New fuzz face V original ones

ChrisFFTA · Post by **ChrisFFTA** » 02 Dec 2008, 01:32

Now there is quite a resounding agreement that the new fuzz faces suck ass... but how different are they from the originals? I am thinking of getting a GGG clone... is it pure original mojo or will it sound like the newer reissues?

Fuzzer · Post by **Fuzzer** » 02 Dec 2008, 14:56

The blue one (Jimi Hendrix Brand) is good, it sounds good to me, its Silicon.

I don't know if the red ones are worth.

earthtonesaudio · Post by **earthtonesaudio** » 02 Dec 2008, 16:29

The thing about the originals is that they varied widely from one unit to the next. Some sounded great, others not so much. Mainly this was due to two reasons: the use of germanium transistors, and the minimum components configuration. Ge varies a lot from device to device, so that makes each one different even if every other part was the same. Si devices vary also, but not nearly as bad as Ge. Combine that with the fact that FF's are made with like 10 components, and each component begins to have a greater influence on the sound. I'm not saying the passive devices have mojo tone or anything, but the circuit's simplicity makes part tolerance on each part matter more.

Now hopefully the reissues were based on "good" originals, but there's a chance the reissues are accurate copies of the bad sounding originals! In either case, the new ones are probably more consistent from one to the next, due to tighter tolerances on components, and possibly also due to extra circuitry to compensate for device variation and tailor the frequency response to be like the original.

I don't know what the original "good sounding" ones sounded like, since I've never had a chance to play one, neither do I know what the new ones sound like. All I've heard in the way of FF's have been ones I've made on the breadboard.

Check out GEOFEX:
http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/f ... fffram.htm

bumblebee · Post by **bumblebee** » 02 Dec 2008, 23:34

At least if you make one you know you CAN get it to sound good. Smallbear sells tested Ge transistors for the FF, and he ships the correct resistor values with them too so you can bias it right, you might want to look into that. You can also get just the PCB from GGG.