4/16/12

Red Pepper Germanium Fuzz Face Clone Completed!

I was finally able to finish up the Red Pepper fuzz this weekend.  I started this back in September.  You may recall the testing-and-sorting-of-the-germanium-transistors-project I did back in September and October.  And making the circuit board.  And getting interrupted by other projects.

At any rate, I got the pcb installed and everything wired up.

Since the transistors are PNP and the circuit is wired positive ground, I decided to not even bother putting a external DC jack on it.  Battery only, just like an old Fuzz Face.

There's a fair amount of tone control - in addition to the stock Fuzz Face 'Fuzz' (I call it 'Heat') and 'Volume' controls, I added a 'Drive' (input volume), and a 'Bite' (contour for the first transistor) as well as a 'Fat/Thin' switch to select the input capacitor value. 

The transistors are socketed so they can be switched out easily.

Here's one of the Tungsram AC128 germanium transistors.

About 20% of the lot of 100 I bought are usable.

I want to use the others in germanium buffer pedals.

The front panel. 

I used a pot with a clear shaft for an LED, and a clear knob for the indicator light.   It saves a little space on the panel, and I wanted to try it out.

Looks pretty cool, but you have to use a 3mm LED - a 5mm won't fit.

Closeup of the LED knob.

Better pictures coming!

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