The Fuzz Thread

[SillyOctpuss]

First impressions- WTF is up with the volume? I need to crank the thing past halfway for it to be unity gain with the amp, on the EJ FF it's at unity where it's at in the picture. VERY different than the EJ FF.....

The JHF1 uses a "vintage correct ish" 470k Audio taper pot so most of the action is at the top of the sweep. The EJ uses a 500k reverse log so the taper is different and generally more usable IMO

Any chance of some gut shots when you get a chance. Your love of the EJ FF makes me want to build one again. Your experiences with it are totally different from mine and I wonder if I mucked something up the last time I built one.

 

[DrewJD82]

The JHF1 uses a "vintage correct ish" 470k Audio taper pot so most of the action is at the top of the sweep. The EJ uses a 500k reverse log so the taper is different and generally more usable IMO

Any chance of some gut shots when you get a chance. Your love of the EJ FF makes me want to build one again. Your experiences with it are totally different from mine and I wonder if I mucked something up the last time I built one.

That would make sense why the volume pot works very differently! That's kind of surprising, you'd think EJ would want his to act exactly like an old one. Just turned the amp on to start noodling around with these again. The last time I used my fuzzes it was so damn noisy it wasn't worth it as the noise persisted while I was playing, but now that I got the Cioks stuff powering everything but the fuzzes it's no longer an out of control mess.

I just ordered one of these-

Mighty Fuzz Explorer Board Kit

Guidebook Download The Mighty Fuzz Explorer Board Guidebook PDF The Mighty Fuzz Explorer Board is an unassembled learning board and prototyping kit to help you explore two different celebrated fuzz circuits (the Fuzz Face and the Tonebender) in a neat and organized way. Jumper wire spaghetti be...

huntingtonaudio.com

I'm anxious as hell to start digging in and understanding how this shit works!

Edit- Just saw that pot is 470K on the EJ and here's the Hendrix-

 

[DrewJD82]

Holy fucking infuriating; apparently the obnoxious noise issue is intermittent and it's back now. This isn't "It's a fuzz, of course it's noisy" noise, it's unfuckingusable because the noise is just as loud as the fucking guitar the whole time you're playing. I know every outlet in this room is on the same circuit, I should try getting some power elsewhere.

I wish I knew what were causing it, it was GREAT earlier today but I can't do shit with them now.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

Holy fucking infuriating; apparently the obnoxious noise issue is intermittent and it's back now. This isn't "It's a fuzz, of course it's noisy" noise, it's unfuckingusable because the noise is just as loud as the fucking guitar the whole time you're playing. I know every outlet in this room is on the same circuit, I should try getting some power elsewhere.

I wish I knew what were causing it, it was GREAT earlier today but I can't do shit with them now.

You're not running a washing machine are you? I can't use fuzz when I've got my washing machine going. I get a load of noise that pulses with the spinning of my washing machine drum. It only happens with FFs and Tone Benders.

 

[DrewJD82]

You're not running a washing machine are you? I can't use fuzz when I've got my washing machine going. I get a load of noise that pulses with the spinning of my washing machine drum. It only happens with FFs and Tone Benders.

I'm not, but I'm in an apartment complex and who knows what my neighbors got going on. I don't have anything running but my lights and tv, but who TF knows what the wiring looks like in this place. They DID just have to shut every building down to replace the incoming power connections because they were so bad.

Have you tried the RF cap mod?

 

[SillyOctpuss]

View attachment 57333
View attachment 57334
View attachment 57335

That would make sense why the volume pot works very differently! That's kind of surprising, you'd think EJ would want his to act exactly like an old one. Just turned the amp on to start noodling around with these again. The last time I used my fuzzes it was so damn noisy it wasn't worth it as the noise persisted while I was playing, but now that I got the Cioks stuff powering everything but the fuzzes it's no longer an out of control mess.

I just ordered one of these-

Mighty Fuzz Explorer Board Kit

Guidebook Download The Mighty Fuzz Explorer Board Guidebook PDF The Mighty Fuzz Explorer Board is an unassembled learning board and prototyping kit to help you explore two different celebrated fuzz circuits (the Fuzz Face and the Tonebender) in a neat and organized way. Jumper wire spaghetti be...

huntingtonaudio.com

I'm anxious as hell to start digging in and understanding how this shit works!

Edit- Just saw that pot is 470K on the EJ and here's the Hendrix-

View attachment 57340
View attachment 57341
View attachment 57343

Ah they're both 470k. I thought the EJ was 500. Though with a 20% tolerance it doesn't really matter. Its the Rev log on the EJ vs Log taper on the JH that makes the difference. Thanks for the pics, i love looking at FF gut shots.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

I'm not, but I'm in an apartment complex and who knows what my neighbors got going on. I don't have anything running but my lights and tv, but who TF knows what the wiring looks like in this place. They DID just have to shut every building down to replace the incoming power connections because they were so bad.

Have you tried the RF cap mod?

