Fuzz Face

Fuzz Face is a legendary fuzz circiut used by Jimi Hendrix amongst others. First produced by Arbiter Electronics Ltd. in 1966.

As with most Germanium transistor circuits it most often uses PNP transistors and therefore a positive ground. You can get around this in one of (at least) three ways. Either you could use NPN Germaniums, which is slightly harder to find but definitely possible. Secondly you could (as the layouts on this page does) use silicon NPN transistors. Lastly you could use a charge pump, transforming your negative ground supply into a positive ground.

PCB layout for silicon NPN

This is a verified silicon (BC183L) Fuzz Face pcb layout with onboard led resistor. Note that the 22uF capacitor needs to be folded down, flat againts the board for the potentiometer to fit. See gut shot to see how to install this board in your stompbox.

Alternative layout

While this layout is believed to be correct it is not verified.



Correction: Both pots should have pin 1 grounded. The "Vol 1" connection from the board should therefore be "Vol 3".

Links

Fuzz Central - Has a few different Fuzz Face schematics, PNP and NPN.
Short Scale - Veroboard layout for NPN Fuzz Face.
Muzuque - PNP Fuzz Face with negative ground!
Transistor Array - Thread talking about using a transistor array to build a Fuzz Face.
Silicon Fuzz Face - Underrated version of a silicon Fuzz Face.