2-in-1 Gnat Fuzz + Buzz Tone Fuzz

[VanWhy]

Build Rating

5.00 star(s)

My build of the a Gnat Fuzz (Burns Buzzaround) and a Buzz Tone Fuzz (Selmer Buzz Tone) in a 1590XX enclosure.

To be honest I bought the Buzz Tone bc I thought it was also a Buzzaround variant. When I realized it wasn't I still went ahead and put them together. I'm very glad I did bc they pair very nice. The Buzz Tone is very low gain and really doesn't get very fuzzy. So it's nice when run before or after another pedal. Especially with the charge pump they both really play nice. The Gnat just sounds great. Nice fuzzy, in the distortion zone. Great harmonics.

Big shout out to @Kroars for hooking me up with nice low gain germanium transistors. The Gnat I went with Q1-62 hFe, Q2-82 hFe, and Q3-95 hFe. The recommendation is for Q3 to be ~120 so if I get a transistor in that range I will try it out. For now it sounds good so it's staying.

I do want to label the knobs at some point. Also I have the Buzz Tone after the Gnat but I'd like to add a toggle that order some day.

All in all it was a good build. As always PPCB builds are always great and this was no different.

 

[almondcity]

Hell yeah

I built the buzz tone and it's very close to being a perfect low gain always on pedal. There's just a faint sizzle at the end of notes on mine that I imagine finding a better transistor might fix

 

[VanWhy]

Hell yeah

I built the buzz tone and it's very close to being a perfect low gain always on pedal. There's just a faint sizzle at the end of notes on mine that I imagine finding a better transistor might fix

Yes! That's a great description. It's like an overdrive with that faint sizzle. I thought something was wrong at first but from the demos of the Jext Telez version it sounds very similar. I'd still be interested in getting more gain out of it to hear what that does to the circuit. Not sure if different transistors would do that.

 

[MobyOctopad]

Yes! That's a great description. It's like an overdrive with that faint sizzle. I thought something was wrong at first but from the demos of the Jext Telez version it sounds very similar. I'd still be interested in getting more gain out of it to hear what that does to the circuit. Not sure if different transistors would do that.

I was going to ask about the gain and leakage of the transistors in the Buzz Tone. It's one of the few older fuzz circuits whose transistor specs I haven't been able to find in old diystompbox threads. I think the 2N2613 is supposed to be pretty high gain so maybe that's part of it?