Buzzaround

The Buzzaround is a vintage germanium fuzz pedal built by Baldwin-Burns Ltd. in England, produced by hand on tagboard from 1966 to 1968¹. It is a three-transistor germanium fuzz, and British Pedal Company describes it as very different from its competitors at the time, with a gritty, aggressive tone that Tru-Fi calls renowned²³. Its fame rests largely on one player: Robert Fripp, who used it in the early days of King Crimson⁴.

Only a handful of units were produced during its roughly two-year run, so originals are almost mythical to some collectors². For most players today, the Buzzaround circuit is something you meet through a clone, a reissue or a DIY printed circuit board rather than an original unit.

Where the Buzzaround came from

British Pedal Company's history credits Gary Hurst with designing the Buzzaround in 1966 for the Baldwin-Burns Company, as a competitor to the Sola Sound Tone Bender⁶. Hurst was the designer behind the Tone Bender, and the Buzzaround carried his three-transistor approach forward with NKT213 germanium units, which British Pedal Company says offered rich, smooth sustain⁶.

The attribution is not settled, though. BLAMMO! Electronics, which builds its own Buzzaround copy, reports that conventional wisdom said Hurst designed it, but that the circuit is actually an unauthorized copy of a much more obscure design called the Harmonic Generator, by Gerry Pope of G.P. Electronics¹. Tru-Fi tells the same story: the GP Harmonic Generator, which it dates to 1966, was then booted by the Burns company for the more famous Buzzaround fuzz⁴. Tru-Fi also notes that Burns produced the pedal in England and Australia⁴.

The hardware itself was distinctive. The Buzzaround was housed in a wedge-shaped casing with a sliding tray, similar to the Dallas Rangemaster, and it was constructed on tagboard with a new configuration of transistors⁶. Production ended in England around 1968; Fripp himself noted in a 1974 interview that it had been discontinued about six years earlier²⁶.

Fripp is the player most associated with the pedal. Tru-Fi describes him as a major Buzzaround user from the early days of Crimson⁴, and BLAMMO! adds that he used one on the earlier Giles, Giles and Fripp recordings¹.

How it works: a three-transistor germanium fuzz

The Buzzaround is a three-transistor germanium fuzz circuit. The originals used NKT213 transistors⁶, hand-built on tagboard¹. Germanium transistors are the older, leakier, gain-variable cousins of silicon transistors, and they are part of why vintage fuzz circuits behave the way they do: Tru-Fi notes that the original Fuzz Face circuit used germanium transistors, contributing to its warm and smooth fuzz sound¹⁰.

The three-transistor germanium format is not unique to the Buzzaround. JHS Pedals describes its Firefly as its take on delivering "this classic three transistor Germanium fuzz circuit"¹¹, and Wilson Effects builds its Fuzz MKIII around three NOS Motorola PNP germanium transistors¹². Hudson Electronics likewise builds germanium-transistor-based fuzz circuits¹³. What set the Buzzaround apart was its particular transistor configuration and its control set, both of which British Pedal Company describes as new for its time⁶.

The Balance, Timbre and Sustain controls

The Buzzaround's control set is one of its defining features. British Pedal Company explains that the controls were updated from the Tone Bender to include Balance, Timbre and Sustain, which gave the user a larger sonic scope than its predecessors⁶.

The Balance control is the easiest to pin down: British Pedal Company's own Buzzaround manual states plainly that "Balance controls the volume of the pedal"⁵. The name is unusual, and it can mislead players who expect it to blend signals, the way a Balance control on a modern pedal such as the Drunk Beaver Fuzzmaster blends a clean signal with fuzz. On the Buzzaround it is simply the output level.

The Timbre and Sustain controls carry the tonal weight. Together with Balance, they gave the pedal a wider range than the simpler volume-and-tone arrangements of earlier fuzz boxes, which is part of why the circuit still attracts builders more than half a century later⁶.

How it relates to the Tone Bender

The Buzzaround sits in the same British family as the Tone Bender. British Pedal Company describes it as designed by the Tone Bender's own Gary Hurst, with its controls updated from the Tone Bender's⁶. The Tone Bender Mk II is likewise a three-transistor fuzz circuit; SolidGoldFX notes that its Bias control adjusts the operating point of the third transistor in that design¹⁴. The Buzzaround kept the three-transistor architecture but changed the transistor configuration and expanded the control set⁶.

The lineage runs further than England. Tru-Fi reports that the Italian company Elka produced the Dizzy Tone in 1969, a later version of the Buzzaround circuit⁴. And the circuit's own ancestry is murkier still: if the Harmonic Generator account is correct, the Buzzaround is itself a copy of Gerry Pope's earlier design, making the Harmonic Generator the true origin of the circuit¹⁴.

Tru-Fi, for its part, produces many reissues and clones of the Tone Bender circuit, allowing modern players to capture that classic fuzz sound¹⁵, and the Buzzaround is part of the same broader story of 1960s British fuzz.

Clones and reissues

Because originals are ridiculously rare and command a 4-figure sum when they do surface⁹, the Buzzaround survives mainly through modern builders.

BLAMMO!'s version is a limited take that uses three NPN germanium transistors, hand tested for gain and leakage, with MP38A NOS germanium transistors specified¹. Wilson Effects describes its Mordant as based on a vintage Baldwin Burns Buzzaround circuit, adding that it includes some extra options in classic Wilson fashion¹⁶. Tru-Fi's Dizzy Buzz traces the circuit through the GP Harmonic Generator story⁴, and Jed's Pedals' Baby Yoda is a straightforward nod to the mid-to-late-60s original⁹.

For builders, GuitarPCB sells the Fuzzy Bee, a printed circuit board it calls the best Buzzaround PCB, and its manual describes the board as allowing you to make a modernized version of the Buzzaround fuzz pedal¹⁹²⁰. Expresso FX's Buzzabout rounds out the list as a faithful replica of the circuit¹⁷.

Pedals on this page

Sola Sound Tone Bender MKI

Sola Sound · Fuzz

Burns Baldwin Buzzaround

Burns Baldwin · Fuzz

BLAMMO! Buzzaround

BLAMMO! Electronics · Fuzz

$164.99 list price

GP Electronics Harmonic Generator

GP Electronics · Fuzz

JHS Firefly

JHS Pedals · Fuzz

Wilson Effects Fuzz MKIII

Wilson Effects · Fuzz

$155 list price

Jed's Pedals Baby Yoda

Jeds Peds · Fuzz

Questions