DOD FX33 Buzz Box

Hmmmm....The control knobs have funny names. To anyone who is uninitiated with this quirky DOD tradition - the company released a series of pedals in the mid nineties that had weird names and wierder controls to match their equally strange sounds. If you have a manual of course, then only a few minutes of trying out the suggested settings is needed before you begin to realise what you have let yourself (and anyone within a four mile radius) in for. BE WARNED - this pedal is loud with a capitol LOUD! I'll explain later about the extent of madness contained within this pedal. Personally I think the BuzzBox was easy and fun to use. The controls all react with each other too, another true DOD tradition. What I mean is if you add more treble to the sound you don't just get a little more of a cutting sound - Oh no - You get a disgustingly SCORCHING sound that threatens to singe off your pubic hairs give it half a chance. Even your low E tuned to C sounds unrecognisable with the treble cranked.

Well this is another tough question. You see the deal with the BuzzBox is this - The answer to this question will differ significantly depending on who you ask. In the words of Paul Simon - 'One mans ceiling is another mans floor...' Likewise, Some people will turn this pedal on and think 'Oh shit - what have I done?'. Some will think 'Thats an ..erm...interesting sound'. Others,like me,will be over the moon at what it does. This sound of this pedal is ugly. Its Butt ugly. Its sooo ugly my cat won't stay in the house when I use it! To the question is it noisy? You bet your arse it is!
I use the BuzzBox with a Tele into loads of other wierd pedals through a Carlsboro amp. For more info and pics checkout http://nadzb.tripod.com/thepedallair/
The pedal produces a massive,brittle distortion plus a two octave down pitchshift. It looks like a wasp and sounds like one too in some settings. It does a very cool fart noise and combined with a whammy pedal it can do the sound of those super cool little MicroMachines from the Sega game! I use a DOD Envelope filter with the BuzzBox.I can safely say that you get the most convincing duck impersonations using this combination. A cool trick it does is to pick up your voice when you speak and to transmit it through your amp - thats how loud it can go! You can run a mic through it too - ever seen the 'wizard of oz'? Wanna know how to sound like the Wizard? Buy a Buzzbox and find out.
You may know that Buzz Ozbourne AKA King Buzzo of the Melvins designed the Buzzbox so if you want to hear this pedal in action listen to some Melvins stuff.
As you may have gathered the FX33 is a weird pedal and will suit the experimenting types amongst you down to the ground - needless to say though - Boring blues types or Shredders need not apply!

DOD have always served me well. Good switch,Nice metal box and everything seems sturdy enough.

I've only ever emailed DOD once. I was begging them to reissue this thing cos it was my holy grail for ages. They sent me some shitty email back and I wasn't impressed. As luck would have it I found a NOS BuzzBox a few weeks later and snapped it up. Personally I've heard alot of people complaining about DODs customer service and judging on the the reply I received from them I'd say the criticism was justifyed. Bollocks to em.

I LOVE THIS PEDAL. It is my favourite stompbox of alltime and I will never let it go. It took me ages to find too. The BuzzBox is now assured of cult status amongst alternative guitarists due its early deletion in about 1996. The fact I found one in 2001 still new is a one in a million chance. The pedal is rapidley becoming a collectors item so if you want one - act fast. Its full of ridiculous noises and inspires me no end. Some will say its not very useable - true, but the sounds it does do can make even the tamest of songs a monster gonzo distortion noise fest from hell!
Long live the BuzzBox - The alternative guitarist's TS-808??? I reckon it could well be.

You better take some time out of your day to hang out with it. It definately needs love and attention in order to get back beautiful(planned) sound. Controling it just takes getting used to it. The manual is great, and done in the fashion of the Melvins' humor.

