Tactical Fuzz - Not Cleaning Up, Trim Pot Issue?

apierz

Member
I recently finished a build of the Tactical Fuzz. It sounds great as a fuzz, but it doesn't clean up no matter how low I set the volume on my guitar (which is my main reason for wanting to build this pedal).

I couldn't find instructions for how to set the internal trim pot in the build documentation. Another post on this forum suggested setting the bias knob to noon and setting the internal trim pot to get a reading of 4.5v. If I set my bias knob at noon, I can only get a max reading of 3.7v across the trim pot testing holes, even with the trim pot fully clockwise. If I set my bias knob to around 10 o clock I can get a reading of 4.5v if I max out the trim pot, but it still doesn't clean up even my my volume as low as I can get it.

I'm using 2N1308 transistors. My TC-1 gives me these values (Vbat = 3.61v):

Q1:
hFE=410
Ie=2.8mA
Ube=137mV
ICE0=0.24m

Q2:
hFE=373
Ie=2.6mA
Ube=144mV
ICE0=0.23m

I also have two others I bought at the same time with these values:

Extra 1:
hFE=510
Ie=3.1mA
Ube=150mV
ICE0=0.18m

Extra 2:
hFE=597
Ie=3.5mA
Ube=151mV
ICE0=0.44m

Any advice and settings, parts, etc. I can change to get the signal to clean up at low guitar volume would be greatly appreciated!

IMG_3168.jpg
 
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