz, except I let more bass through the end to compensate. Fuzz to fuzzy distortion, and then you get to add the bias and gain controls to get a wild palette of sounds. The non traditional cap setting can still get really nasty with the bias up a little. It feels very 90’s fuzz.
This is for the person who wants more out of their fuzz face and for anyone who doesn’t like fuzz all that much. A fuzz face on easy mode.
. It’s waterslide, which gets a little rocky when the surface isn’t flat. So any raised bumps in the paint were very gently sanded. Clear coat, sand, clean, repeat until the surface is relatively flat. Clear waterslide plays a little nicer, especially tossed in the oven on low for a couple minutes.