Comments on: The Deluxe Bazz Fuss from Home-Wrecker.com

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:45:22 +0000

I know this post is a little old, but can you post additional pictures. of the inside and out? Just curious how you wired the switch, and did you use an led?

By: Joshik

Joshik — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:46:33 +0000

I just built the original Bazz Fuss (it sounds great!), and am looking forward to building this Deluxe version. Can I replace the 2.2uf polarized capacitor with a 4.7uf polarized cap – like the original BF? Would I have to change any of the other values?

By: CBass

CBass — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 19:36:33 +0000

I built this as a present for a friend. I couldn’t get it sound good with a bass, but was very pleased with how it worked with guitar. Definitely worth the small amount of effort required to build it.

By: Stobiepole

Stobiepole — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:31:01 +0000

Solder them to the board. There are pads provided on the layout.

By: Joshik

Joshik — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:44:01 +0000

What happens to the unused leads from the transformer? Do you cut them off? Bend them out of the way? Solder them to the board unconnected to anything?

And how do you mount the transformer on the board– by gluing? Or by drilling slots for the little bottom pegs? Or do the two connections hold it in place?

By: Earthscum

Earthscum — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 16:18:24 +0000

The transformer is used, in this case, as a guitar pickup simulator, as outlined by Jack Orman @ http://www.muzique.com/lab/pickups.htm
Basically, like many simple transistor builds, the impedance from your pickups are what actually help shape the unique sound. If you use this transformer, it approximates (less resistance) a guitar pickup so you can put this anywhere in your signal chain without ill consequence. If you don’t use the transformer, and you put this after a buffered effect, such as a Boss or Ibanez pedal, you will get the typical nasty transistor distortion that turns us all off unless you’re in some kind of Japanese Noise Punk scene.

The Thickness pot is just a blend control between the 2 input caps. Simply put, it lets you dial in how much bass is getting through to the circuit, which has an incredible effect on the clipped sound. I love this circuit. I built mine with just Dist and Vol controls for my girlfriend, and just built a new one for myself (both bassists). My new one includes a BMP tone section after.

By: Oli

Oli — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 18:24:24 +0000

Erratum:
‘with the “gap” pot set to 0 Ohm’
There is no such pot, meant the “thickness” pot.

By: Oli

Oli — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 18:21:07 +0000

@Chris: It seems to me the transformer is not used as one in this circuit but as an inductor. This leads to a band-pass filter with resonance. With a very roughly calculation, the resonance frequency is – with the “gap” pot set to 0 Ohm – around 85Hz. At least if I was right with the inductor-value in the transformer’s datasheet.
About the importance: Not using the transformer will still let the circuit work (well), but with it, it will re-shape the frequency spectrum especially to the lower frequencies which might be useful in this fuzz-usage.
Not sure about that, but if you decide to renounce the transformer it could be better to either also renounce C3 and the thickness-pot (as with them but without inductor you only get a high-pass filter) or by adding a simple RC-lowpass, e.g. with a 1k8Ohm-resistor instead of the transformer and after that a connection to C1 and the thickness-pot aswell as a 1uF-cap to gnd.
But: I’m not that sure about all this

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 12:12:13 +0000

Hi there,
I was curious, what does the transformer do and how important is it to this circuit?