Dazatronyx Brown Sound
The BSIAB2 circuit (Brown Sound in a Box 2) was my favourite distortion during school. The cool thing was; if you wanted one, you just had to build one. Or know somebody who would. The circuit was designed by Ed Guidry, similar to works by Jack Oran and Aron Nelson.
Back in the day, it was one of the highest-recommended builds on the forums. Forums were a thing. Many would suggest that this design was the original precursor to many of the "high gain amp" pedals that came out in the '00s.
It has a tonne of gain, and can dial in a fat bottom end to make a big amp sound. Some pedals claim to "stack well" together, but the Brown Sound can also be a "stack" all by itself, as it cascades three gain stages. This circuit also responds excellently to rolling back the instrument volume knob. It stacks best with other drive pedals running into the input.
Distortion is achieved by overdriving Fairchild 5457 field effect transistors (FETs), being the closest solid-state relative to vacuum tubes. Diodes are not used for distortion.
This build uses a hybrid mix of both surface-mount (SMD) and through-hole assembled components. Why go SMD on this one? A while back, Fairchild stopped producing the through-hole versions of some of our beloved, once common parts, such as the 2N5457, and the J201. The market quickly filled with counterfeit parts. The building community adapted to accept using the known SMD versions, rather than trying to hunt new-old-stock versions through non-reliable distributors. Those parts numbers are now being reproduced at a premium price by different manufacturers.
The SMD versions is, after all, the exact same transistor, however packaged in a different way which is more convenient for machine handling and assembly. In that fashion, the SMD resistors used are selected for lower noise than common through-hole versions. The SMD multilayer ceramic power filter capacitors have superior performance characteristics over the common electrolytic tube capacitors, as well as not suffering from limited shelf life associated with electrolytic. This makes for reliable circuit which can perform consistently for a long lifetime.
Audio capacitors used are polypropylene, polystyrene, and polyester.
This is built in a small-footprint Hammond 1590BS enclosure.
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Product Information
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Shipping & Returns
Description
The BSIAB2 circuit (Brown Sound in a Box 2) was my favourite distortion during school. The cool thing was; if you wanted one, you just had to build one. Or know somebody who would. The circuit was designed by Ed Guidry, similar to works by Jack Oran and Aron Nelson.
Back in the day, it was one of the highest-recommended builds on the forums. Forums were a thing. Many would suggest that this design was the original precursor to many of the "high gain amp" pedals that came out in the '00s.
It has a tonne of gain, and can dial in a fat bottom end to make a big amp sound. Some pedals claim to "stack well" together, but the Brown Sound can also be a "stack" all by itself, as it cascades three gain stages. This circuit also responds excellently to rolling back the instrument volume knob. It stacks best with other drive pedals running into the input.
Distortion is achieved by overdriving Fairchild 5457 field effect transistors (FETs), being the closest solid-state relative to vacuum tubes. Diodes are not used for distortion.
This build uses a hybrid mix of both surface-mount (SMD) and through-hole assembled components. Why go SMD on this one? A while back, Fairchild stopped producing the through-hole versions of some of our beloved, once common parts, such as the 2N5457, and the J201. The market quickly filled with counterfeit parts. The building community adapted to accept using the known SMD versions, rather than trying to hunt new-old-stock versions through non-reliable distributors. Those parts numbers are now being reproduced at a premium price by different manufacturers.
The SMD versions is, after all, the exact same transistor, however packaged in a different way which is more convenient for machine handling and assembly. In that fashion, the SMD resistors used are selected for lower noise than common through-hole versions. The SMD multilayer ceramic power filter capacitors have superior performance characteristics over the common electrolytic tube capacitors, as well as not suffering from limited shelf life associated with electrolytic. This makes for reliable circuit which can perform consistently for a long lifetime.
Audio capacitors used are polypropylene, polystyrene, and polyester.
This is built in a small-footprint Hammond 1590BS enclosure.
