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.

25 comments:

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

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    1. 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.

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    2. Care to share your layout with charge pump?

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

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  2. What value would you suggest for the added volume pot?

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

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  3. 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?

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    1. 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.

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    2. 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.

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  4. 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.

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  5. 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

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  6. 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

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    1. Some info here>>>>>

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

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  7. 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

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

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  8. 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

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    1. 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!

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  9. 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

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    1. 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

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

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

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

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  12. mojo layout please !

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  13. 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.

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