silicone or germainium

[Tone seaker]

Thanks but which one (Dunlop Eric Johnson or Dunlop Jimi Hendrix) is closest to the ones Hendrix used in 68-70 and you mean fuzz not wha i presume. I really want to nail the late 60's Hendrix tone. I got the plexi stack old wha V846, Deja Vibe 2 and i just need the right Fuzz to complete it. Thank you

[yladrd61]

Thanks but which one (Dunlop Eric Johnson or Dunlop Jimi Hendrix) is closest to the ones Hendrix used in 68-70 and you mean fuzz not wha i presume. I really want to nail the late 60's Hendrix tone. I got the plexi stack old wha V846, Deja Vibe 2 and i just need the right Fuzz to complete it. Thank you

The Blue Hendrix Silicon Fuzz Face is better at the later Jimi (BOG) Woodstock, but you will need to lower the voltage on the 2nd {Q2} transistor to around 5.2 Volts, there are trim pots under the board. The EJ Fuzz would be better for the Early Jimi stuff. It has Germanium transistors which are very temperature sensitive the Voltage drops when they get hot and they warm up just from playing through them they are happiest around 5 VDC on Q2. I have a one off Area 51 Fuzz Face Germanium that was from a batch that he built for EJ it sounds great but as it gets warm the sound changes. I actually Adjust the Voltage on both of my Fuzz Faces before I use them so I know they are dialed in to the sweet spot

[Tone seaker]

[. The EJ Fuzz would be better for the Early Jimi stuff. It has Germanium transistors :

From what i understnd the EJ is silicone

[yladrd61]

OK yeah the BC 183 was Silicon, go try both of them out, and let me know what you think make sure you bring your wah and vibe to see how it interacts with them.

[garbeaj]

I just recently bought a SkinPimp Mk2 Fuzz that I absolutely love for the Jimmy Page Led Zeppelin I sound. SkinPimp makes EXCELLENT reproductions of classic fuzz pedals, and I'd recommend that you seriously give them a looksy. I have never been a fuzz or distortion pedal kind guy (maybe when I was in my 20's), but am now a more OD pedal kind of guy. I have to say that this fuzz pedal was well worth the wait. The tonal response and dynamics absolutely nail that classic Led Zep tone from their earlier years. Good fuzz pedals are semi-expensive even though they may have only a few electronic parts, but I figure where all the cost lies is in the breadboarding of (different/various) transistor combinations that have to work just right in order to replicate those vintage classic fuzz pedals of old.

Do you have any clips of this box? I'm really into Tonebenders...I have a D*A*M Solasound Professional MKII and it is the best I've heard.

[Lefty Lou]

garbeaj I most assuredly do, here's a couple clips featuring a few good Skinpimp fuzz pedal models:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD0bY-DC ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (MK I)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg7m-q-wLG4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (MK II)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6PZcvKcYCo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (MK III)

[Brandon]

Tone Seaker,

I don't know how selective you want to be with your fuzzes, but make sure to try just your standard run of the mill dunlop fuzz face as well. Surprisingly they're not bad, their silicone and they come pretty close to that tone IMHO.

You might be surprised.

I've had one for about 10 years and it's the fuzz use most!

With that said they're not handwired, and I do want to try that JH fuzz face

[Xplorer]

yeah, the blue fuzz isn't bad, really useable. I couldn't resist to this cool enclosure at first, and i don't regret. the Joe Bonamassa fuzz has some very good germanium transistors and sounds really great. totaly what i needed when i did a clone of it.
You should build your own fuzz, and test many transistors if you want exactly what you're after. Simply "silicon" or simply "germanium" isn't gonna tell you much actualy... lot of variations next to that. go on the silicon side first perhaps.

[Lefty Lou]

Simply "silicon" or simply "germanium" isn't gonna tell you much actualy... lot of variations next to that. go on the silicon side first perhaps.

How true how true, even some of the highly desired and sought after Mullard germanium transistors have their issues with age, leakage, gain, etc. So vintage NOS parts are really no indicator of quality. Many fuzz pedal builders have gotten wise in their design of these fuzz pedals. Since germanium is so unstable with regards to heat, many fuzz pedal builders have resorted to placing one or more silicon transistors on the front end of their fuzz pedal designs for better overall stability such that most newer fuzz pedals are really "hybrids" and not exact duplicates of the old vintage fuzz pedals. Even in my FoxRox original Captain Coconut pedal there is a "Fuzz Foot" pedal which supposedly contains the same exact design as Jimi's original fuzz pedal BUT, here is what Dave Fox of FoxRox had to say about his Fuzz Foot design, " The original FUZZFOOT is hybrid silicon/germanium PNP version of the circuit. It has a variable resistor in series with the input to up the input impedance. This makes it work well with wah wah pedals and smooths out the tone. At the input there is also a high frequency filter capacitor. It helps to reject radio transmissions and internal oscillation but does not subtract from the tone. The first transistor in the circuit is a super quiet, high gain silicon PNP. The second is a hand picked germanium PNP. This combination allows the FuzzFoot to perform consistently regardless of temperature. A germanium transistor in that first position can be very temperature sensitive. The GRIT control alters the DC bias to the transistors, allowing you to dial in tones that range from loud and harsh (full CC), to smooth and round (in the center) to harsh and farty (full clockwise). It works like a "variable battery" The Fuzz control is slightly altered from the original FuzzFace circuit to provide more usable range. On the original FuzzFace, and it's clones, the Fuzz pot does almost nothing until you turn it up all the way. Then, it abruptly kicks in giving you almost no usable range to play with. The FuzzFoot offers more usable FUZZ range and smoother control. "

[garbeaj]

garbeaj I most assuredly do, here's a couple clips featuring a few good Skinpimp fuzz pedal models:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD0bY-DC ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (MK I)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg7m-q-wLG4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (MK II)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6PZcvKcYCo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (MK III)

Thanks...

[Lefty Lou]

Thanks...

You're most welcome. I'm really loving my Skinpimp MKII version.

[Tone seaker]

So which Dunlop is going to be like the ones Jimi used to get the great tones from 68-70. The Ej or the Jimi ones. I dont know how to build one i just want to buy one and would like to spend wisley, Thanks

[Xplorer]

get the blue fuzz for a start. this should answer your question.

[JimiJames]

For Humbuckers though, the JB, hands down.
You should be thinking down-the-road, for starters, tinkering with a BC108 and an NKT275. Took me a while to differentiate between the two and find out what characteristics they had beside having a different feel playing through them.
A fuzz can make or break you. Either turns your sound into rip your face off huge or elevator music on a hand held AM radio.

Based only from what I've seen & heard I don't care for the BC183 transistor because of it's bottom end.
Dunlop's EJ ver. is custom fit to his interpretation of what he likes out of Jimi's tone library which is on the warmer side. It match's with the sum of all his parts.

O.k. So, I don't care for it. Does that make me a bad guy

[yladrd61]

So which Dunlop is going to be like the ones Jimi used to get the great tones from 68-70. The Ej or the Jimi ones. I dont know how to build one i just want to buy one and would like to spend wisley, Thanks

Either one will work actually the EJ might be closer a certain pedal builder I know worked on one of Jimi's Fuzz Faces and he said it had BC183's in it. That being said se "BC108"s in the JH Fuzz are not really "BC108's" but are probably close enough in gain to the originals. Probably the same for the EJ