In the summer of 2002, I was in the process of putting together a Devo Cover band. Vintage synthesizers command very high prices and since a lot of Devo's sound is based on nasty sounding synthesizers, I decided to come up with a solution. I had to find the nastiest Fuzz Pedal for my guitar, and use that to approximate some of the synthesizer sounds.
Unfortunately, most of the nasty old vintage fuzz pedals are also quite expensive. So, I went looking on the internet for various fuzz/distortion circuits. I figured they couldn't be that difficult since distortion seems to be the most basic of effects. I was very suprised when I found The Bazz Fuss. It is an extremely simple fuzz/distortion circuit that only had about 10 components in the design. Since I was given a box full of old radioshack inventory (thanks Dim) for my Birthday, I figured I should have all the parts necessary to make the effect.
I dug through and found some old transistors and various caps and diodes and a nice perf board to build it all onto. So I went soldering away for a good hour, and quickly hooked it up and it worked!! I brought the circuit board with wires hanging off of it to Devo-Cover-Band Practice and taped the wires onto a few patch cords to try it out and it sounded amazing! Of course, I couldn't play a show with just a circuit board with wires hanging off of it, although it would be pretty devolved.
So I went to Small Bear Electronics and ordered a few things. I got a nice metal project box (Hammond BB), a few 1/4" jacks and a really nice DPDT switch. The DPDT switch means "double pole - double throw" and I use it to switch the effect off and on. Most effects only use a cheap SPST or similar switch, which only turns the effect off. The problem is that your guitar signal is still going through the pedal and is losing clarity and strength because of that. Also, if the battery in a typical pedal dies, no noise will come out because even when the effect is "off" it is still relying on the the effect to generate the sound.
I used the DPDT switch to wire up the Bazz Fuss in a "True Bypass" configuration. Meaning when the fuzz is off, the guitar signal doesn't touch the effect and is completely independent with no loss of sound or strength. Awesome!
I also wired up the effect to only turn on when there is something plugged into the input jack of the fuzz pedal. This conserves battery power.
I used GeoFex's article on Effects Wrappers to figure out all the wiring for the true-bypass switching and such. I used the "Second Generation Version C" wrapper. The downside is that there is no LED indicator to show whether or not the effect is enganged. However, it is pretty obvious to tell if the fuzz is engaged or not.
While I was waiting for my Small Bear Electronics shipment, I messed around a lot with the circuit. I messed around with different diodes as well as different values of capacitors. The whole project was a hit and miss project with no method behind it really. There's no official formula for what will sound good in a fuzz pedal, so I just messed around with everything I had in the basement until it sounded good. I was going to put a schematic up for what I ended up with, but I'd rather you mess around with the component values on your own anyways.
Here's another page about the Bazz Fuss called Bazz Fuss Fun. As you can see, they also messed around with the values of the diodes and capacitors. One schematic even shows a version that has multiple diode configurations that you can switch between! An awesome idea for a very versatile fuzz pedal.
Unfortunately, by the time I got the Bazz Fuss done it was too late to use it in the Devo Cover Band. However, it does sound awesome!! Not nearly as synthesizer-ish as I wanted. Infact it sounds quite musical, and really howls out the nasty distortion. I also included a Gain and a Volume knob to the pedal since the volume output was quite high and I wanted to be able to adjust it. You can set the gain pretty low, and use the Volume know more as a boost to push a tube amp into it's own natural distortion. The case is amazingly solid and feels better than most store-bought effects pedals, and definatley more sturdy than stupid plastic cased pedals.
Now, the whole project cost me around $60. However, I didn't have to buy any of the electronic components. I figure this project would be at least $80 if you had to start from scratch. Despite the fact that the project was a fun learning experience, I don't think it was worth it. You can buy cheap-ass fuzz pedals used for $20 and if you are worried about their stability you could always make your own steel housing for it and add true-bypass switching and probably end up spending less money than I did and end up with a better product.
However, if you do want to make your own Guitar Effects pedal, I strongly suggest you look into one of the many Fuzz Face circuits on the internet. An original Fuzz Face goes for a few hundred dollars, but can be homemade with better components for significantly cheaper and will sound amazing! Check out GeoFex and Small Bear Electronics for a few circuits and necessary components.
Check out my Bazz Fuss!
