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The Fuzz Face is an
Arbiter Fuzz Face , fuzzboxes.org Dallas Music Industries made a final batch of Fuzz Face units in 1976 or 1977, shortly after moving to the United States. The company bought Crest Audio in the 1980s and although it was operating under that name when it reissued the Fuzz Face in 1986, the units still bore the Dallas-Arbiter name. They made about 2000 Fuzz Faces until 1990.http://www.foxroxelectronics.com/FuzzFace%20reissue.html 1980's Crest Audio FuzzFace reissue storyhttp://www.foxroxelectronics.com/SCRAP.HTM Foxrox electronics scrapbook In 1993
The circuit uses only a small number of components, plus a battery. Its sound is mostly dependent on the selection of transistors (type, hfe and leakage in case of germanium transistors). As germanium transistors are sensitive to temperature, the amount of leakage is variable. Thus the bias voltages will shift up and down, so the sound produced by a germanium Fuzz Face may change as the equipment heats up or cools down. Also, the battery is part of the circuit. Variances in voltage and internal resistance can make an audible difference.
According to Jimi Hendrix’s guitar tech Roger Mayer, Jimi would buy half a dozen Fuzz Faces and mark the one he liked best only to find out that he didn't like it in a different environment.http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2010/Aug/Roger_Mayer_Talks_Fuzz.aspx Premier Guitar: Roger Mayer Talks Fuzz
Despite popular belief that Arbiter used randomly selected pairs of transistors, Dennis Cornell, one of the engineers who worked for Arbiter in the 1960s,https://www.vintageguitar.com/3050/arbiter-fuzz-face-reissue/ Vintage Guitar: Arbiter Fuzz Face Reissue described in a 2016 ''Guitarist'' magazine article how he auditioned them for their sonic properties.
Early units used NKT275 germanium transistors. Later on, BC183L, BC183KA, BC130C, BC108C, BC209C and BC239C silicon transistors were used. The American made versions used BC109C transistors.Analog Man Sun Face and Fuzz Face Page
/ref> Arbiter reissues used AC128s. Hendrix also switched to the silicon transistors, but they created additional difficulties on stage, since they are much more susceptible to receiving AM radio signals, which were then audible through the guitar amplifier.
R.G. Keen: The Technology of the Fuzz FaceFuzz Central: Arbiter Fuzz Face; Schematics
Effects units
The Fuzz Face is an effects pedal
An effects unit or effects pedal is an electronic device that alters the sound of a musical instrument or other audio source through audio signal processing.
Common effects include distortion/overdrive, often used with electric guitar in ele ...
for electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...
, used also by some electric bass
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and s ...
players. It is designed to produce a distorted sound referred to as "fuzz", originally achieved through accident such as broken electrical components or damaged speakers.
History
Arbiter Electronics Ltd. first issued the Fuzz Face in 1966. Later units bear the "Dallas Arbiter", "Dallas Music Industries Ltd.", "CBS/Arbiter Ltd." or "Dunlop Manufacturing Inc." name. The earliest units used germaniumtransistors
upright=1.4, gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink).
A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch ...
. Silicon
Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic ta ...
transistors were used in later editions of the pedal. Silicon transistors provided for a more stable operation, but have a different, harsher sound.
The electronics are contained in a circular-shaped metal housing. Ivor Arbiter
Ivor David Arbiter (31 December 1929 – 26 July 2005) was an English drum designer, manufacturer, instrument salesman, and entrepreneur. In his early career, he was the owner and operator of a specialty drum shop in the West End of London. La ...
"got the idea for the round shape when he one day saw a microphone stand with a cast iron base".http://www.custom-sounds.com/epages/Gagar.sf/en_US/?ObjectPath=/Shops/CustomSounds/Categories/articles/fuzz "Fuzz Face" by David Morin The design was originally intended to be used as a microphone base for guitarists who sang. The pedal uses two knobs, one for volume, and one for the amount of distortion the pedal produces. The arrangement of controls and logo on the box suggests a face.
The circuit is based on the shunt-series-feedback amplifier topology
In mathematics, topology (from the Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a geometric object that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching, twisting, crumpling, and bending; that is, without closing ...
- a standard in engineering textbooks. Sola Sound
Sola is a municipality and a Seaside resort in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Jæren. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Solakrossen. Other villages include Tananger, Hål ...
and Vox had been using the same circuit topology for their Tone Bender pedals earlier in 1966. The Fuzz Face is particularly similar to the Sola Sound unit known today as the "Mk1.5" Tone Bender. The main difference is that the Fuzz Face is biased slightly colder, making it more usable in warm environments. The original instructions even described the Fuzz Face as a "Tone-Bending" unit.Arbiter Fuzz Face , fuzzboxes.org Dallas Music Industries made a final batch of Fuzz Face units in 1976 or 1977, shortly after moving to the United States. The company bought Crest Audio in the 1980s and although it was operating under that name when it reissued the Fuzz Face in 1986, the units still bore the Dallas-Arbiter name. They made about 2000 Fuzz Faces until 1990.http://www.foxroxelectronics.com/FuzzFace%20reissue.html 1980's Crest Audio FuzzFace reissue storyhttp://www.foxroxelectronics.com/SCRAP.HTM Foxrox electronics scrapbook In 1993
Dunlop Manufacturing
Dunlop Manufacturing, Inc. is a manufacturer of musical accessories, especially effects units, based in Benicia, California, United States. Founded in 1965 by Jim Dunlop Sr., the company grew from a small home operation to a large manufacturer o ...
took over production, making a variety of Fuzz Face units until this day. Several germanium and silicon models are available. In 2013 smaller versions with status LEDs and AC power jacks were introduced.
