Silicon Buzzarounds

[jrmy]

So, I love my Buzzaround clone. Built by a former (?) (maybe he still lurks) forumite, Rockness Monster. Rehoused and kind of inadvertently hotrodded by LaoWiz. It is a beast of a machine. But I don't really want to put it on my live board, because I'm paranoid about Germanium and the way it reacts to temperature changes (NEW ENGLAND BAYYYYYBEEEEEE).

So I did a little google searchin', and it looks like some people out there feel that silicon Buzzarounds are entirely doable, and that the circuit really isn't that picky about the transistors used.

If that's the case, does anyone out there have experience with such a thing? Know any builders who might make / sell 'em?

[Eivind August]

Isn't the Shoe Pedals Robert basically a silicon Buzzaround?

[digi2t]

Doable. Might not sound exactly the same, but should be close. I would go with low gain transistors, something along the line of 2N2222 / 2N3700 combination, or maybe 2N2904A / 2N2905A combo.

Definately worth breadboarding. Piqued my interest.

[univalve]

Yeah, awesome idea! Really interested in peoples thoughts and findings on this.

[rfurtkamp]

You'll laugh, but put the thing in the fridge for a bit (your existing one). See how it sounds when it gets cool to the touch.

It may not change for jack - none of my germanium stuff does appreciably.

[LaoWiz]

Never heard of a all silicon Buzzaround workalike. There is a schematic that replaces the darlington preamp stage with an opamp but still retains a GE tranny for the fuzz.

Your circuit that I modded sounded great. And the one I built for myself, that I ending up selling, was amazing. Seems like if your existing one was able to get up to "room" temp you would be fine. While you may be able to get a close rendition, I doubt it would sound as good without GE trannys. I ain't no EE but jus my 2 cents....

[ghost_effects]

Isn't the DAM Grease Box (the silicon one) basically a MKIII variation? One step away from a Buzzaround?
I had a go at breadboarding a Si Buzzaround a few years ago, replacing the darlington pair with 1 silicon but it was very gated, needed more work/development!

[jrmy]

Intriguing, on all fronts. Hmmmmmm...

Eivind: it looks like the Robert isn't based at all on a Buzzaround, but is designed to get into a similar territory. Burgs' demo sounded great (of course). It doesn't have the classic Buzzaround 3-knob setup, but I will keep it in mind as a possibility.

digi2t: hey, if you do get something together based on that concept, I'd love to hear clips! And if you're willing to share, maybe see a schem. I can't solder to save my life, but maybe I could get someone to build me one.

uni: yeah, me too...

rfurtkamp: not a bad idea, but I'm paranoid... also, see below:

LaoWiz: yeah man, I love the one that you worked on. But I don't want to put it on my live board for 2 reasons: A) general paranoia. I love that thing! B) it's one of my go-to recording tones, and for my solo stuff, I almost never use my live board, because I'm always switching stuff around for recordings. So I'd want to keep THAT one for recording, and get another one on-board for live. Also, while I want my live board to sound as great as possible, if a particular pedal gets in the range I'm looking for but isn't 100%, I can usually live with it.

ghost_effects: I basically know next to nothing about the lineage of SO many vintage pedals. So, are you saying that a MKIII (I'm assuming you mean a Tonebender MKIII?) is pretty close to a Buzzaround? Because in that case, I might just switch my search... and that makes me wonder about the EQD Tone Reaper, which I've often considered picking up... HMMMMMMM...

[Chankgeez]

[ghost_effects]

Yeah Tone Bender MKIII and MKIV is a very similar circuit to the buzz/dizzy.
I might be completely wrong but I think there are silicon versions of the MKIV as well?? Happy to be corrected!

[jrmy]

Yeah Tone Bender MKIII and MKIV is a very similar circuit to the buzz/dizzy.
I might be completely wrong but I think there are silicon versions of the MKIV as well?? Happy to be corrected!

Hmmmmm... I don't know which version it's based on, but GGG offers a silicon Tonebender (negative ground) kit, and has a schem available here: http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/pdf ... 3si_sc.pdf

[ghost_effects]

Silicon MKIII right there! I wonder what transistors are used, I tend to go for pretty low gain for the darlington pair with Germanium.

[Uncle Grandfather]

Isn't the DAM Grease Box (the silicon one) basically a MKIII variation?

yeah the gb-83 is. i have one and it sounds great and sort of in the ballpark of a buzzaround. I think the buzzaround has a wider variety of tones than the greasebox.

[digi2t]

I'm in the middle of a sample/hold daughterboard build for my Infinitphase right now, but I'll see if I can do a breadboard quicky this week. I have a bunch of different Si transistors that are in the right gain ballpark, including some unobtanium Japanese ones. I'll stick with a Ge clipping diode though. It's going to be messed up enough with the Si transistors, I need to leave some Ge mojo in there.

[digi2t]

Well, after some intensive breadboarding (and lots of reading!!), this is what I have;



It's loud, raunchy, does everything from gated, buzz, to flat out, roaring fuzz. The extra 220pF caps are to take some of the edge off, you can play with these, though I would keep it on the Q3/Q4 combo. Q3/Q4 are arranged piggyback to tone down the gain, somewhat emulating a germanium transistor. The odd value resistors are because I have trimmers here, and these are what they are set at at the moment. Other than the extra transistor, it's really looking more like a MkIII.

Still needs some fine tuning. I'll be back.