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.
Not an amplifier problem.
I suspect transistors; since nthose have not been made for 40 years, the gene pool is being downgraded more and more, what remains today is bottom of the barrel and rejects.
Feel happy that it worked at all.
Personally I'd chase Russian Germanium transistors, mainly because they were made until a later date and Russian stuff in general was made to last.
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.
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.
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?
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.