Fuzz box

[whisky182]

i was just wondering how hard/expencive it is to make (i'm just wondering if it is cheeper to make one then to buy one off e-bay!)

[rob]

I know on ebay there used to be buy it now kits with geranium transitors for £10, I don't know if they are still on there though...

[rob]

just had a serch around on ebay and can't find it no more, try serching around on google, the only thing I think that has to be supplied by your self is the case.

[lovekraft]

It's kind of a trade-off, Whisky - you can build a fuzzbox dirt cheap, but if you make something that sounds really good and is reliable enough to gig with, it'll probably be nearly as expensive as a production unit is (used). Then there's the issue of construction - I've got a Fuzzface clone that I built in a Hammond box that has gain for days, sounds scary good, but it's so noisy that it's virtually unusable because I threw it together and it has some serious lead dress issues and cheap components used throughout ( it was a "junkbox build"). Unless you're pretty good at audio electronics, you probably won't be able to make a good sounding fuzz that's both stable and quiet. That said, if you've got some cash to experiment with, and the patience and time to debug it, go for it - you'll learn a lot about high gain circuits, and you migh end up with something really nice. Check out Aron Nelson's Stompbox Page and Geofex for more info.

[otgordin]

Hey.

Here is a site that breaks down a fuzz face by component, and explains what everything does and what and where to mod. A pretty good read if you are looking into building a ff.

Technology of the Fuzz Face

-Vadim

[Setch]

I put one together a couple of years ago, and still use it a lot. Here's a small page about it I made back when I was playing with html. The trick to a good one is the matched transistors from Steve @ smallbear. I still have two sets waiting for me to build another...