Galactic Fuzz

Category: Pedals

I've found an Australian supplier for pedal parts and circuit boards - DIY Guitar Pedals. They stock a lot of the harder to find chips, diodes & transistors, and have a good range of resistors and capacitors too. Awesome stuff.

They also have a section of PCBs and kits, so I've decided to try the FaceMaster - a germanium fuzz face.

The build went OK, apart from messing up the component order a bit, and forgetting to put on the trim pot before soldering on the pots on the back. I had to bend the pins a bit to sneak the missing part in. It all seemed to work in the end. The PCB was very small - it's designed to fit in a tiny enclosure, so everything was a lot closer together than I'm used to.

For the transistors I've used AC125 germanium transistors, also from the DIYGP site.

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The enclosure was a metal box that a watch came in. Thought I'd give it a try. The metal sides are quite thin, which was not good for drilling - the metal tended to tear rather than cut, so it turned out a bit messy and bendy in places.

I've done the wiring as two parts - on the lid and in the box, and joined with a connector. It made things easier to lay out and solder, but I'm yet to see how this holds up in the long run.

I sprayed it black, then while the paint was still wet, sprayed a quick pass of silver metallic paint. Lettering done by hand with a metallic pen, then sprayed with a clear coat.

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