Saturday, 4 February 2012

Baldwin-Burns Buzzaround

From an advert in 1966: "A new Baldwin-Burns fuzz box has been introduced. It is a fresh version of the existing Buzz-Around and incorporates a special sustain effect. It is available now at a cost of 10 guineas."

Bargain!  Here's a reasonably compact layout, I'll add a mojo layout at some point too.


You could always add a conventional volume pot to this if you fancy a bit more control.  Just take Timbre 2 to Volume 3, Volume 1 to ground and Volume 2 is the new output.
Posted by at 21:09
Tags: , ,

26 comments:

  1. thetinnedman25 June 2012 at 22:44

    i had no idea you had this one, just made my day!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. IvIark25 June 2012 at 23:49

      I built one of these with a charge pump to provide a negative supply and it works wonderfully. Well worth it to have a daisy-chainable PNP transistor effect.

      Delete
    2. Jarrett Trezzo28 January 2013 at 21:35

      Care to share your layout with charge pump?

      Delete
    3. IvIark28 January 2013 at 21:43

      http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2013/01/arc-effects-b3.html

      Delete
  2. Anonymous2 March 2013 at 17:33

    What value would you suggest for the added volume pot?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. IvIark2 March 2013 at 17:36

      Just use a 100K with your favoured taper. Timbre 2 to Vol 3, Vol 2 to output, Vol 1 to ground.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous13 March 2013 at 13:26

    I've built this using a voltage inverter and q A100k pot for volume (very loud)... it works and sound excellent but my balance doesn't seem to do anything. I understand it is meant to bias Q3?.. some people say it adds volume and 'boldness'.. I'm wondering if adding a volume pot has effected how the balance works?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. IvIark13 March 2013 at 13:35

      It could affect other things, but I haven't tried it so I don't know exactly how. For a start the volume pot adds it's own value (between lug 3 and ground) in parallel with the 100K Timbre pot and 10K resistor which will alter the final value of that combination, which in turn could affect the Balance pot before them. Measure the voltages you're getting on Q3 collector in both extremes of the balance rotation, because it may be that new values for the pot and surrounding resistors may be required.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13 March 2013 at 13:53

      Sorry Mark... I didn't ground Balance 1 and sustain 1 DOH!!

      All perfect now. This has really pleasantly surprised me, I was expecting a fuzz but this seems more of a distortion. And probably the best high gainer I've made so far. The balance is very subtle, it does add a lot of volume which make the addition of the volume pot very handy. At full sweep the balance very slightly gates making staccato chords silent in between.

      Delete
  4. superferrite19 March 2013 at 22:01

    Built it. Yeah you can get sixties ripping fuzz but it just goes up and up from there! Gets pretty meaty and gnarly.

    My buddy has been looking for one for a long time, and this will put a smile on his face.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Doron Barness29 March 2013 at 10:57

    Builrt this with AC128 tested for leakage and gain and it came out great:
    I added some clips at the end of the post.

    http://fuzzquest.blogspot.co.il/2012/04/fuzz-that-burns.html

    ReplyDelete
  6. Zach3 September 2013 at 03:47

    Hey guys, on YouTube I foundout that DAM made a limited, ungodly expensive tweaked version of this called the Buzzotron. Here's a link to a gutshot, any idea what would need to be done to change this layout into the Buzzotron? As with other DAM pedals it sounds unreal in comparison to the original.

    http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Pyfd9UBtmQw/UNSyUy08CAI/AAAAAAAABh8/Arlra4Rzn3w/s1600/DAM+Buzzotron+4.jpg

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Geezer3 September 2013 at 12:58

      Some info here>>>>>

      http://freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=21701&p=215341&hilit=Buzzotron#p215341

      Delete
  7. Jimijam11 September 2013 at 17:47

    Late to the party again but, should I audition transistors for this or would a trio from SM Bear work out? I also suspect it could be a good idea to put a temporary pot to bias Q3

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. IvIark11 September 2013 at 18:48

      The Small Bear set should be perfect, and yes a trimmer is always a worthwhile addition for something like this.

      Delete
    2. JaviCAP16 December 2013 at 18:44

      Q3 is biased through Balance pot, I think that a trimmer there is a nonsense. You just have to find a trannie with an Hfe ~140 and abour 0,2 - 0,3 leakage.

      BR

      Delete
  8. JaviCAP16 December 2013 at 18:35

    Holy f*ckin' shit! I've built this effect to give an use to my shitty OC71s, as Q1 and Q2 are set as a darlington pair... and I'm still shocked with this monstruosity.

    OC71 -52hfe OC71-65hfe 2BS187 (155hfe, 0.22 leakage) and climb to the heaven of pure noise!

    Just incredible, will get boxed very soon. 110% recommended

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jimijam25 March 2014 at 21:58

      I revisited my latest build and ditched the sm bear transistors...
      instead I used a couple of AC125s for Q1 / Q2 that are low leakage and hFE is about 60 - 62 and for Q3 I used a CV7355 that is 220 hFE and leakage about 270 and holy COW!!!!
      this thing screams now and actually will clean up when I roll the volume down... great FUZZ!

      Delete
  9. Sensei Tim11 November 2014 at 04:58

    Question for anyone who can help...

    I built this up a few months ago but finally got around to finishing it. I got a set of transistors from smallbear (2N1306) that were paired for a tonebender circuit (hfe q1 = 70, q2 = 92, q3 = 124, Leakage q1 = 96, q2 = 63, q3 =155 - i assume this is leakage? baggies just say L=xxx).

    I'm not getting anything coming out of the pedal. When i use an audio probe, i get a clean signal on the base of Q1, but i don't get anything on the emitter of Q1. are these the proper transistors to use for this type of fuzz?

    thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. mirosol11 November 2014 at 07:09

      2N1306 are NPN transistors, so if you are giving the circuit negative voltage and positive ground, it won't work. With those transistors, you'll need to reverse all three electrolytics and that diode. Once those parts are reversed, just feed it with positive voltage and negative ground. That should work.
      +m

      Delete
  10. Goldenmonkeycolor30 January 2015 at 02:04

    Transistors arent labelled on this one... I can look at the schematic, but future newbs may want it

    ReplyDelete
  11. Sensei Tim7 June 2015 at 00:33

    I got asked by a friend about using this pedal with a bass. Does anyone have any experience with this pedal on a bass?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KT4 September 2015 at 14:41

      I saw a bass demo somewhere and it sounded really nice. Also on guitar it is my favorite fuzz.. just amazing

      Delete
  12. Anonymous18 January 2016 at 19:52

    mojo layout please !

    ReplyDelete
  13. axedoc20107 September 2017 at 17:12

    Thank you for all the work that you do on this wonderful site! Have been a long time lurker - posting for the first time. I was wondering is there any way to see the exact schematic that you use for a layout? I've see comments here in which people refer to schematics but I can't seem to find any link to them.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)