Homebrew'd Fuzz troubleshooting!

[CTN]

So I built my fuzz pedal, but now I face a couple of dilemmae, and I need some help fixing it.

1) It can't deal with the hot input signals present all over my pedalboard. When I plug it into my pedal board, even with all other effects off, it can't handle the hot input from my wireless unit. Now I set my wireless unit's output to be roughly the same as my guitar's, so it's not THAAAT hot, but even so, when hit with that hot signal, my fuzz totally over-clips and farts out.

2) It sounds a bit anemic...I would like to get more natural bass outta the thing. But if I can fix the input problem, this bit might not be a problem.

This is the schem i used:

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Homebrew'd Fuzz troubleshooting!

It's not the signal strength, you can't run vintage style fuzzes wiht most (all?) wireless units...there is an impedence mismatch thats causing your issues.

Try just a guitar (with passive pickups), a cord and an amp...

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Homebrew'd Fuzz troubleshooting!

As for the weak sound, that could be a million things...what kind of trannys did you use?

Whats the gain range on them?

Are the a good match?

[ratherdashing]

Re: Homebrew'd Fuzz troubleshooting!

Is this the same homemade fuzz you posted about a couple weeks ago? I recall you used silicon transistors with an absolutely insane amount of gain (almost triple the recommended "sweet spot" gain for a FF circuit). You also did a few other tweaks as I recall.

I also recall saying that you've basically built yourself a square wave generator/bit crusher pedal (i.e. the signal is clipped almost beyond recognition). Hate to say "I told you so", but ...

As a starting point I would track down some lower gain transistors.

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Homebrew'd Fuzz troubleshooting!

Is this the same homemade fuzz you posted about a couple weeks ago? I recall you used silicon transistors with an absolutely insane amount of gain (almost triple the recommended "sweet spot" gain for a FF circuit). You also did a few other tweaks as I recall.

I also recall saying that you've basically built yourself a square wave generator/bit crusher pedal (i.e. the signal is clipped almost beyond recognition). Hate to say "I told you so", but ...

As a starting point I would track down some lower gain transistors.

I recall that thread...had a bad feeling about that from the get go...add to that the impedence mismatch from a wireless unit and...well, it sounds bad!

[ratherdashing]

Re: Homebrew'd Fuzz troubleshooting!

Another thought:

A FF is an extremely simple circuit. It has no input buffer, and expects a high impedance signal, like from a guitar with passive pickups. This is why they often work unpredictably with other pedals in front of them - those pedals are lowering the impedance.

Your wireless unit is putting out a low impedance signal, similar to active pickups or a pedal. You said you're turning the level down to compensate, but the impedance will remain constant regardless of level.

In short, it's quite possible your circuit simply won't work with your wireless.

[ratherdashing]

Re: Homebrew'd Fuzz troubleshooting!

I recall that thread...had a bad feeling about that from the get go...add to that the impedence mismatch from a wireless unit and...well, it sounds bad!

Yeah, I think I figured that out just as you were posting

[CTN]

Re: Homebrew'd Fuzz troubleshooting!

hmm....so you're saying I need to mod the input to a high impedance?

It doesn't sound bad actually...it sounds just like i wanted it to, thick, fuzzy and nasty.

I just gotta get it to play nice with my other effects.

[ratherdashing]

Re: Homebrew'd Fuzz troubleshooting!

hmm....so you're saying I need to mod the input to a high impedance?

It doesn't sound bad actually...it sounds just like i wanted it to, thick, fuzzy and nasty.

I just gotta get it to play nice with my other effects.

Eh, no. We're saying there's an impedance mismatch.

Again, the fuzz is expecting a high impedance signal on the input. That's just the nature of the FF circuit. Your wireless unit is outputting a low impedance signal. These things can't be changed.

You have to understand that the FF was created back when there was no such thing as a wireless unit, or active pickups, and nobody had more than two or three effects in their rig. Impedance mismatches were never a problem, because nobody did anything besides plug a passive-equipped guitar into their FF.

Strictly speaking, the FF circuit is obsolete. It doesn't play nice with modern buffered effects. You could mod it so that it accepts low impedance signals, but it wouldn't be a FF any more.

[ratherdashing]

Re: Homebrew'd Fuzz troubleshooting!

This page has some more info. Take a look at the "signal buffers before the fuzz" section.

http://www.chrisbrownguitar.com/gear-pages/56-fuzz-face-fixes-and-mods.html