Fuzz Face Mini Shootout: Germanium vs Silicon

Is there a difference in tone between Germanium and Silicon transistors? I bought 2 very similar pedals to find out.
Product Info:
The FFM2 Germanium Fuzz Face Distortion Mini is based on '66-'68 era pre-silicon Fuzz Faces famous for warm vintage fuzz tones provided by slightly mismatched germanium transistors.
The FFM3 Jimi Hendrix Fuzz Face Mini Distortion has the same circuit as the JHF1 in smaller housing, delivering the thick, smooth Fuzz Face tone that Jimi Hendrix made famous in a pedalboard-friendly size.

[@justinpaquette224]

If you dime the fuzz you can control the gain with the guitar volume. The volume clean up is one of the best things about fuzz face

[@mattwall1090]

I own a few myself, tried pretty much all the mini's. Try cranking the pedal Fuzz control (or close to..ish), setting it up for your maximum fuzz level to taste, and using your guitars volume control for the amount of gain, if you don't like the taper on the pedal controls. Turning up the volume knob on the pedal makes the tone brighter as well. These pedals are designed to be used in that type of fashion to get the cleaner tone using the guitar volume. Your lower gain levels will be much less muff'led using the guitar volume instead of the pedal fuzz level. They also can sound a bit sterile and lack on sustain unless the Fuzz Face is going through an amp with some breakup.

[@JasonAyalaSpare]

I should have compared them to a full size FF.

[@topa1798]

I love The street fighter intro😍🙌🏻🙌🏻,that's enough reason to Subscribe

[@JasonAyalaSpare]

Thanks

[@mattoverminder]

There's no gain on the traditional Fuzz Face. The Fuzz control tweaks the bias of the first transistor. That's why the sweep is so weird. When it is the first thing after the guitar, the guitar volume knob becomes the gain knob for the pedal. This is how most players use the FF. Dime the knobs, and use the guitar volume to reign it in.
Changing the Fuzz sweep fundamentally changes the (very simple) circuit. There are a ton of pedals out there that take the FF circuit and build upon it in various ways, but they don't quite sound the same. Not necessarily bad, just different.

[@JasonAyalaSpare]

That explains it. Thank you!

[@lonewolf5973]

It sounds better
with the Looper in front👽

[@nsc217]

1:28 Germanium
2:06 Silicon

[@nekoman7576]

Silicon more have more gain. I like it more. I gues it becouse silicon transistors have more (h21e)hfe.

[@Music_is_fun]

Try it with a Wah pedal before buying one to hear the level difference on the high EQ

[@nekoman7576]

@@Music_is_fun Price is to high. I know how to make this pedal by my hands. And becouse my from Belarus i can make it from мп42б or мп39(old USSR germanium transistors) or from кт3102(silicon Russian transistor). Germanium sound is more intresting on low gain but im steal didn't played on wah pedals before. I'll try it some day...

[@wayne2150]

Silicon transistors also have more mid-range frequencies.

[@coldwar1977]

@@wayne2150 are you sure about that?

[@billtice5057]

The Fuzz Face circuit is a very simple schematic that really only works one way. The pedals gain is in the last 10%, it doesn’t work any other way. There is no fix for this.

[@frankdedo5458]

did anyone notice some radio station interferences with this pedal especially when you roll down the guitar volume? on mine i can clearly hear it! :(

[@marcosvivanco2433]

Part of the magic! Mine gets the interference only when the volume knob on the guitar is almost at 0

[@marcosvivanco2433]

You gotta play them into a broken up amp

[@Dooodrhino]

Strange buffer issue

[@garyferris1401]

Silicon has internal bias

[@cookergronkberg]

Hmmm, I wonder if wah pedals will work before these pedals since they are not buffered? Is that what you tried here? I wanna get that Hendrix sound.

[@JasonAyalaSpare]

I've heard that the impedance from other pedals affects the Germanium transistors. Wah pedals have a low impedance so you can put one before a germanium fuzz.

[@Music_is_fun]

If you have a buffered tuner put it between the wah and fuzz it does the trick👍

[@wallywanker7435]

Every fuzz I try sounds like shit. Maybe it’s just my playing 🤷

[@__-nt6mt]

💪

[@Dierkenzee]

I just poked my ears out with a pencil.

[@bozzolanmusic3617]

I don´t like fuzz

[@JasonAyalaSpare]

I'm not much of a fan of fuzz either. The only fuzz I really liked was the JHS Muffuletta (which a did a video of).

[@jordandangelo180]

Check out King Tone fuzz pedals or Cornell Fuzz Face or Pedal Pawn fuzz pedals and tell me if you still don’t like fuzz. They blow these pedals out of the water

[@rafasounds-qi5rm]

More fuzz to us

[@zachhernandez2842]

check out the fulltone 70 bc108 fuzz and also the fulltone soul bender. those are probably the best i’ve ever heard. fuzz face (usually. im not a fan of these partcular fuzz faces in the video) and tonebender circuits are some of my favorites. i know its been 2 years since you originally left this comment tho lmfao