Pictures of the Pedal Build
Andrew Gregory has been building his own guitar pedals for years. On Friday, August 28th, Andrew hosted an AES build for a "Bazz Fuss" circuit that he modified into a unique sounding guitar pedal. He basically combined two Bazz Fuss circuits together and then made a small circuit so that it runs off a 9V battery. He also designed it so that the pedal doesn't drain the battery while its bypassed!
The Bazz Fuss circuit was originally meant to be a fuzz pedal for basses, but he likes how it sounds on guitar. Andrew even brought options for students to customize the way their pedal sounds. Andrew brought two different kinds of diodes: Germanium and Silicone. Germanium diodes give the pedal a more vintage fuzz sound while the Silicone diodes are more aggressive and in your face. He also had different transistors that resulted in bigger or smaller gain stages.
We tested each pedal at various stages during the build, and when we were done, we got to choose the most important part of any guitar pedal: the knob. Andrew brought in some custom made knobs that he actually cast himself!
At the end of the night, Andrew showed students how to look for circuits to build any other pedal they may want to build. With the knowledge we learned from this build, the attending students said they feel confident that they could build another one. This build has demystified the magic boxes we call guitar pedals.
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