In the late 1990s Arbiter reissued the pedal as well.
Components
The circuit uses only a small number of components, plus a battery. Its sound is mostly dependent on the selection of transistors (type, hfe and leakage in case of germanium transistors). As germanium transistors are sensitive to temperature, the amount of leakage is variable. Thus the bias voltages will shift up and down, so the sound produced by a germanium Fuzz Face may change as the equipment heats up or cools down. Also, the battery is part of the circuit. Variances in voltage and internal resistance can make an audible difference.
According to Jimi Hendrix’s guitar tech Roger Mayer, Jimi would buy half a dozen Fuzz Faces and mark the one he liked best only to find out that he didn't like it in a different environment.http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2010/Aug/Roger_Mayer_Talks_Fuzz.aspx Premier Guitar: Roger Mayer Talks Fuzz
Despite popular belief that Arbiter used randomly selected pairs of transistors, Dennis Cornell, one of the engineers who worked for Arbiter in the 1960s,https://www.vintageguitar.com/3050/arbiter-fuzz-face-reissue/ Vintage Guitar: Arbiter Fuzz Face Reissue described in a 2016 ''Guitarist'' magazine article how he auditioned them for their sonic properties.
Early units used NKT275 germanium transistors. Later on, BC183L, BC183KA, BC130C, BC108C, BC209C and BC239C silicon transistors were used. The American made versions used BC109C transistors.Analog Man Sun Face and Fuzz Face Page/ref> Arbiter reissues used AC128s. Hendrix also switched to the silicon transistors, but they created additional difficulties on stage, since they are much more susceptible to receiving AM radio signals, which were then audible through the guitar amplifier.
Use
The Fuzz Face's continuing popularity and status as a classic may be explained by its many famous users, which include Jimi Hendrix,http://www.jimdunlop.com/index.php?page=products/pip&id=350 Dunlop - Jimi Hendrix Fuzzface David Gilmour,http://www.gilmourish.com/?page_id=73 Gilmourish - Dallas Arbiter Fuzz FaceDuane Allman
Howard Duane Allman (November 20, 1946 – October 29, 1971) was an American rock guitarist, session musician, and the founder and original leader of the Allman Brothers Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame i ...
, Stevie Ray Vaughan Pete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend (; born 19 May 1945) is an English musician. He is co-founder, leader, guitarist, second lead vocalist and principal songwriter of the Who, one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s.
Townsh ...
,http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/gear/guitar/fuzzface.html Who Tabs - Pete's Gear - Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face Eric Johnson Modern Guitars - Eric Johnson Interview and George Harrison."Get Back" by the Beatles; Apple, London, 1969"Beatles Gear" by Andy Babiuk and Tony Bacon; Backbeat, 2002
The Fuzz Face has a low input impedance The input impedance of an electrical network is the measure of the opposition to current ( impedance), both static ( resistance) and dynamic ( reactance), into the load network that is ''external'' to the electrical source. The input admittance (the ...
and thus is very sensitive to the guitar pickup. By rolling the volume knob, the guitar player can decrease the gain of the pedal and get a clean or crunch sound, while still having all the gain when the volume knob is on maximum. For the same reason, Fuzz Face pedals react differently when placed directly after the guitar than when after other pedals or after a buffer amplifier
A buffer amplifier (sometimes simply called a buffer) is one that provides electrical impedance transformation from one circuit to another, with the aim of preventing the signal source from being affected by whatever currents (or voltages, for a cu ...
.
While some claim Wah-wah pedal
A wah-wah pedal, or simply wah pedal, is a type of electric guitar effects pedal that alters the tone and frequencies of the guitar signal to create a distinctive sound, mimicking the human voice saying the onomatopoeic name "wah-wah". The ped ...
s are known to be troublesome with Fuzz Faces, artists such as Hendrix were known to use them together to spectacular effect. His signal flow for live performance involved first plugging his guitar into a wah-wah pedal, then connecting the wah-wah pedal to a Fuzz Face, which was then linked to a Uni-Vibe, before connecting to a Marshall amplifier.{{cite book, last1=Shapiro, first1=Harry, last2=Glebbeek, first2=Caesar, title=Jimi Hendrix: Electric Gypsy, year=1995, orig-year=1990, edition=New and Improved, publisher=St. Martin's Press, isbn=978-0-312-13062-6, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JB1W2dn31rwC p. 689.
See also
* Distortion (music)References
External links
R.G. Keen: The Technology of the Fuzz Face
Effects units