NPN silicon resistors used in Fuzz Faces include BC108C, BC109B, BC109C, BC183L and BC209C. My advice is not to get too drawn into all that and be wary of buying expensive NOS transistors without guarantees from the seller that they aren’t leaky and have adequate gain. This is especially true of ‘holy grail’ transistors that were used in classic treble boost, wah and fuzz pedals. If you think the price of old-stock tubes borders on the insane, try researching vintage transistors. The component legs are pushed through pre-drilled holes and soldered together on the reverse of the board Transistor tips To keep things straightforward, I’m starting with a NPN silicon transistor Fuzz Face that can be powered using a standard supply. PSUs with electronically isolated outputs may work, but it’s not ideal, and many vintage and vintage-style Fuzz Face owners resign themselves to using batteries. PNP Fuzz Face circuits are not compatible with power supplies running a line of modern pedals because the positive is grounded rather than the now-conventional negative. Sonic differences between germanium and silicon aside, this is important. In NPN transistors, the polarity is reversed the base being positive, and the emitter and collector both negative. The middle (base) layer of PNP transistors is negative and the outer layers (emitter and collector) are positive. Without wishing to get too far into the world of transistor manufacturing, they all have a ‘sandwich’ type construction. PNP stands for positive/negative/positive, and NPN stands for negative/positive/negative. Arbiter merged with Dallas Electronics Ltd around 1968, and by the end of that year, Fuzz Faces were being made with NPN silicon transistors. NKT275s can sound wonderful, but their sonic quality is notoriously inconsistent and their performance varies depending on ambient temperature. Arbiter Electronics Ltd began making Fuzz Faces in 1966 using NKT275 PNP germanium transistors. Let’s first distinguish between the two Fuzz Face eras. The original Fuzz Face circuit requires just a handful of components and a small circuit board Positive elements
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