I'm playing on a Fender strat(saving up for an Ampeg Stud) running it through a 100w Marshall head, a vintage Crate screamer. For as for an effect unit I'm using my trusty Digitech Rp 12 multi. Extremely noisy when mixed with just about any other wave deflector effect: chorus/wah/tremolo/ ect. Extremely noisy but that's what makes it even better. The best thing about this baby is that if you mess around with the 4 knobs long enough you have about 10 different distortion pedals in one, making it sound like the: Turbo,Grunge,Death Metal, MetalZone, and it gets heavier. I heard that the no talent jamoke in Limp Bisquik uses one. I'm a huge Melvins head and as far as distortion goes this comes pretty close to Buzz Osbourne's heavy crust mess. The quality is as much as you can expect from a DOD pedal, but I guess you could link the Box to something that could clean it up. Like the SonicBoom from Ampeg.

I depend on it like I depent on my boner in the morning. it's always there now, but it won't be one day, and when it's not, no big deal I'll get an other... I guess that analogy won't work. Once again it's a D O D! don't expect too much, just take care of it.

This doesn't even apply.

I love this pedal it's all me as far as distortion, if I want to switch to clean I just play off of my Digitech multi. but for every thing else it's fine. Noise yeah but so what. When I crank it up on the week ends the neighboors complain. At first they thought I was running some type of industrial machine in my room. I'ts part of my guitar set up now officially. The only thing I absolutely hated was the way it was "decorated" they should of just left the god-forsaken color prime gray, and the writing is abominable. I hated the way it looked so much I went as far as scraping and re-painting it dark blue. Who ever designed the "look" was not thinking of Buzz. Every thing else: the sound, the manual, the names of the knobs where on the Money; and that's what matter's I guess.

Tricky to find something that will actually work. You get some weird, messed up crap with all the knobs maxed. It's cool.

SG-->tubescreamer-->THIS-->Sovtek 100w head/ampeg cab
It's really loud with the heavy up more, and lesser when that and the saw are down. That part sucks. You're going to have to find somethng you like in here, but it won't be wuick to occur. I guess you can get Melvins crust, better with the neck pickup.

The switch is sketchy, but if it dies on you, it shouldn't be a pivotal piece of you're sound anyway. Use an adapter.

DOD's ok.

Most people try and sell these for ~$100, so I wouldn't get another. The weird digital tracking isn't really that pleasant. You can definatly get some crazt shit out of this. Go ahead and push the level and heavy up, all else down, and play weird bass up high on the neck. Bending strings and weird feedback.... Pure alchemy. I just wish it blended better with the rest of the stuff I try to do with other pedals or around it when it's off, or lowering the guitar volume knob. Whatever.

4 knobs, heavy, buzz, saw, and thrust. dumb names. if you have no manual, well, screw around with it.

ahhh! what the fudge--? at first i thought it was broken or something, but it's what it's supposed to do. if you like weird stuff, i mean, weird scary stuff, it's a 10. if not, 1.

play this through a chorus, flanger and wah. it'll scare off your cat. trust me.

metal case, older switch, stupid battery cover. would i use it on stage? only to scare the audience away.

they're alright, but don't count on them.

i play ska. it won't work for that. i play punk. it won't work for that either. now i play it when i bring my guitar to church, when i play with the band. i don't play it during the songs, i just play it when we're fooling around. and when i play it, everyone stops and looks at me, and i just smile and keep playing.

Most sounds are very funky and pretty good, but some can be painful. After a little bit of work (I didn't get a manual) you can pretty much end up with some phat tones.

I use this into my Heavier setup, which is currently Danelectro DC-3 or Ibanez RG-570 into Crybaby|EH Big MUFF|DOD Death Metal|Dano Chorus|Roland JC-120
It is sheer fun
No practical purpse (Korn and Limp Bizkit found one, but I can't) With the heavy knob down and the buzz (dist) and saw (treble) up, and the heavy (octave) around 10 o'clock, you get a great punk distortion. even With the heavy all the way down, you can't really get a non-octaved sound. But who cares. This rips on Punkish/metallish solos, and is a good plaything otherwise
Very noisy but that adds to the effect!
Good with another lighter distortion (Big Muff) on, and heaven with chorus
Really freaky with wah!

