Akashic Guitar effects circuit lookup
SUSTAINBALANCETIMBREVOLUME

Enclosure not stated · 4 knobs

Naegele Audio

Electric Talons

Based on the Baldwin-Burns Buzzaround· 13 other boards clone it

Want a PCB? Naegele Audio laid out a PCB for this circuit and sells boards, as well as relay bypass and I/O boards: message PedalBuilder on the PedalPCB forum.

Category
Fuzz
Controls
Sustain · Balance · Timbre · Volume
Price
see vendor
Tags
PedalPCB forum, PCB by message
Read the post at Naegele Audio

From the vendor

Not my most recent build (I built it last January, so it's one of my older builds), but a very enjoyable one. For those not in the know, the Buzzaround ( PedalPCB Gnat ) is a wonderfully nasty germanium fuzz. Garage rock? Psychedelia? Death metal? Sure, the Buzzaround can handle all of those and more. Here's the schematic that I used: <a href="https://forum.pedalpcb.com/attachments/electric-talons-png.102020/" target="_blank"> <img src="data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' width='1996' height='2000' viewBox%3D'0 0 1996 2000'%2F%3E" data-src="https://pedalpcb-forum.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/data/attachments/102/102039-290efbe592c4c48d4b4dde538943eb72.jpg?hash=HMqIg3_bOe" class="bbImage lazyload" style="" alt="Electric Talons.png" title="Electric Talons.png" width="150" height="151" /> <img src="https://pedalpcb-forum.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/data/attachments/102/102039-290efbe592c4c48d4b4dde538943eb72.jpg?hash=HMqIg3_bOe" class="bbImage " style="" alt="Electric Talons.png" title="Electric Talons.png" width="150" height="151" /> Two germanium transistors in a Darlington configuration serve as the input stage, which distorts slightly and then slams the clipping stage. The clipping stage uses a single leaky germanium transistor, which is biased via the leakage of a germanium diode. (More on this later.) The clipping stage then goes into a rudimentary but effective tone stack. If you're thinking, this sounds like the Tone Bender Mk. III or Mk. IV, you would be correct. Someone at Sola Sound/Macaris came across a Buzzaround some time in 1966 or 1967, liked what they heard, and used it as the starting point for the Tone Bender Mk. III. I departed from the original in a few key respects. First, I added a volume control at the output. The original used the Balance control as the volume control. As you may notice, it's not a traditional volume control, and while it does function as a volume control, it also changes the bias of Q3 as it's adjusted. Adding a volume control gives you a bit more tonal versatility. Second, I borrowed a mod from David Main, and re-tuned the tone stack by increasing C4 from 100nF to 220nF and increasing R10 from 10k to 33k. This shifts the high pass filter in the tone stack down to a more useable range and increases the output level. Outside <a href="https://forum.pedalpcb.com/attachments/img_4948-png.102018/" target="_blank"> <img src="data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' width='1400' height='1868' viewBox%3D'0 0 1400 1868'%2F%3E" data-src="https://pedalpcb-forum.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/data/attachments/102/102037-efbd6a7b6cf40958b1ebe9ae8436c459.jpg?hash=vuMeVsLCiZ" class="bbImage lazyload" style="" alt="IMG_4948.png" title="IMG_4948.png" width="150" height="201" /> <img src="https://pedalpcb-forum.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/data/attachments/102/102037-efbd6a7b6cf40958b1ebe9ae8436c459.jpg?hash=vuMeVsLCiZ" class="bbImage

Schematic

The schematic is in the post. Open it at Naegele Audio. No KiCad fragment has been drawn for this circuit yet.

Parts list 29 rows

Report a wrong parse

Got parts in a drawer? See what you can build with them.

Check before you build · 1 value the reader of this schematic was not sure of
  • R101: LED resistor drawn as 'LEDR' with no value
RefValueNormalizedTypeNotes
Resistors 11
R11M1Mread from the schematic by eye
R2470k470kread from the schematic by eye
R3100k100kread from the schematic by eye
R410k10kread from the schematic by eye
R510k10kread from the schematic by eye
R63k33.3kread from the schematic by eye
R73k33.3kread from the schematic by eye
R824k24kread from the schematic by eye
R915k15kread from the schematic by eye
R1033k33kraised from 10k (David Main mod); read from the schematic by eye
R101??LED current limiting resistor, drawn as LEDR; read from the schematic by eye
Capacitors 8
C1100n100nread from the schematic by eye
C24u74.7uread from the schematic by eye
C34u74.7uread from the schematic by eye
C4220n220nraised from 100n (David Main mod); read from the schematic by eye
C51n1nread from the schematic by eye
C10110u10uLT1054 charge pump; read from the schematic by eye
C102100u100uLT1054 output filter; read from the schematic by eye
C103100n100nceramic; read from the schematic by eye
Diodes 1
D1D9ED9Egermanium, biases Q3; read from the schematic by eye
Transistors 3
Q1GT309BGT309Bgermanium, hFE 81, leakage 13µA (from the post); read from the schematic by eye
Q2GT309BGT309Bgermanium, hFE 86, leakage 14µA (from the post); read from the schematic by eye
Q3GT115DGT115Dgermanium, hFE 167, leakage 311µA (from the post); read from the schematic by eye
ICs 1
IC1LT1054CPLT1054CPvoltage inverter; read from the schematic by eye
Potentiometers 4
SustainB100kB100kPotentiometerread from the schematic by eye
BalanceB10kB10kPotentiometerread from the schematic by eye
TimbreB100kB100kPotentiometerread from the schematic by eye
VolumeA100kA100kPotentiometeradded output volume; read from the schematic by eye
LEDs 1
LEDRED LEDRED LEDstatus LED; read from the schematic by eye

Other boards based on the Baldwin-Burns Buzzaround