Barnes & Mullins (B&M) Exel Shatterbox

The Exel Shatterbox was a compact fuzz box sold by Barnes & Mullins (B&M). A new Barnes & Mullins fuzz box was advertised in the 1969 Bell Musical Instruments catalog, and by the mid 1970s B&M had discontinued the Exel pedals. The Shatterbox kept a simple control layout with only two dials to adjust the fuzz sound.¹

What it does

The Shatterbox is a fuzz box in the classic sense: a small unit that turns the guitar's signal into a rasping, sustaining distortion, the effect that defined much of late 1960s electric guitar. Its control layout is simple, with only two dials to adjust the fuzz sound, so there is little to learn: set the amount and character of fuzz and play.¹

For players looking at vintage examples today, the circuit is the interesting part. Typical examples carry a silicon two-transistor circuit built on strip board, while one particularly early known example exists with a three-transistor circuit built on tag board. That means two Shatterboxes from different production runs may not behave identically.¹

History and status

B&M advertised the Shatterbox as a new fuzz box in the 1969 Bell Musical Instruments catalog, and the Exel line ran from then until the mid 1970s, when the company discontinued the Exel pedals and supplied the B&M Fuzz Unit in their place. The pedal is long out of production, so any Shatterbox on the market or in a collection is a vintage unit.¹