This is not the kind of effect that you use all gig. I can depend on it being freaky; I've had no reliability problems with it, but it DOES sputter in and out with the heavy knob cranked (that's part of the effect) It has been pretty good with batteries

I got this at an awesome price. I use it in my alternametal band much more than in my punk band, but the distortion with light octave is a winner for dual guitar solos. I really think it's a fun little box, and I prefer it to the Blue Box. The Blue Bopx is alittle more calm and predictable, this is more crazy and evil.
I compared it to various octave dividers, but this is the only one that was as crazy.
A collector's item, I bet!

Yeah, four knobs y'know. Manual = funny
you cant go wrong here - anything you do with this pedal activated and with the correct leads plugged in will result in a serious top quality dose of anarchy

Bluebreakers & jazz men beware. This thing is in my opinion destined to join the ranks of the 'super noise' mythical pedals that everyone wants cause they sound so repulsive and esoteric, but no one can get. If anyone had this, a Fender Blender, a Univox superfuzz, an Ampeg scrambler, a Bee Baa,a PE Experience, a funny cat, a micro synth, a Zvex fuzz factory, a frequency analyser & an attack decay (delay?) on the same pedalboard im sure they could take out the world - get my drift - serious noise - serious unpredictability - serious fun
Pro tone squier strat w/Dimarzio airzone bridge HB - Marshall 100 watt VS combo This pedal without the octave mixed in very much will scream like no other single pedal ive known - not even the fx69 To say the effect of this pedal is weak is quite possibly the worstunderstatement one could make in a lifetime. When i jumped on this in the music store i thought someone had stuck honey on the circuit boards of the amp! I havent heard any major label guys who have used this pedal at all - I know that the guy from Skunk Anansie has one (but he has one of everything) MY FRIENDS RECORDED USING THIS BOX AND NEARLY DROVE THE ENGINEER INSANE. blending this sucker with phasing of other socially acceptable effcts is always good, But for real jockstrap creaming sounds, try running it with a grunge pedal! Combinations in the way they are connected and the relative volumes of the two are a key concern here - sometimes you can get it so the face knob on the grunge does whammy pedal upstaging siren feedback stuff! woah baby. This pedal also reacts heavily to what pickups in what positions you drive it in - several crazy sweet spots. I dont really do this new rock thing, I got out of rock just at the right time about a 18 months ago - just before everything turned to shit. Billy Corgan, J.Mascis, Page Hamilton are demi gods

It aint crapped out on me yet, but as everyone knows, DOD needs to employ some new industrial designers

No - DODs warranty seems flaky & covers about 3 components total

This thing is now discontinued. That is good because if everyone went whoopee & bought them then the world would be a demented place
Pkay, this is a rip off of MXRs blue box but ive never heard a blue box do this stuff - this pedal rips, farts, screeches, swirls, spatters, chugs, cuts out like a stopping motorbike, buzzes, does syth tones, dual ocaves, mess, sizzle, whine - YOU NAME IT Other people I have read can only compare this to the much heralded fuzz factory - i couldnt possibly comment but its good to see DOD putting something out that was genuinely twisted (even if it didnt live very long)
I havent found any application for this yet & ive had it for 2 years. The possibilities this could lend to song arrangements or sampling for dance cuts or even making new music based around this unit are mind boggling.
Someone like Fripp, Belew or Gabrels should aready have one of these - not digital so it cuts out at the wierdest times, the octave tracks like a race driver having a seizure

Oooh baby there's a trick to this one, so you'd better be readin on theres. The 2-octave-below feature doesn't track well, it needs massive input filled up with gain! So if yer gitar is a quiet stick of cardboard it'll suck. Use a booster of some sort before it(distortion pedal, eq booster, whatever) and then it works kick butt! Personally I put a DOD Juice Box and DOD Meat box before it. I dig this tone more than MXR's Blue Box. But you know, the catch.

