# Sunflower Cleanup Help



## Travis (Jan 12, 2022)

Hi, I´m start learning about fuzz pedals, I love the sound of some original fuzz faces I try, especially when I turn volume down.

I build the sunflower build and I´m trying with some transistors and different hfe values but I can´t get a good sparkle cleanup fuzz tone.

Some recommendation? Thanks


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## Big Monk (Jan 12, 2022)

Travis said:


> Hi, I´m start learning about fuzz pedals, I love the sound of some original fuzz faces I try, especially when I turn volume down.
> 
> I build the sunflower build and I´m trying with some transistors and different hfe values but I can´t get a good sparkle cleanup fuzz tone.
> 
> Some recommendation? Thanks



Have you tried the clean trimpot?


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## Travis (Jan 12, 2022)

Big Monk said:


> Have you tried the clean trimpot?


I will try it again, but with other fuzzes I usually like they cleanup with presence, this one sounds dark.


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## Travis (Jan 12, 2022)

I´m not sure if NKT 275 magic is real


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## JamieJ (Jan 12, 2022)

ElectroSmash - Fuzz Face Analysis
					

The Fuzz Face is a distortion guitar pedal designed in London by Arbitrer Electronics Ltd in the autumn of 1966. This analysis covers the first Arbitrer Fuzz Face model equipped with PNP germanium transistors from the first releases.




					www.electrosmash.com
				




Part numbers don’t equal great fuzz tones. It’s all about how they are biased via the 33k or 8k2 resistors in the original.

Check this article out and test the bias points to see how well your transitiors are biased with your current build


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## Big Monk (Jan 12, 2022)

Travis said:


> I´m not sure if NKT 275 magic is real



There's no magic in parts. It's all tuning.

Post your collector voltages and the capacitor values you used.


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## Mir9 (Jan 12, 2022)

Big Monk said:


> Have you tried the clean trimpot?


I put the "cleanup" trimpot as an external pot on mine, as it's so useful.


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## Travis (Jan 12, 2022)

Thanks guys, I Will try It all!!


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## Big Monk (Jan 12, 2022)

thewintersoldier said:


> Unless your after a certain sound like Eric Johnson you shouldn't need to tune it. They never did back in the day and as long as your transistors are withing the usable range you should be just fine with adjusting the Q2 collector trimmer.



I agree with you 100% if you have a big pool of transistors to pick from because you can swap until it sounds right. 

If you just buy a few for a project you’ll likely have to tune the circuit to accommodate.


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## Travis (Jan 12, 2022)

thewintersoldier said:


> There are like 11 component in a fuzz face, how hard you gonna tune in to sound like Hendrix playing thru a crate amp and squier bullet strat 😂


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## thesmokingman (Jan 12, 2022)

things of note:
sunflower does use a charge pump and those aren't the same as battery power which isn't the same as carbon battery power (sunbeam brand from the dollar store are magic) wrt to playing the fuzz face in a more dynamic manner ... I took the Pepsi challenge on this one and it is one of the few mojo/unobtanium items that holds up

ge fuzz faces with medium or low gain transistors can be a little dark but are generally more dynamic than higher gain

I had more but this post has been interrupted many, many times by work ...


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## JamieJ (Jan 12, 2022)

thesmokingman said:


> I had more but this post has been interrupted many, many times by work ...


I hate it when that happens!


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## zgrav (Jan 12, 2022)

Don't forget that Hendrix was using a magic 9-volt battery.....


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## zgrav (Jan 12, 2022)

thesmokingman said:


> things of note:
> sunflower does use a charge pump and those aren't the same as battery power which isn't the same as carbon battery power (sunbeam brand from the dollar store are magic) wrt to playing the fuzz face in a more dynamic manner ... I took the Pepsi challenge on this one and it is one of the few mojo/unobtanium items that holds up
> 
> ge fuzz faces with medium or low gain transistors can be a little dark but are generally more dynamic than higher gain
> ...


OK --- maybe not a MAGIC battery -- but more or less the same point.


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## Coda (Jan 12, 2022)

zgrav said:


> Don't forget that Hendrix was using a magic 9-volt battery.....



Nah…you’re thinking of Bob Dylan’s Grandma. Hendrix powered his Fuzz Face with Gypsies, sun, and rainbows…an a little plutonium Roger Mayer stole from the Royal Navy…


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## Travis (Jan 23, 2022)

I finally solved it.

All down clean and swap transistors make it sound amazing


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## Travis (Jan 23, 2022)

I use russian GT307


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## Sturdag Lagernathy (Jan 24, 2022)

I guess I'm of the very few who prefer the "scratchiness" of the silicon version.. BC108..


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## jeffwhitfield (Jan 24, 2022)

I use two different transistors for my Sunflower: MP20A and GT402B. Following typical Fuzz Face requirements, the MP20A is within the 80 hFE range and the GT402B is within the 110-120 hFE range. Ends up sounding pretty damn good. So don't be afraid to use different transistors to get different results.


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