Buzz box

[SGdan]

after having a good time with the Bazz fuss, and thinking about octave fuzz's, I came across the buzz box. 
http://home-wrecker.com/bazz.html#buzzbox
just scroll to bottom.
i listened to the sound clip, and although its a little cheesy sounding, i still want to give this circuit a try.  anyone built this?

this looks perfect for me because I'm still learning.  but i have a couple questions.

do you think that the diode choice are crucial?  Would i be able to substitute them for maybe 1N914 or maybe some experimenting with LED's?

and same goes for the transistors.  2N5088, or 2N5089 in the place of the 2N904 perhaps? 

thanks!

[theblackman]

hey, just socket them and try it out! can't hurt to try. i think the diode types help the circuit to make the octave effect.

[nightingale]

The Buzz Box is a great octave fuzz,
Check out Yun's layout gallery. He has some pretty nasty little tweaks to that circuit.
The buzz box sonically can get you in to Foxx tone machine territory with a 5th of the parts count.
hope this helps,ry

[tcobretti]

I am not a fan of the Buzz Box as an octaver.  It does sound good and sounds very square like an octave fuzz, but there is no actual octave.  I tweaked mine until I was bored and couldn't make any real improvement on the octave.

Having built the RM Octavia, Buzz Box, Shinei Superfuzz, and the Foxx Tone Machine, I think the Foxx is vastly superior to all of them.  It not only sounds great, but has many tweakable options that I like very much. 

I know, I know, I suck because I haven't built the Tychobrahe.

[nightingale]

I am not a fan of the Buzz Box as an octaver.  It does sound good and sounds very square like an octave fuzz, but there is no actual octave.  I tweaked mine until I was bored and couldn't make any real improvement on the octave.

Having built the RM Octavia, Buzz Box, Shinei Superfuzz, and the Foxx Tone Machine, I think the Foxx is vastly superior to all of them.  It not only sounds great, but has many tweakable options that I like very much. 

I know, I know, I suck because I haven't built the Tychobrahe.

I hear where you are coming from,
I should have chosen my words a little more carefully.
For such a simple build, it is an interesting sounding fuzz for sure!
The output is impressive for such a low parts count.

Not to hijack this fellows thread.

I have built  green ringer, scrambler, FTM,  and Tychobrahe clones.
For whatever reason I seem to get the most use out of my green ringer?

Good luck with your build SGDan.

Are you the same SGDan from the 18watt forum?

regards,
ry

[magikker]

I know, I know, I suck because I haven't built the Tychobrahe.

That's funny because I read your name and alway think of that pedal. T-co-br-etti Vs. Ty-cho-br-ahe

[tcobretti]

The glory of the Foxx is that if you back the gain down all the way it gets very Green Ringer-like, but if you crank it, it gets (now that I think about it) Buzz Box like.  As the gain goes up you lose the octave and it just gets nasty; but there is a lot of usable range in between with a very well defined octave.

"T-co-br-etti Vs. Ty-cho-br-ahe"  I hadn't thought of that.  It almost makes me sound clever.  Unfortunately, I wasn't smart enough to think of it.

[runmikeyrun]

i built a buzz box for bass w/ 5088s in darlington setup.  I never had any octave on it.

[SGdan]

I got all the exact parts, set it up and....fuzz but no octave.  excessive hiss too.   

so, back to the bazz fuss.  andyone have any mods for it?  like, how would i add a gain control perhaps?

[ambulancevoice]

i build one to
i didnt use a germ diode for the second part, but i could still hear a mild octave, but it wasnt as explosive, just not as effective


i like the traditional bazz fuss better
i did my own schem for it with a gain control (just free hand on photoshop, im not spending ages making it neat and tidy)
* =  can be adjusted to taste, and dont have to be electrolytic

[Austin73]

Built a couple of these Buzz Boxes using MPSA13 and 2n3904 both never octaved up, but do sound really nasty if thats your thing its a great little circuit infact got it working before my Bazz Fuss ha ha

Build it and experiment with it maybe try all of Yuns stuff as it really does make a difference

Good Luck

Austin

[jmusser]

I built this a couple years back. It is an octave up fuzz, only there is no real separation from the standard fuzz that it also produces.  It's like a standard fuzz, with a lot of up octave product mixed in it that rides with it. The high pitched and unruly "sonic bumble bee" that it produces, is a lot like the FTM's up octave splat. I'm not sure there's a whole lot of use for it, except as a one a trick pony for a particular song, but it is unique, very nasty, and has a low parts count. Out of the up octaves that I've built, the Simple Octave Up, Bobtavia, and NeOctavia are hard to beat. I believe they all use the same Radio Shack transformer for rectification. The best up octave fuzz out there in my book is, Tim's Octup Blender. I may have been the only one that's ever built one. The Octave Up Sick Box is great too, but sounds quite a bit like the Tychobrahe.

[SGdan]

whenever I think of octave fuzz's the Octavia comes to mind.  but i rarely hear of people building them.  is there something unappealing about it?  wasn't it the original.

[aron]

The Tycobrahe octavia is very, very fun. See the old Schematics link at the top and do a search.