andare
Well-known member
I built this germanium Fuzz Face for a friend. It's my first commission so of course Murphy's Law decided to apply. After boxing it up it started to sound gated with a farty cleanup.
The circuit worked perfectly on the breadboard so I built it on eyelet board. Here it is powered by a 9V battery through my Auditorium and alligator clips to connect the pots, working as intended:
The circuit is stock except for a 220nF input cap and a A250k volume pot to make it less woofy. I have an issue with Fuzz Faces and Tone Bender MKIIs I build, they all have flabby low end and they lose attack on the low strings, especially on the neck pickup. No idea if it's the transistors I have on hand - ASY33 and ASY34. Those two mods take care of the issue without changing the basic tone.
I built a voltage inverter using the following schematic. I've used this before without issues:
With my power supply I get these voltages:
DC Jack 8.99V
TC1044SCPA Pins:
Transistors:
Gutshots:
Ugly but everything checks out. I get continuity where expected. I used the DC Jack breakout board for cleaner connections to +9V and ground. The voltage inverter is on two layers of double-sided foam tape. I thoroughly checked it for shorts and bridges while building it.
The board is mounted to the enclosure with the two bolts you see. There are 5mm plastic spacers on the bolts to give clearance to the wires under the board. The left bolt is grounded, the right one isn't. I guess it doesn't make contact with the raw enclosure. The empty eyelets are isolated.
Bending the transistors around doesn't change anything.
Since the circuit worked on the board before boxing it up, the problem must arise from the wiring or voltage inverter.
I hope I have provided enough information. I appreciate any help you can offer. Even just the theory of how and why a fuzz might gate would be useful for future builds.
Thank you,
Andre
The circuit worked perfectly on the breadboard so I built it on eyelet board. Here it is powered by a 9V battery through my Auditorium and alligator clips to connect the pots, working as intended:
The circuit is stock except for a 220nF input cap and a A250k volume pot to make it less woofy. I have an issue with Fuzz Faces and Tone Bender MKIIs I build, they all have flabby low end and they lose attack on the low strings, especially on the neck pickup. No idea if it's the transistors I have on hand - ASY33 and ASY34. Those two mods take care of the issue without changing the basic tone.
I built a voltage inverter using the following schematic. I've used this before without issues:
With my power supply I get these voltages:
DC Jack 8.99V
TC1044SCPA Pins:
- 8.94V
- 5.15V
- 0
- -3.63V
- -8.75V
- 4.03V
- 5.48V
- -8.94V
Transistors:
- Q1b -0.12V
- Q1c -0.68V
- Q1e 0
- Q2b -0.68V
- Q2c -4.93V
- Q2e 0
Gutshots:
Ugly but everything checks out. I get continuity where expected. I used the DC Jack breakout board for cleaner connections to +9V and ground. The voltage inverter is on two layers of double-sided foam tape. I thoroughly checked it for shorts and bridges while building it.
The board is mounted to the enclosure with the two bolts you see. There are 5mm plastic spacers on the bolts to give clearance to the wires under the board. The left bolt is grounded, the right one isn't. I guess it doesn't make contact with the raw enclosure. The empty eyelets are isolated.
Bending the transistors around doesn't change anything.
Since the circuit worked on the board before boxing it up, the problem must arise from the wiring or voltage inverter.
I hope I have provided enough information. I appreciate any help you can offer. Even just the theory of how and why a fuzz might gate would be useful for future builds.
Thank you,
Andre
