What would you like to know about the BBOD?

[Bobby D]

could we possibly make the BBOD circuit modified for some more easily found parts, and make it into a FOLK OVERDRIVE project???

Uh-oh, the BBOD flames are a gettin' hot!
Yes, I cast my vote as well...Folk Overdrive Project, or FOP...Baby Blue resurrected under a new guise
Me likes this idea very much!

well, we have a folk fuzz, a folk phase......and maybe an overdrive???

[BJF]

Hi,

When this circuit first was shown it was housed in a pedal labeled FUZZ 1 and there was also a FUZZ 2 that later became CAF. I had in mind with this circuit a modern fuzz sound hence the fuzz label.

I'd definately view it a fuzz considering what function it was made for. A good friend of mine, that was studying to be an engineer at the time but that was also a musician, a keyboardplayer and vocalist had experimented with waveforms with his fellow students that were also into electronic music and my friend later concluded that the most musical waveform they could dial was a squarewave that had uneven periodtime.


This was the original thought, Now I had an idea of how this could be done while parts for it were not easily found
especially since I wanted to combine this with a set of other things.

Now by definition a fuzz sound would be squarewave or filtered squarewave.

Another thing I had read was the most musical squarewave described as squarewave with gentle rounded corners......

With the Fuzz 1 design I wanted to try to get firstly this uneven period time and a transition to even square- this when looking at the circuit output on a scope.

Guitar used to tune this circuit was a -63 baby blue Fender strat while with custom pick ups.
This has something to do with why this model is baby blue but I'll put that in another post.

This effect of transistion I could set with the Fuzz control and it would then with guitar give control of distortion textures by picking force.

A friend of mine came by and played this bird's nest and said it sounded fine and interesting but that it may be a bit of a 'Marshall' product and so he lent me one of his Fender amp a Silverface Vibrolux and also a Marshall Blues Breaker so I could tune the EQ to fit both amps and this prompted a switch a filter to tame the treble for the Fender amp.

At the time I was repairing amps and pedals and just about any electronic gadget and had just a small practice amp with a guitar input and a poweramp input and it wasn't the brightest amp in the world.

So the circuit was now ready for use with both amps and was simple.

So at the last weekend of October 2000 I could string up FUZZ 1, FUZZ 2, Distburk and Tremolo into the Marshall Blues Breaker and the Fender Vibrolux they all were tuned to.

This was really only meant as advertisment for my amprepairworkshop and none of these were for sale.
I however got no amprepairs but there was mostly interest in the FUZZ 1 design.

Harri of Custom-sounds wanted to try this and possibly distribute this and so I sent later a blank baby blue box made like the first prototype and it went on tour in Finland.

I got it back after a few weeks with a request for more bass and changed a thing in filtering for that and production started shortly after that.

At this point Harri said that fuzz is likely not proper name since it would give people the wrong idea of usage and I would say he'd be right about that while I'd still think the circuit started as a fuzz and yet agree it may sound like an overdrive- I had one objection to this and that was that you can't really use BBOD as a regular overdrive since distortion would not blend well.

The one model that can drive BBOD is Honey Bee when level is set just at unity.
BBOD since it is made to change distortionstyle shall we say at a level suitable for a strat that is about 60mVs mean 600mV peak, and with its shall we say fuzz nature does not lend itself well to be driven nor does it drive other pedals particurlarly well allthough it does drive just about anyother BJF model.
Considering it was the first model and it was not really meant to be used other than as alone for one drive sound, I'd say it doesn't really stack very well.

Ah, it was brought to me upon the advent of the second BJF model that it would be cool if both models would work together and I worked on that to make BBOD go well with BBOD and after that to make all other models combine well with eachother but BBOD thrives mostly alone and is not really the best stacker.

Production went on relatively unchanged while there were several issues with footswitches and then loading problems some liked very much the very high outputimpedance that also is descrided in the product file of BBOD, since when you put the Volume control about half you'd have near 250K Ohms output impedance- looking backinto the circuit and that would form a filter with cables following it; others did not like this and yet others felt output was too low and by the 100th unit I thought of what would be the conpanion of the BBOD and came up with BPB while riding a car as a booster/ buffer designed for the input range in view of supply voltage.
Later as described above I added an internal booster.
Now BBOD had three transistors all selected for their working points.

Right, the main parts were for 9V operation a set of selected transistors and for the specific workjing point I wanted I could buy 400 transistors and find 20 I could use- something that would make massproduction not really an option as it would be very expensive and the limited by another part that is old and not made since the late 60's.

One thing I would not advice BBOD for a DIY thing is the fact that it involves so much trimming and selecting of parts and while I was making it as a BJF pedal it was while a simple circuit not a very costeffective one when faced with orders of 70 units.
There are no mojo capacitors or resistors in the BBOD only semiconductors do the job while having their working points set by passive components.

As a sidenote the BBOD I had to protect the circuit of with some means as when I started making this I had a supplier of parts and there were others interested in knowing what I was doing and that could easily buy up the parts I was using something I couldn't do at the time simply because I had a family to support.

One could argue is something good just because it isn't made anymore?
I don't know if that is the case with BBOD. I wish that all made have good homes. I also know that this model brought more questions to me than anyother model I have ever made. I also know from faxes I got from Harri since I had no internet then that the first mentionments on the internet one could think that the BBOD would be at least three or four different models- this as it changes from setting of knobs and what rigs you use it with and as good it may sound through one amp it can sound down right not good through another amp and that only surpassed by the Model R that is even more finnicky.

I would think I learnt from BBOD many things and would be inspired mostly by the things that didn't work and how to reverse that

Ah, a Folk overdrive? Then what would be educational and useful? What could one define as good to use?

