fuzz face clone

Ok I'm about to build my first fuzz face clone but I'm a bit lost with the capacitors I need to buy from smallbear electronics. Here's what I need :

1 x 2.2uF Electrolytic (aluminum)

1 x 0.01uF Film or ceramic

1 x 22uF Electrolytic (aluminum)

On smallbear, there are radial and axial electolytic caps. Which one do I need ? For the ceramic one, there are two types listed, high voltage and low voltage, which one do I need again ? Thank you very much for your help, it's appreciated !

I assume you're building it on either perfboard or a ready-made pcb?

Then get axial electrolytics. Don't get ceramics, go with polyester film caps, for example the Wima ones. Anything above or at 18V will be MORE than enough.

Film caps are much better than ceramics. At least to my ears. Some others say the difference is negligible. Many Boss pedals have ceramics for example, and people who don't know don't care. Makes sense?

You might want to just get some of both types... these values are typical, if you think you're gonna keep doing this, get at least 20 of each type value anyway.

Andy

The only difference between radial and axial lead components is where the wires come out. On radial lead components both of the wires come out of the same end, and on axial lead components they come out of opposite ends. Which type you choose depends on how you want to mount them on your circuit board. Radial lead components are designed to be mounted standing up, while axial lead components are designed to be mounted laying down.

The voltage rating of the capacitors should be above the voltage they will be subjected to in the circuit by a comfortable margin. Small Bear doesn't carry ceramic capacitors. They only carry polyester film caps. The low voltage caps on the Small Bear site look to be rated at 50V, which is more than sufficient for a FuzzFace, or any other 9V pedal.

Ah now it makes sense ! Thanks a lot ! One last question though ! Is a 500K log audio pot the same as a 500k audio one ? They don't mention it on small bear so I assume it's the same ?

R.G. Keen has written an excellent article on the subject of pots here:

http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/potsecrets/potscret.htm

In a nutshell, audio taper and log taper used to mean the same thing. They were pots whose resistance would increase at an exponential rate as you turned the shaft.

Most audio taper pots today are not true log pots, because true log pots are expensive to make. Most audio taper pots today are simply divided into two resistive segments, with a low slope in the first half of the rotation, and a much steeper slope in the second half, providing a curve that resembles a hockey stick.

The term "audio/log" is a method for smoothing the sharp knee of an audio taper pot by putting a fixed resistor from the wiper to ground.

Anyway, read the article. It's very informative.

Thank again for your help ! I hope my project will work !