Not on a FF but did do it on a wah. I kept picking up Belfast Cool FM radio at our rehearsal room

 

[Dave Lewis]

A good thing to try if you can is plug an extension lead into a cooker socket If you have one available?
Cooker boxes are on a totally separate mains to everything else in a homes ring main.
That way you won’t get any noise from anything else.

 

[Chocol8]

A good thing to try if you can is plug an extension lead into a cooker socket If you have one available?
Cooker boxes are on a totally separate mains to everything else in a homes ring main.
That way you won’t get any noise from anything else.

A Florida apartment isn’t wired up like a UK home. Drew won’t have a cooker socket but he might have a stove outlet. The problem is it will be 220/240 volt going back to both rails of the same circuit panel that all his other 120v outlets go to. If there is noise on the rails the stove outlet will pick it up.

Fuzzes dont use a lot of power so I would start by trying to run off of battery. If that doesn’t solve the problem you know it isn’t power and can move on.

 

[JiveTurkey]

A Florida apartment isn’t wired up like a UK home. Drew won’t have a cooker socket but he might have a stove outlet. The problem is it will be 220/240 volt going back to both rails of the same circuit panel that all his other 120v outlets go to. If there is noise on the rails the stove outlet will pick it up.

Fuzzes dont use a lot of power so I would start by trying to run off of battery. If that doesn’t solve the problem you know it isn’t power and can move on.

One thing that has modeling has spoiled us with is a QUIET signal chain.

 

[Dave Lewis]

This and it’s bigger brother are brilliant
https://www.thomann.co.uk/harley_benton_powerplant_iso_li05_powerbank.htm

 

[Chocol8]

This and it’s bigger brother are brilliant
https://www.thomann.co.uk/harley_benton_powerplant_iso_li05_powerbank.htm

That only isolates noise from other pedals. He might need a power conditioner but that is way more expensive than batteries.

 

[DrewJD82]

These Fuzz Faces only take batteries, but there definitely was some additional noise coming down the line from that shitty Chinese PSU I was using before I got the Cioks. I read last night that AM stations boost their signal in the evening, which would make sense why I'm able to use the fuzzes during the day but after a certain point they're unusable. I'm going to have to rearrange some shit in my studio and get all the power as far away from the audio paths as possible, though I'm not confident it will help much, I'd imagine having a power strip right next to an amp probably isn't helping things.

Edit-
There's a few things that I will act irrationally over and lose my temper in a matter of seconds, noise like this is one of them. I just plugged everything again and almost smashed my Strat right down on top of the Fuzz Face, so I won't be plugging these in again today if I want them to stay in one piece. Clearly AM radio signals aren't just strong at night.

 

[dronerstone]

This and it’s bigger brother are brilliant
https://www.thomann.co.uk/harley_benton_powerplant_iso_li05_powerbank.htm

Let's put it this way - it's good for that price.

Ever since I switched to Cioks, I'm amazed how noisy some of the affordable isolated PSU's are.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Drew, just go through each pedal and cable separately if you haven't already, just to see if it's one thing in particular causing it. If it is bad power in your building, then maybe consider getting an isolation transformer with noise suppression to plug your gear into.

 

[Dave Lewis]

Let's put it this way - it's good for that price.

Ever since I switched to Cioks, I'm amazed how noisy some of the affordable isolated PSU's are.

I’ve been using the mains powered HB ISO PRO power supplies for a few years and they don’t make a sound.
They are outstanding true isolated PSUs
I bought one of these HB pedal switching boxes with built in ISO PSU a few months ago and that also doesn’t make a sound.
For £89 it’s a no brainer.

 

[Dave Lewis]

This has been my favourite hand built fuzz pedal since it arrived last year.

 

[Dave Lewis]

He does build smaller box versions of the above pedal.

FUZZER

VINTAGE INSPIRED FUZZ DEMO VIDEOS & MORE INFO HERE Lovingly and meticulously handmade to order with a current estimated build time is 6 weeks....

shop.nrgeffects.com

 

[DrewJD82]

Drew, just go through each pedal and cable separately if you haven't already, just to see if it's one thing in particular causing it. If it is bad power in your building, then maybe consider getting an isolation transformer with noise suppression to plug your gear into.

I already tried Guitar-Fuzz Face-Amp and there's no change. That said, the amp is sitting on a shelf with a power strip right next to it, from the amp it hits the load box then the Boss SDE on the floor then the front of my AxeFX. There's so much audio and power running in the same area I'm not surprised it's not noisier.

The Power Station is going to be dropped off any second, once it's here I'll move to the living room where I'll be using different circuits in the apartment and I'll try a few different configurations.

 

[Dave Lewis]

I already tried Guitar-Fuzz Face-Amp and there's no change. That said, the amp is sitting on a shelf with a power strip right next to it, from the amp it hits the load box then the Boss SDE on the floor then the front of my AxeFX. There's so much audio and power running in the same area I'm not surprised it's not noisier.

The Power Station is going to be dropped off any second, once it's here I'll move to the living room where I'll be using different circuits in the apartment and I'll try a few different configurations.

I hope it works for you