Having a go at building a Fuzzrite, a few questions

[Olav]

We'll wait. Most important is, you got it to work. Sounded good to you when you played through it?

[mikethemod1992]

yeah, i dunno if it will work the second time though, no indicators went off, but i wont rule it out!

ill build another one soon, and do a tutorial thread. Incase you decide to go through with yours!

[Mr. Bill]

Sorry that I wasn't around here for the holiday break. It looks like you got it all figured out anyway.

For those keeping track, EBC stand for the three terminals of a bipolar transistor. E=emitter, B=base and C=collector.

[mikethemod1992]

Thanks Mr. Bill, i know who to come to when i start building more

[Mr_McRuff]

I have the Transistors, Resistors, etc that were described on Mr. Bill's list. Does anybody have any advice as to how big my perf board should be? I am following the schematic from fuzzcentral.


excuse my ignorance, but what is EBC? this is my first time attempting anything like this so i dont know what some of this stuff means.
Could somebody possibly post a finished photo of the guts of one of theirs? Thanks

Hi - to answer your first question about EBC, the letters stand for the different points of connection to the transistor (each one of the three leads coming from the device) E= emitter, B= base & C= collector. These points are critical to proper transistor hook-up and biasing. The exact configuration can vary from trans to trans or manufacturer to manufacturer. Your best bet is to obtain a data sheet when purchasing the transistor (usually they will come with one). Germanium devices are usually said to be 'warmer' in tone, but it depends on your preference when playing - if it sounds better to you that's good - it may not be what the next person is into. Many pedal companies (industry as a whole) started getting away from germanium (Ge for short - check your Periodic Table) and using silicon because it can be a very unstable device in regards to temperature. I know one player who loved his Ge Fuzz Face until he played an outdoor gig and the temps fell into the mid 40s. His pedal all but stopped working - very blatty, sputtering noise coming from the stage. He was unaware of the problems with Ge devices and now uses the pedal in the studio and warmer venues. For outdoor gigs I built him a custom Fuzz Face clone with silicon transistors - it doesn't fail at low temps and he loves it. A cold garage floor could also make a Ge pedal do strange things. This is why Mosrite discontinued Ge in favor of Si transistors.

[Veenture]

Some great info Mr_McRuff, cool that you can build 'em yourself.
BTW, welcome to the forum. Allow me a little pointer; in order for the other members to be aware of your presence here, do a quick introduction of yourself in the "INTRODUCTION" section since not everyone may be visiting this thread

[Mr. Bill]

Yes, welcome to the place Mr. McRuff.

What you say is all true regarding Ge vs. Si FX pedals. I personally prefer the sound of Ge Fuzz Face pedals.

Sonically the Fuzzrite circuit sounds amazingly the same regardless of the type of transistor used. Someone here on the board bought an original Ge Fuzzrite and did a comparison. I think he was disappointed that the Ge wasn't warmer sounding than the Si version. Just for grins, I breadboarded a Ge version and found that it was very similar to the Si version tone wise, close enough to not feel that there is a good enough reason to put up with the problems of Ge transistors.