NPD: Rockness Monster Buzzaround!
Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 9:53 am
Well, technically it's not really an NPD - I got the pedal two weeks-ish ago... but I've been having so much fun playing with it that I haven't had time to tell anyone about it yet!
So, a while back PP posted a vid of the Rockness Monster SHO clone, and that got me thinking "what would I want cloned?" which reminded me of a pedal board shot Newark Wilder had posted even longer ago, which featured a Burns Buzzaround clone. I contacted RM to see if he was up for some clone-age, and he said yes. So ILF works its magic yet again.
Anyhow, the Buzzaround is a triple germanium fuzz. It was made popular back in the day by Zappa and Robert Fripp and the like. It's a crazy dense & nicely sustainy fuzz, but with very little extraneous hiss or feedback (except when the timbre is wide open). You can find demos up on YouTube... but this is about the RM version, so I shan't be posting them in this post! If people want 'em, I can post 'em later in the thread.
RM was a pleasure to deal with, and kept me informed of the process every step of the way. At one point, when it looked like he might not be able to get tested NOS germanium, we got to talking about how the circuit might sound with other transistors in it. RM was able to find the germanium, but included two other sets of transistors in the box, and set it up so I can swap out transistors without soldering, to try out other combinations! Very cool. I haven't even had a chance to try out the other transistors yet... but I will.
In terms of the sound, I suppose the closest thing I've got is my Wolf Computer, albeit without the WC's motorboating and weird starving tricks. But the Buzzaround is a bit more articulate than the WC, with maybe a little more high end.
Oh, it looks purty too - I haven't had a chance to add graphics yet, but I'm considering just leaving it the beautiful black sparkle that RM gave it:
Sadly, it does lose a bit of bottom end on bass (which is my primary instrument), but it never does "splat out" like some guitar-centric fuzzes do in the lower registers. But I can't complain - for one thing, I didn't ask RM to make any accommodations for low end (I wanted to see how it would sound as a proper Buzzaround). Frankly, it's such a sweet sound as it is, I think I'll just have to start a guitar-centric pedal board!
Anyhow, I don't have a video camera, but I did record a couple of clips - "Buzzaround Fuzzaround" is a rough draft of a song (the pedal was so sweet, I just started riffing right away), and the other clip is a little raw noodling. On the song, all of the guitars are through the Buzzaround, with no extra EQ or toneshaping beyond tweaks to the timbre and sustain knobs. Oh, and the drums are pretty much sucktastic. For the raw noodling clip, I played my Squier Bronco strung up with piccolo strings (so it's essentially a tenor guitar). The clip starts out with my clean sound, goes into the pedal with sustain and timbre at noon, then switches to sustain and timbre maxxed, and then finally ends with the sustain and timbre almost all the way down. Frankly, I find that this pedal sounds rocktastic on all settings.
Wow... that's a lot of talking. Bottom line is Rockness Monster is good people who does good work!
Oh, and that this pedal is badass: 
So, a while back PP posted a vid of the Rockness Monster SHO clone, and that got me thinking "what would I want cloned?" which reminded me of a pedal board shot Newark Wilder had posted even longer ago, which featured a Burns Buzzaround clone. I contacted RM to see if he was up for some clone-age, and he said yes. So ILF works its magic yet again.
Anyhow, the Buzzaround is a triple germanium fuzz. It was made popular back in the day by Zappa and Robert Fripp and the like. It's a crazy dense & nicely sustainy fuzz, but with very little extraneous hiss or feedback (except when the timbre is wide open). You can find demos up on YouTube... but this is about the RM version, so I shan't be posting them in this post! If people want 'em, I can post 'em later in the thread.
RM was a pleasure to deal with, and kept me informed of the process every step of the way. At one point, when it looked like he might not be able to get tested NOS germanium, we got to talking about how the circuit might sound with other transistors in it. RM was able to find the germanium, but included two other sets of transistors in the box, and set it up so I can swap out transistors without soldering, to try out other combinations! Very cool. I haven't even had a chance to try out the other transistors yet... but I will.
In terms of the sound, I suppose the closest thing I've got is my Wolf Computer, albeit without the WC's motorboating and weird starving tricks. But the Buzzaround is a bit more articulate than the WC, with maybe a little more high end.
Oh, it looks purty too - I haven't had a chance to add graphics yet, but I'm considering just leaving it the beautiful black sparkle that RM gave it:
Sadly, it does lose a bit of bottom end on bass (which is my primary instrument), but it never does "splat out" like some guitar-centric fuzzes do in the lower registers. But I can't complain - for one thing, I didn't ask RM to make any accommodations for low end (I wanted to see how it would sound as a proper Buzzaround). Frankly, it's such a sweet sound as it is, I think I'll just have to start a guitar-centric pedal board!
Anyhow, I don't have a video camera, but I did record a couple of clips - "Buzzaround Fuzzaround" is a rough draft of a song (the pedal was so sweet, I just started riffing right away), and the other clip is a little raw noodling. On the song, all of the guitars are through the Buzzaround, with no extra EQ or toneshaping beyond tweaks to the timbre and sustain knobs. Oh, and the drums are pretty much sucktastic. For the raw noodling clip, I played my Squier Bronco strung up with piccolo strings (so it's essentially a tenor guitar). The clip starts out with my clean sound, goes into the pedal with sustain and timbre at noon, then switches to sustain and timbre maxxed, and then finally ends with the sustain and timbre almost all the way down. Frankly, I find that this pedal sounds rocktastic on all settings.
Wow... that's a lot of talking. Bottom line is Rockness Monster is good people who does good work!
Oh, and that this pedal is badass: 
