Anybody had difficulty with the buzz box?

[tiges_ tendres]

Hello!

I just finished building the buzz box from home-wrecker.com, but I am having a few problems.

firstly, the octave or ring sound is intermittent or non existent

Secondly, its really noisy!  Is that normal?

My feelings are that I might have a faulty germanium diode.  Are they as leaky or inefficient as germanium transistors can be?

My other feeling was that maybe it was the battery.

Another problem i had was that anytime I touched the bottom of the switch or the sleeve and rings, it makes this awful squealing!

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[tiges_ tendres]

bump :oops:

[Yun]

i replaced the 10uf caps with 30uf caps and made a buzz control, man.  and i used 1N914 diodes.  i didn't have any problems, so- you might wanna try those values, dude....

[jmusser]

I built it quite awhile back, and never had the first problem with it. At least on my build, the up octave is not all the evident as far as being able to isolate just that tone. It mostly just adds to the gritty nastiness of the effect. I did not have a noise problem either, but I also built it on perf board. I believe I used a 1N270 germanium in there at the time, because that's all I had, but a I believe a 1N34, 1N60, & 1N270, are all interchangeable. Also, if you come across ECG109 gemaniums, they work fine too. They are the ECG equivalent to the 1N270.

[Coriolis]

Did you try boxing it up yet? If you put it in a shielded box, like a hammond, the noise will probably drop. I'm building one right now, and it is noisy allright, but I think it will get better once in the box. Also, the octave isn't too prominent either, more like a nastiness, like jmusser said.

[tiges_ tendres]

Did you try boxing it up yet? If you put it in a shielded box, like a hammond, the noise will probably drop. I'm building one right now, and it is noisy allright, but I think it will get better once in the box. Also, the octave isn't too prominent either, more like a nastiness, like jmusser said.

the other problem I'm having, is even when I dont touch the strings, there is a weird crackle.  Any body else have this problem?  I think it has something to do with the note decay, becuase the notes drop off really fast then descend into this mad crackle.

Anyway, I am still super pleased with the effect.  every time I play through it I feel like the walls are going to cave in.

[Yun]

Did you try boxing it up yet? If you put it in a shielded box, like a hammond, the noise will probably drop. I'm building one right now, and it is noisy allright, but I think it will get better once in the box. Also, the octave isn't too prominent either, more like a nastiness, like jmusser said.

the other problem I'm having, is even when I dont touch the strings, there is a weird crackle.  Any body else have this problem?  I think it has something to do with the note decay, becuase the notes drop off really fast then descend into this mad crackle.

Anyway, I am still super pleased with the effect.  every time I play through it I feel like the walls are going to cave in.

Hmmmmm, sounds like a grounding problem, man....

[jmusser]

If I had to guess at that problem, I'd guess a bad solder joint someplace, that may have something to do with the transistor resistors for biasing. If I remember right, this effect has very little sustain. I Believe the Buzz Box, is two Bazz Fuzzes together, and I also believe the Bazz Fuzz was intitially designed for bass. That's why the biasing is the wayi t is to cut off quickly. The Bazz Fuzz is the best sounding bass fuzz I've heard to date, but I haven't had a chance to hear Mark Hammer's sound sample for his bass specific fuzz either. I'm sure it's great.

[Yun]

If I had to guess at that problem, I'd guess a bad solder joint someplace, that may have something to do with the transistor resistors for biasing. If I remember right, this effect has very little sustain. I Believe the Buzz Box, is two Bazz Fuzzes together, and I also believe the Bazz Fuzz was intitially designed for bass. That's why the biasing is the wayi t is to cut off quickly. The Bazz Fuzz is the best sounding bass fuzz I've heard to date, but I haven't had a chance to hear Mark Hammer's sound sample for his bass specific fuzz either. I'm sure it's great.

Mines sustained pretty good, man.  But, again, i did mods to it, so....