Fuzz face pots

suspiciousminds

When i built my fuzz face clone i used a b479 (i think) pot.
Although it sounds great, the volume is always lower than my amp when i engage it.
Should i fit a different pot to help increase the volume?

dano

A B479 would be a linear 479 ohm resistor which is too low for a volume. I cant recall what the FF uses (and my FF clones are not too hand) but you need 250K or 500k to get the right volume level from it.

ICBM

No, changing the volume pot value won't make any difference. Once it's up full that's as much as you will get with any pot value.

What you need to do is to change the amount of signal voltage being sent to the pot. This is determined by two resistors which form a potential divider - the 330 (or 470) ohm and the 8.2K ohm resistors in this diagram:

http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/fuzzface/fftech1.gif

To increase the volume, increase the value of the 330/470 one and decrease the 8.2K one by roughly the same amount - eg, 1K and 7.5K, 1.2K and 7.5K or 1.8K and 6.8K.

suspiciousminds

Works a treat now - increased the 330 to 1k and had to put a 2.2 and 5.1 in series - thanks guys.