FAO: Miek, TimHulio & other competent people

[Fran]

I'm looking for an opinion on this modification plz..
Always liked the sound of the Seymour Duncan Tweak Fuzz but been put off by the notorious volume drop.
Various sources are saying if you remove the R4 and R5 resistors, place R5 in the R4 position then put a jumper in the old R5 position it solves the problem. Does this mod appear kosher or is it just circuit bending? Could it damage the pedal?

This video shows some of this. Sound quality is shit compared to stock videos but for purposes of the mod:
[youtube][/youtube]

[timhulio]

It's a silicon fuzz face by the looks of things. The R4/R5 stuff doesn't make any sense if the resistor numbering is the same as this schematic:
http://analogguru.an.ohost.de/193/schem ... akFuzz.gif

Don't see why there'd be a volume drop however. Maybe get a different fuzzface variant?

[Fran]

Cheers Tim.
I've already got two Fuzz Faces i made myself, i dunno, just always liked the sound of this on older demos. I see what you mean looking at that schematic..
Well i picked one up cheap so when it arrives i'll report back on the volume issue

[Mike]

Very odd - looks like it would increase the final gain stage a bit.

Odd it's got a volume drop - if it does that is always best fixed with a post volume output boost stage rather than stuff of this sort that might affect the sound of the thing

[NickS]

R4/R5 form a potential divider so the output voltage swing at the collector of transistor Q2 is reduced in the ratio R4/(R4+R5) at the output cap C2; around 1/19th. The change effectively puts the cap on the collector of Q2 with no potential divider but takes the collector load down slightly, so that's an output level increase of around 18 times over the stock circuit.

You could try 6k8 for R5 and 1k8 for R4 as a compromise that maintains the same nominal collector load but gives you an output level increase of around 4 times over the standard circuit. I'd try that as a cheap compromise least likely to affect the sound.

[benecol]

Was just about to post the same thing, but Nick beat me to it.

[Fran]

Thanks for the replies.
I've read on full volume the pedal does match you bypassed signal level and seymour duncan have said it was meant to be this way in the tradition of old Fuzz pedals. Makes sense. Perhaps it wont be an issue after all.

[NickS]

Thanks for the replies.
I've read on full volume the pedal does match you bypassed signal level and seymour duncan have said it was meant to be this way in the tradition of old Fuzz pedals. Makes sense. Perhaps it wont be an issue after all.

The fuzz face-based fuzzes I've built I've made the output level higher than bypass because it makes it more flexible - I most often use it with the gain turned down as a dirty boost. If you want to kick it in for a lead line or break you often want a bit of boost too, rather than having to stomp two pedals at once. IMHO. YMMV.

[Mike]

I love Fuzz Faces on full whack (fuzzwise) with the volume pot on the guitar (or built into the front end of teh pedal) used to pad down for overdriver sounds.

[Fran]

Thanks for the replies.
I've read on full volume the pedal does match you bypassed signal level and seymour duncan have said it was meant to be this way in the tradition of old Fuzz pedals. Makes sense. Perhaps it wont be an issue after all.

The fuzz face-based fuzzes I've built I've made the output level higher than bypass because it makes it more flexible - I most often use it with the gain turned down as a dirty boost. If you want to kick it in for a lead line or break you often want a bit of boost too, rather than having to stomp two pedals at once. IMHO. YMMV.

Yeah definitely. Although, when i use Fuzz i tend to use it as my main sound and wind the volume down for cleans/crunch like Mike mentioned. To be honest the only way i have ever been satisfied with boost for leads has been channel switching on the Amp. Kicking something like a TS in is good to boost the mids but never cuts through like switching to a louder channel.

It is more of a curiosity play-it-in-your-room purchase at this stage, i dont think Fuzz would work in the Punk band.

[Mike]

It's because of the headroom you can also gain doing it via the amp I think.

The only other way to get this effect I think is using something with massive clean input headroom like a Twin, and then having your overdrive pedal with a pure volume boost after it for volume hike for solos.

Most amps will just compress with this setup though

[Fran]

I picked the Tweak Fuzz up today, had about 30 mins with it. Sounds great and i cant see the volume being an issue, its certainly not as quiet as the MXR Blue Box, about the same volume as a Big Muff i think.

The gain comes to life around 3 o clock but is quite subtle to nothing on low settings. The six Tweak modes go from trebly to thick left to right and the lower frequencies and gain seems to increase as well. Up to yet modes two and three being my favorite using a Telecaster.
Impressed with it, it is smaller than it appears on pics as well.

[Ainm]

I picked the Tweak Fuzz up today, had about 30 mins with it. Sounds great and i cant see the volume being an issue, its certainly not as quiet as the MXR Blue Box, about the same volume as a Big Muff i think.

The gain comes to life around 3 o clock but is quite subtle to nothing on low settings. The six Tweak modes go from trebly to thick left to right and the lower frequencies and gain seems to increase as well. Up to yet modes two and three being my favorite using a Telecaster.
Impressed with it, it is smaller than it appears on pics as well.

+1

I got one of these a couple of months ago in a trade. I think it's unfairly maligned. Mine isn't unusually quiet or anything. It doesn't really clean up with the guitar's volume knob like a fuzz face, but you can set it up to do a nice heavy overdrive sound on position 2 of the tweak knob. I'm glad I'm not the only one that likes it.

[Mike]

I can't get over how ugly the graphics/control labels are for a company of that size.

[SGJarrod]

I can't get over how ugly the graphics/control labels are for a company of that size.

whu'd uz say bout Peavey?....lulz