I wonder about this too there are many shades of drive sounds now in the MP line and what is more of interest for the MP line would be in the time domain I'd think.


Have fun
BJ

[strings2wood]

Having read the machinations of designing, developing, testing, tweaking for the BBOD,
I am now more mindful of the art/ craft and infinite patience that is necessary to produce the BJF pedals.
I hope to hold onto this appreciation that goes beyond:
1. how good they sound;
2.how reliable they are,
3. why so many really see them as mini amps.
Thanks for being at our service Mr. Juhl,
and you can rest assured when I am using any BJF pedal / Mad Professor/ Rocketride pedal,
I'll definitely be "having fun!"

Simon in Melbourne.

[Bobby D]

VERY interesting

the transistors chosen for the BBOD, were they germanium or silicon based semiconductors?

it is QUITE fascinating that this was originally a FUZZ. now i understand why they were so "difficult" for many people, and why some of the BBOD can be "picky" about amps and environments.

thank you for also explaining the evolution of the BBOD design -- what was the final change around #400 that was the final revision?

[BJF]

Hi,

These were silicon.

Regarding environments BBOD has been played outdoor in the Austrian alps at -40 degree's Celsius aswell as in tropical environments in excess of +40 degrees Celsius working equally well.
However, it does preform its best driving a fairly clean sound a it may have a sound that in contrast to being a standard overdrive more like a composite sound of an overdrive driving an amplifier which makes for distortion products that may not as easily be distorted again if you will and further BBOD has a particurlar EQ that matches some amplifiers and speaker set ups while others not at all.
So I'd say BBOD is not sensitive to enviroment per see but what it would be conneted to and how it would be used, while that would apply to any pedal ofcourse.


There was one revision as mention above regarding outputsection to solve a number of issues and that took place around #250 or so- I am waiting for files resqued in a dead computor for more precise.
Actually as I recall nothing special happened after #400...

Have fun
BJ

[mrpicard]

OK, does anyone on this board have BBOD numbered #209, #210 or #211? Thanks

[melodichaotic]

Hi BJ,
Thanks for all the details and clearing up the design/goals of the BBOD. It makes a lot of sense now knowing the circuit seems to be a fuzz in overdrive clothing.

True, thoughts of adding another overdrive...we have the Sparkling Yellow to press on with!

When you mention reading about a "musical square wave with gentle rounded corners", was that taking the concept of a square wave into the direction of a sine wave, like an overdrive, and could you further expound upon the concept of a square wave with an uneven period time? Does that have to do with making the completion of the square wave cycle more random/less constant?

Thanks again for your help!

[Donner]

OK, does anyone on this board have BBOD numbered #209, #210 or #211? Thanks

I had 2 of those 3 once upon a time ....... wish you well ?

[BJF]

Hi BJ,
Thanks for all the details and clearing up the design/goals of the BBOD. It makes a lot of sense now knowing the circuit seems to be a fuzz in overdrive clothing.

True, thoughts of adding another overdrive...we have the Sparkling Yellow to press on with!

When you mention reading about a "musical square wave with gentle rounded corners", was that taking the concept of a square wave into the direction of a sine wave, like an overdrive, and could you further expound upon the concept of a square wave with an uneven period time? Does that have to do with making the completion of the square wave cycle more random/less constant?

Thanks again for your help!

Hi,

Perhaps it is fitting and scary thought it is now about 28 years ago since I first heard about this uneven periodtime.......

In control systems one would talk about pulsewidth.......
To a keyboardist familiar with analog synthesizer a squarewave would be available and sometimes you can vary the pulsewidth or periodtime.

Anyway this about the uneven periodtime was once told to me by a keyboardplayer/technician and also a guy whom I played in various bands with from 1979 to 1991.

Well "musical square wave with gentle rounded corners" this I read about in several publications at the while I was at the age of 16-17- it was a popular view in the late 70's and it can of course be explained mathematically if you'd consider a perfect square wave being an infinite series of sine waves with declining amplitude and you take all these lesser sine waves and add one the original sine wave to build the perfect square-it follows that if you don't have enough lesser sines to build the perfect square it won't be perfect.
Studies also show that the human mind accepts certain overtones better than others and therefore when certain overtones are missing a waveform can be interperated as more musical- the reasons behind this may lie very deep in conciousness.
Anyway a squarewave with gently rounded corners would also be what you measure across the speakerpoles of say a Gibson Ranger producing one distorted note.
There would be ample literature from say 1974- 1984 that would mention this.

Regarding uneven period time this was put to me by an electronic student one year older than I also when I was at the age of say 16 so you could say it took some time......
Anyway if you'd look at a typically implied square wave it would have one positive half and one negative half both equal in area- while uneven would have one side longer than the other. While this is not really a typical technical term and some technicians would say they it isn't but I once mentioned this when talking to the technical director and cheif designer of EBS Bass Amplifications and a couple of days later he showed me his new shiny bass prototype preamp coupled to an oscilloscope and showing this exact function, which goes to show that it is valid communication between technicians.

No, I wouldn't say more random and less constant, in fact not at all

Have fun
BJ

[Blues Lyne]

The bass player in my band is an EE and spent 25 years installing studios in radio stations (RKO and others) and recording studios and working in the audio field, including building and designing studio components.

The other night at rehearsal, we were discussing a noise problem I'm having with my pedalboard. While we were looking at the board, I pointed to my BBOD and mentioned that it was designed to have uneven period time. He got a big smile and said that back in the day, he had analyzed the waveform of different voices. He found that singers that had distinctive voices tended to exhibit uneven period time, while those that sounded bland were fairly symetrical. I thought that was pretty interesting. The BBOD definitely has a distinctive voice.