Talk:Fuzz Face

Germanium transistors
The geremanium artikle states :Vintage effects pedals known to contain germanium transistors have shown marked increases in collector value for this reason alone. But I cna finde no reliable source for this fact. Has anybody a source for this?--Stone (talk) 14:05, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

"There is debate amongst Fuzz Face enthusiasts as to which were the first transistors to be used in the unit. Most people generally agree that the AC128[3] transistor was the first, though a few say that the NKT275 was the first. Still others claim that the "Arbiter" Fuzz Face, (the first run of the unit) had SF363 transistors in it (See 1992 Guitar Player Mag. Distortion Special)." The early AC128 and SF363E Fuzz Faces are probably only a myth. I've seen many pictures of early (i.e. "Arbiter • England" labled) Fuzz Faces and they all had NKT275s. Analog Man writes about the AC128s: "You will read on some websites that some original fuzzface pedals used an AC128 transistor. However, I and all my fuzzface guru friends have never seen these in an original fuzzface from the 1960s, and we have seen literally hundreds of them. The AC128 WAS found in the grey reissues made in the 90s." --Starman1984 (talk) 13:12, 19 December 2009 (UTC)

Seems like the the SFT363 and AC128 info goes back to one certain article published in a guitar magazine in the early 90's. Go figure.. Starman1984 (talk) 20:07, 21 August 2013 (UTC)

No the AC128 and SFT363 info goes back at least as far as an article by Craig Anderton in the Nov 1984 issue of Guitar Player magazine. Furthermore, Dennis Cornell himself has said they used 128s in the early ones and there is a series of photos currently on the net of an early one with 128s in. It was posted 8 years ago. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.3.249.35 (talk) 22:42, 8 April 2020 (UTC)

Fuzz face
I think the idea that all a fuzz box does is somehow introduce clipping isn't at all correct and overly simplistic. As a kid I copied the fuzz face circuit many times over using different transistors, and most times found that when looked at via oscilloscope that the output wasn't actually clipping at all but simply had limited high frequency AM  modulation superimposed on the original signal ie trace became more broad "fuzzy" as the signal amplitude increased. When higher band gap high beta silicon devices were used, sometimes the fuzz boxxes became a little too sensitive at which point they beagan to behave as radio receivers, and then they would happliy demodulate local radio broadcast signals. I had to put them in diecast boxes to stop them becoming regenerative receivers. Strangely, musicians appeared to prefer the thick sound and richness of these more unstable devices. By comparison & contrast, using IC schmidt triggers or clipping comparators frankly just sounded lame and dreadful. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 222.152.137.155 (talk) 07:31, 30 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Straight clipping has a tremendous amount of high frequency content. A mathematically perfect square wave, when regarded in the frequency domain, consists of an infinite series of harmonics. If we low-pass filter the distortion (a necessary tonal adjustment to make fuzz sound good!), so that only a few of the harmonics are present, then the shape is different: it becomes obvious that there are high frequency components riding on top of lower frequency components. Maybe this is what you saw on the scope?192.139.122.42 (talk) 20:47, 26 April 2011 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Fuzz Face. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20071022233005/http://modernguitars.com/archives/001025.html to http://www.modernguitars.com/archives/001025.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 04:46, 9 October 2017 (UTC)