Known to some as the “mythical fuzz”, this wedge shaped pedal officially named the Buzzaround was built by hand on tag board from 1966 to 1968 in England by Baldwin – Burns Ltd. Its most famously linked to the band King Crimson because their guitarist Robert Fripp used one on the earlier Giles, Giles and Fripp recordings. For quite some time conventional wisdom said Tone Bender guy Gary Hurst designed it but actually it’s an unauthorized copy of a much more obscure circuit called the Harmonic Generator by Gerry Pope of G.P. Electronics.
The BLAMMO! version stays true to the original by using NOS parts and keeping all the component values the same but improves the usability by adding a master volume control and housing it in a pedalboard friendly package that requires no special powering. The three NPN Germanium transistors are hand tested for gain and leakage to ensure the proper values are placed in each position. Carbon composition resistors, Panasonic film caps, and a Phillips orange drop capacitor are used in the fuzz section to keep the tone vintage plus a more robust power filtering section helps cut down on some of the hash floating around in the signal. We also upgrade the standard 3PDT style footswitch to a relay based true bypass system that won't make an awful KAH-CLUNK sound when being engaged.
- True Bypass
- MP38A NOS Germanium Transistors
- Matte Aluminum Knobs
- Board mounted Alpha Pots w/ dust covers
- 125b enclosure (4.8 x 2.6 x 1.58”) w/ top mounted jacks
- Matte Black with UV printed graphic
- Runs on the STANDARD 2.1mm center negative power supply (Boss style)
- Current draw: 38mA
Carefully handmade in Portland Oregon
