Fuzz Face
Note negative supply voltage and orientation of the polarized caps. Emitters are drawn pointing up, as was typical in the 1960s with germanium transistor circuits.
Originally issued as the Arbiter Fuzz Face, this iconic pedal will forever be associated with Jimi Hendrix and thus is firmly cemented as an effects pedal legend.
The story of the Fuzz Face is entwined with the the Sola Sound Tone Bender, and the Vox Tone Bender. The original Fuzz Face schematic is extremely similar, if not identical, to the earlier Sola Sound Tone Bender so-called "Mk 1.5" by fuzz historians. The design for both pedals is claimed by Gary Hurst. I call the topology the 2 Transistor English Fuzz.
Gary worked for JMI/Vox in the early 1960s before setting up shop in London as an independent electronics guy by the mid 1960s. His clients included the Musical Exchange music store and doing repairs for the Beatles. His JMI/Vox association has lead many to point out that the Fuzz Face/Tone Bender topology strongly resembles an earlier design found in the preamp of the Vox T60 amplifier, and the 1965 Vox Distortion Booster, a plug-in guitar effect.
The T60 and the Vox Tone Bender are attributed to Dick Denney. Dick's story includes fighting with JMI owner Tom Jennings over producing louder amps (the AC30) and distortion boxes. Dick made distortion prototypes, but when and what he actually made is unclear. Dick was head of the JMI/Vox engineering when Gary Hurst worked there.
The Sola Sound Tone Bender was a product made for Macari's Musicial Exchange, which has its own history rooted in JMI/Vox. Macari's used the name Sola Sound as their house brand of electronics. It is undisputed that Gary Hurst designed the Tone Bender Mk I and II for them. The advertisements for the pedal even mentioned Hurst by name.
The Arbiter Fuzz Face was a product made for the Sound City music store. Owner Ivor Arbiter was a businessman and a designer. He famously designed the Beatles "drop T" logo to use on Ringo's drums. Like the Sola Sound brand for Macari's, Arbiter chose his own name to brand his house electronics.
Arbiter claims the design decision to make a circular enclosure for his fuzz pedal. He didn't want to release another wedge shaped boxed. The round base of a mic stand inspired the new design. The resulting pedal ended up resembling a face (controls are the eyes, the stomp switch is the mouth or nose), so it was called the Fuzz Face.
I've never read an account of Arbiter actually hiring Hurst to design the Fuzz Face, but Hurst claims the design. Arbiter or an associate probably hired Hurst in the same way Macari's had hired Hurst earlier.
Related Articles:
2 Transistor English Fuzz Topology
Discrete Transistor Amplifiers
Vox Tone Bender article (same topology, slightly different component values)