M

Bazz Fuss!

Nice, eh? I put together a Bazz Fuss pedal for Amy's birthday this year. The tech specs, for those who care:

  • I used the version 3 diagram from the above link with the stock version 1N914 diode. This gives the pedal a respectable fuzz level, which gives the bass a nice rough edge.
  • The stomp switch is of course 3PDT (three pole, double throw) which allows for both the wiring of a "true bypass" circuit, and also an LED indicator for when the circuit is active.
  • The graphics were printed out on yellow paper on our home Laserjet, and then laminated. The laminate was then glued onto the top of the box and then affixed to the box using Mod Podge acrylic sealant spray, so that there were no brush marks on the finish. This tip courtesy of the forums at diysompboxes.com.
  • The battery, instead of being locked away inside the enclosure like most DIY stomp boxes, is placed in a Bulgin panel mount battery compartment, which is available to open up from the outside. This makes the pedal even more like a finished product, since you don't need to unscrew the enclosure to change the battery.
  • And finally, I put together the Bazz Fuss circuit without knowing about pull-down resistors. I sure found out about them pretty quickly, when I plugged the box in and was rewarded with a big "POP" whenever I switched it on. See this page about how to prevent your effects pedals from popping.

The gift box that I put the pedal in was also handmade; I wish I could find the template that I used for the box, but it's lost for now. You can probably just find a suitable size box; I couldn't find one myself on short notice, so I just bought a couple of pieces of cardstock from Dick Blick and then folded my own together.

Really, the only part of this whole thing that took the longest was trying to get an appropriate seal for the graphics. I tried a couple lacquers, but they weren't easy to work with and left brush marks. So the spray sealant worked best for me: there were no brush marks, and it dried pretty quickly so that I could put several coats on in one day.

Update: here's the template that I used for the gift box! The dimensions were too small for what I needed, so I just eyeballed it and scaled it out with little trouble.

This article is my 17th oldest. It is 414 words long