So I tried the Bazz Fuss as 1st timer . . .

[el badger]

. . . and the result was no distortion / fuzz. Sure it acts as a booster and I am going to solder-up the finished product. But is boosts with a tremolo / small oscillation effect. I would like to increase the oscillation so that it is more noticeable. My finished product was the basic Bazz Fuss and then I swapped some capacitors for what I actually had on-hand, moved some things around and have what I have. What I want is some fuzz and more exaggerated oscillation. The transistor is a osc / mixer / amp. only a few resistors were not to spec, but everything else is. Oh I did swap out the didodes for others. But I am a newbie, and Ohms and nf are things I have no idea about. I just want the warm fuzzies again as my DOD pedal I had since 94 finally took a crap on me but I am not ready to cannibalize it. I have made effects before but have turned out to be happy accidents and played with them until I got the sound I thought was cool. Here is a pic. What do I need to do to get fuzz and / or exaggerate the oscillation?

[Jero]

At a glance, the input/output and power section look wrong. I can go into more detail when I get off work. Hopefully someone else speaks up in the meantime.

[Mike]

Jero is right. Definitely a wiring problem going on. If you are getting some sort of oscillation, it is most likely a happy accident. Fixing the circuit will almost certainly eliminate the oscillation.

Looking at the jacks, it appears that you are soldering to the actual surface that makes contact with the tip of the connector. If so, don't do this. That piece of metal flexes every time you insert or remove a jack. You run the risk of having the solder pop right off. Solder to the proper lugs.

Again looking at the jacks, it appears that you have connected both 9V and ground to one of them. That is just not how it is done. In the Bazz Fuss, 9v connects to a resistor, and only a resistor.

I would scrap what you have done, and rebuild it properly, according to this document.

Good luck!

Mike

[el badger]

rebuild it properly, according to this document

I will! That is so simple, the Beavis doc with the breadboard view. The other jacks I have soldered in my box I used the proper lugs. I'm just using those till the joints break then do it right, if not then only for breadboarding. More to the point, I saw that Jaguar in your avatar pic. Gorgeous instrument. My dream axe - or if I could ever afford a luthier to whip me up a Cobain Jagstang!

Now to the oscillation, if it is a happy accident how do I accentuate it, or make it more noticeable. It absolutely sounds like a 60s tube amp with a slow Lesley cab. I even unplugged it and replugged into the amp to hear the boost and difference so it is definitely something I want to keep.

[KaosCill8r]

To get it to oscillate, you could try lifting the ground out of the circuit with a 1k ohm potentiometer. Take the ground source wire and solder it to lug 1 of the pot. Solder a wire from pot lug 2 to the circuit board ground connection. Not 100% sure if this method will work with the Bazz Fuss, but it works well with a Meathead clone I built. Also for shits and giggles you could also do the exact same thing to the positive power connection to create a voltage starve control. That can sound good too. Again not sure what it will do. I have never built a Bazz Fuss circuit. Maybe someone with more build experience can say if these mods will work with this circuit.

[Nocentelli]

A resistor on the emitter acts as a gain control, a 1k pot works ok but only reduces gain.

[greeny23]

i mean absolutely no offense by this because we all start somewhere, but i got a good giggle at the soldering directly to the jacks like that

keep at it, you'll get better

[el badger]

i got a good giggle at the soldering directly to the jacks like that

It not taken personal. As i said before, I quickly saw the error in my ways but did not want to desolder them and make the unusable. They are just for breadboarding until the odd joint pops off on it own - which it should eventually

Not 100% sure if this method will work with the Bazz Fuss, but it works well with a Meathead clone I built.

It didn't change the oscillation just increased the level of the top end, and was kinda harsh, tinny. Where can I get the plans for the Meathead? Is it a big build or light?

[KaosCill8r]

The Meathead is very easy build. Tagboardeffects has a good layout for the Meathead as well as lots of other cool one knob fuzz clones that you can build with the same layout, just changing a few components.