BJF Fuzz 109 - Verified

[anders]

Björn Juhls take on a silicon Fuzz Face which was (or is?) sold in extremely limited quantities. Now also avaiable as DIY kits at Moody Sounds
Schematic and parts list here (only in swedish though)

*Edit* Now verified

[anders]

Both me and Sphere80 whipped this one up and it's a an amazing fuzz face derivate. Highly recomended and it knocked out my Meathead from my board....

[Sphere80]

I almost didn't bother with this one. Another Fuzz Face.. but it's the meanest one I have, useful at low and extreme
high gain. I have BC109C's in mine, but also tested with the more common BC549C's. Even if you have more Fuzz Faces than you'll ever use, I suggest giving this a try.

That's funny about the Meathead, since that was exactly my situation too! The Saturation control is key here. Back it
off a bit for a heavy distortion with  defined attack, or turn it up for blooming sustain. The fuzz control itself is  useful here too, unlike many other F.F.'s.   Thanks for all the layouts, Anders.

[Mulekicker]

Every fuzz face I've made has always underwhelmed me. The 2 I did like I built for other people, the creepy fingers creepyface and the black acid. I'm gonna give this one a whirl along with the bone bender 2, maybe both in one box. Thanks for these layouts!

[tracer03]

Adding this to the build list now - any tips on bias values, or is this another 'bias by ear' circuit?

[Mulekicker]

Were you guys able to get q2's collector up to 4.5 volts? I boxed this up with a Bone bender mkII (which I was able to bias and get sounding good with Russian 404's). My 109 sounds ok but I'm sure it would sound better if I could get q2's collector above 3.5 volts. I tried a bunch of different 108 and 109 b's and c's. May have to do a resistor swap.

[atomicwombat]

I had the same problem with my build. I ended up lowering the 10k resistor and i was able to bias to 4.5v. I think I ended up going with a 6.8k if I recall. It does sound better when it’s biased to 4.5v.

[Mulekicker]

Awesome! Thanks, gonna do that tonight.

[Sphere80]

6.8k fixed things here, thanks.  Sounded fine before, but can now reach 4.5v.

[Mulekicker]

Yep. 6.8k did the trick for me too.