What's your favorite Fuzz Face build?

jwyles90

jwyles90

Well-known member
Hey all,

I know that this is an entirely subjective and probably impossible to answer question, but I'm curious what your favorite Fuzz Face builds are (Pedal PCB or otherwise). A friend asked me to build them one, and of all the fuzz types out there it's the one I have the least experience with or knowledge of what the different varieties sound like. So, I thought I'd ask the collective group here since y'all probably have a lot more combined knowledge on that specific kind of build than I do.
 
The DAM Meathead Dark is a modified Colorsound One Knob Fuzz which is itself a modified silicon fuzz face. It does one thing just so incredibly well.

The problem here is what sort of fuzz face they're after. Classic germanium with all the mojo? Silicon fuzz face? Some modified panel of knobs and switches that they can tweak until the sun burns out?
 
ICTRock said:
The DAM Meathead Dark is a modified Colorsound One Knob Fuzz which is itself a modified silicon fuzz face. It does one thing just so incredibly well.

The problem here is what sort of fuzz face they're after. Classic germanium with all the mojo? Silicon fuzz face? Some modified panel of knobs and switches that they can tweak until the sun burns out?
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Haha yea I get that, it definitely seems like it's a bit of a rabbit hole with fuzz in general as far as the different variations out there. They don't have a ton of experience with pedals, so I was thinking simpler is better here. I saw that the Twin Face pcb has an option for both Germanium and silicon voicings, which seemed like it could be cool to have at least a little bit of tweakability there. I'll check out the Meathead though, that sounds cool too!
 
I'll just leave this here. These are stripboard layouts. Enjoy!
1-Knob-Fuzzes.png
 
BuddytheReow said:
I'll just leave this here. These are stripboard layouts. Enjoy!
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Thanks for this! I haven't quite gotten to the point of doing my own stripboard layouts yet, but a Fuzz Face seems like a good place to start for that so I'll definitely try one of these when I finally get around to that.
 
JamieJ said:
My favourite fuzz face is a tone bender. 😂

In all seriousness any correctly biased fuzz face with either a 470nF/1uF input cap works for me!
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Man don't get me started on Tone Benders, that is a rabbit hole I've been very happy to get lost in these days. So simple but so many options!
 
jwyles90 said:
Thanks for this! I haven't quite gotten to the point of doing my own stripboard layouts yet, but a Fuzz Face seems like a good place to start for that so I'll definitely try one of these when I finally get around to that.
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TUTORIAL - What's the Deal With Stripboard/Veroboard?

A few people have asked me about stripboard so I thought I'd do a simple writeup. Turned out a lot longer to make it "simple", but I covered the bases here. What is Stripboard? Stripboard is simply a different type of prototyping platform. If soldering is your main vice, this is the way to go...
forum.pedalpcb.com forum.pedalpcb.com
 
JamieJ said:
For context what guitar and amp does your friend play and what music do they like?
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This was my exact question as well.

I've built a wide variety fuzzes and want to love tone benders and fuzz faces but I always end up coming back to the Soviet era big muffs as my favorite. I did like the hybrid tone bender

I find that I'm not getting enough volume with my GE fuzz face and tone benders. I know I can mod those but I haven't as of yet. Just as a basis of comparison, I play Sabbath kind of music, tuned to either d standard, drop c standard, or b standard, and I'm playing through either a Plexi or TMB.
 
JamieJ said:
For context what guitar and amp does your friend play and what music do they like?
Click to expand...
gheorge77 said:
This was my exact question as well.

I've built a wide variety fuzzes and want to love tone benders and fuzz faces but I always end up coming back to the Soviet era big muffs as my favorite. I did like the hybrid tone bender

I find that I'm not getting enough volume with my GE fuzz face and tone benders. I know I can mod those but I haven't as of yet. Just as a basis of comparison, I play Sabbath kind of music, tuned to either d standard, drop c standard, or b standard, and I'm playing through either a Plexi or TMB.
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My friend asked me to build a pedal for her husband's birthday, so my knowledge of his gear is limited to some second hand info. As far as I know, he plays a Strat and uses your average, run of the mill solid state amp. He doesn't have anything super fancy and his only other pedal is a looper, but he's been getting more into it lately so she asked for a Fuzz Face since I think he's into some Hendrix style stuff and that seemed like a good starter fuzz for him.
 
almondcity said:
Foxx tone machine :sneaky:

Let me state that this is half a joke and not a fuzz face, but it is a nice fuzz pedal, plus it has the octave switch
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Haha yea I was looking at that one and was a little surprised by the recommendation. Although it does seem like a cool pedal, I'm all about octave switches
 
Big Monk said:
I would say that if he plays a Strat into an everyday, decent solid state amp, you can probably lean toward the stock Fuzz Face circuit.
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Yea I've been thinking that would probably be best. Debating now between the Sandspur Fuzz or the Twin Face. Or maybe I'll just make both and keep the one I end up not giving him...
 
Personally, I like the Burns Buzz Around fuzz (PedalPCB "Gnat"). I know it's not a Fuzz Face, but its timbre and sustain are amazing. Finding the right BJTs and biasing properly is the fun part. Admittedly, playing thru one is even more fun.
 
For Ge fuzz face builds these days, be aware it can be a challenge to source Ge transistors in the correct Hfe range, or you may want to buy a lot and test the Hfe yourself. Smallbear used to sell pre-tested kits for FF, not sure if there’s anywhere doing that sort of thing currently.
 
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