The distortion is ok, but without the octave on is lame. Combined with octave produces growly rockin good quality usable tonage.

Respect your pedals man. What are you rich?

Don't think twice about e-mailing DOD, they'll help. Not much to say here.

Super duper boost your gain before it gets into this pedal, and you're set. Man the tone is all there. Hendrix could jam it with this, not the Melvins(its named after melvins guy). You get my basic gist so buy it and try it if you want its discontinued you know.

Four knobs, explained in the manual, but if you can't figure this thing out in 5 minutes, you've got some other issues... The only thing is that the heavy knob produces some EXTREMELY different sounds depending on where you set it. So you have to set it just right, about a 7 second project. I use it set just to where the notes are starting to get pretty raunchy, then use the barely defineable blasts as a bridge or intro, whatever. Makes a great contrast, everyone stops playing, and it's just this weird noise...

There are two basic sounds you can get out of this: Distortion/Octave tones, and then, well, farts. Past 12 on the heavy, this thing... ah, read the other reviews, they describe it funnier. I'm using an Harmony Explorer into a small Peavey amp in my room, and a Fender Ultimate Chorus for shows. This pedal does have some noise to it, especially on the distortion end of the heavy knob, but if you bought this you wouldn't really be expecting some smooth, ultra-quiet overdrive. The distortion on this is the same as a Grunge, but the 2-octave down notes add some of the heaviest sounds I've ever FELT. I can get a lot sweet Tom Morello (RATM) sounds out of the distortion, and with heavy past 12, Wes Borland (Limp Bizkit) all the way. Again, it's loud, raunchy, and crackling with noise, but I still give it a nine because it's FUN.

Ya, it's DOD, read any review, they just don't break. I would (have) gigged without a backup, but I use an adaptor, and don't know what the battery drain is like without one.

Never dealt with 'em, probably won't have to.

I bought this pedal knowing how messed up it was, and so I'm completely satisfied. If you're looking into getting one, some advice: Try it out first, it's NOT just a distortion, it's very different than anything else out there. And it's certainly not for everyone That's why it get's a 5, it's about 50-50 love it or hate it. If it's not you, it'd get a 1. For someone like me, it's a ten. Also, buy one used to save money. The cheaper you get it, the more likely you will love it your money's worth. And don't let people rip you off just cause they're discontinued, they're still tons of them around. I got mine for $60 w/ almost no arguing. I would definitely buy it again, and even though it fills a very small niche, if you have that niche, this will do it for you. Plus, it's so different it'll get you creating, and that's a good thing.

This pedal is pretty easy to use, 4 knobs ...Heavy (two-octave-drop octavizer), Buzz (distortion), Saw (treble), Thrust (output level).

Well, the manual says this thing was inpired by the Melvins' King Buzzo, so, needless to say it's designed you give you a heavy ass distortion. I can use this for KoRn/Limp Bizkit sounding stuff, but this pedal is not limited to just that as past reviews may lead you to believe. This really kicks the shit out of my DOD Grind Distortion pedal which I'm in the process of selling...

As long as you don't weigh 300 some pounds and try to pull off a hard ass jumping stomp to hit the footswitch you'll be all right.

Never interacted with 'em.

This is a cool pedal in my opinion but I think that if you pay anymore than $60 for this, you're a dumbass. People try to sell these used as "collector's items" for $90, $100 (I got mine brand new for $47); that's bullshit. If you pay that much for any DOD pedal you must of road the short bus to school when you were a kid.

You can easily figure out the levels of crappiness you want to crank out

If you want an octave pedal, but all you have is this thing, you might be happy. The "Heavy" setting, up to about 11 oclock, gives a decent octave. It's a really noisy and tinny pedal.

the battery clip...

If you pay more than $20 for this, you've been SKREWED. I've been playing for 3 years and I am VERY undiscriminating when it comes to pedals, but I'm sorry. This pedal is AWFUL.