I forgot to mention that I completely rebuilt the circuit and it's now I red point to point just like the original. Also, the guitar I'm using is a Epiphone Les Paul standard with hamburgers. I think the Berridge pickup is around 8k and the neck pickup is around 7.5k. I thought this may have some relevance.

I finally boxed this circuit up in a vintage style enclosure that I built last night. Putting it in a case actually seems to have solved some of the problems it was having. For some reason, it sounds a bit brighter than before and I can now turn the attack control to full, but only with the bridge pickup. Using the neck pickup with the Tone on zero and the attack on full produces a weird chirping sound as the notes decay. I'm still planning to order a matched set of transistors for it. I think there's still room for improvement here.

Hi, everyone. Well, after some debugging of a few wiring mistakes (not sure how that happened) , I now have a wicked sounding germanium Fuzzrite. It's sporting two of those AC128 transistors. Q1 read as having a hfe of 193 and I believe Q2 is around 60. The only part that's missing is the power filter cap, but the pedal works just fine without it. It nails the "Psychotic Reaction" Tone perfectly!

I built the R.G Greene transistor test circuit and after testing several of my transistors,  I have found what I believe is the best possible combination from my current inventory. For Q1,  I have hfe 64 with about 153 uA leakage, Q2 the 78 with about 220 uA leakage. I didn't bother to check Q3, but it's labeled as hfe 59 and leakage at 0.08 mA. I imagine it would read differently on my home made tester, but I think I'll just leave it alone. The effect is now more aggressive sounding and has decent sustain. It doesn't seem to be too noisy. Turning down the guitar volume makes it gate, but also adds more treble. It's surprisingly articulate, but still could probably benefit from some higher gain transistors just to get a bit more of that "buzz" out. I'm getting pretty close now, anyway. It'll suffice until I can get a good matched set of transistors for it.

Hi, everyone. I ended up ordering some 2N5306 transistors and 1N34A diodes for my clone. I completely rebuilt it and it sounds much better now, although it's still kind of smooth. I guess it's just supposed to sound this way. Thanks.

Okay, so I narrowed it down to a transistor issue. I heated Q2 and when it got to a certain temperature, the effect started to sound about right. I'll just have to get some higher gain transistors.

Okay, I got more fuzz out of this circuit by replacing the 1k5 resistor on Q2 collector with 2k7. The only problem is that it altered the minimum attack setting, as well. It no longer has that neat volume swell effect on the minimum attack setting. Maybe a 1k8 or 2k2 on Q2 collector would be better. Any thoughts?

I tried this one with my little Tele-Star amp and there wasn't much difference. With that amp, there's a slight squealing noise in the decay. I did notice that it had a little more sustain than it had when plugged into my kasino amp, though.

Okay, I tried some better batteries and it helped a little, but it still isn't a fuzzy as I'd like it to be. I was hoping it would get that Robby Krieger tone. It gets pretty close to the sounds from the "Revolver" album if I run it through that little Tele-Star amp with my treble booster (because it's a really brassy sounding amp, I use a treble booster with it) . I guess this effect would probably work better with a tube amp.

Wow, Man! Interesting stuff! I actually have a schematic for a simple hfe and leakage test circuit in one of my notebooks. Never really thought I'd actually need it, as I couldn't locate any germanium transistors at the time. Glad to hear your speaker's working. I have an old C12N in my cabinet. Those are really good speakers. I believe it dates to 1961. I really appreciate your suggestions on the leakage test, but I'm terrible with math. I guess I could use a calculator,  though. I've noticed that all of my fuzz circuits tend to sound smoother through my Kasino amp. I've tried a few of them through other amps and they sounded completely different. Maybe this just isn't a fuzz-friendly amplifier? In any case, it seems if I record any of my fuzzes on tape, the result is a slightly more raspy sound, even with that particular amplifier. I'm using a 2x12 cab with the aforementioned Jensen speaker, which is paired with a Rola- Celestion G12-30. The microphone is kept near the Rola speaker because it's in the top of the cab. Thanks again, Juan.

Very true, Juan. I need to get a good transistor tester. All I have is a cheap multi meter and it seems to combine gain and leakage, showing a very high hfe on the display.

I've been tinkering with it. I added a 390k resistor to the base of Q2 and that brought out a little more buzz. It's sounding closer to what I've heard on some demos. The batteries I'm using are probably weak, as well. I'm us in two D batteries out of a flashlight as that was all I could find. I'll have to get some good batteries and see what happens. It may also help to fix a better way of holding them. I'm just using electrical tape for now. I didn't really expect this thing to work at all. Except for the 390k resistor , the volume control and the two electrolytic caps, I've used all of the stock part values. My volume control is 50k A and the electrolytic caps I used are 22uf.  I didn't have a 500k pot and since the 56 k resistor on original units is wired in parallel with the volume control, I figured it wouldn't make a difference if I omitted that resistor and just used a 50k pot for the volume control.

Hi, everyone. I built a Maestro FZ-1 earlier and it worked right away, but there's not as much fuzz as I though there should be. Through my Kasino amp, it's very mild, but it sounds a little more gritty through my cheap Tele-Star amp. Is it just an amplifier issue, or do I need higher gain transistors? Thanks.

I can see schematics just fine on it. I just can't get it to post an image. In answer to your question,  no. No one near me has a computer that I know of and I don't know many of the people who live near me. Thephone may not be the best thing to use, but it's all I have. I believe I got a batch of very leaky AC128 transistors because I just built a Maestro FZ-1 circuit and it works. Not as buzzy as I'd hoped, but these have pretty low gain. Does this mean they're too leaky for my Tone Benders?

I can't figure that pos image thing out. It says something about copying the text. I guess I'll just stick to what little bit I can actually do on here. Thanks anyway.