DOD Buzz Box FX33

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One of DOD's noise-only pedals. 4 knobs, Heavy (Bass, 2 octaves down), Buzz (Distortion), Thrust (Level), Saw (Treble). This is similar to MXRs blue box but with more balls. The Buzzbox rips, farts, screeches, swirls, spatters, chugs, cuts out like a stopping motorbike, buzzes, does syth tones, dual octaves, mess, sizzle, whine. What more could a noisehead want! Even the president of DOD wondered why anyone would want such a pedal.

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User Reviews of the DOD Buzz Box FX33

Submitted by Francesco from Brescia (4 points) on Dec 29, 2016
Autumn 2012, I was in Parma (Italy, not in Ohio) and decided to go and have a look in the city biggest musical store. I was looking in the pedal area full of usual Boss, Ehx and Chinese Mooer and then I saw it: a brand new Buzz box waiting for me since 1996, with housing and all manuals... Suddenly I bought it (78 euros, about 82 $ !!!) and bring it at home excited as hell.

This pedal is basically a noisy sub-octaver mixed with a cheesy fuzz (like a mxr blue box but far more evil). It's capable of tons of gain and even some Atari buzzing effect. I love it and I think I will never re-sell this little beast! You have four controls but the only two very effective are the "heavy" knob that blends the octave with the fuzz and "Thrust" that's a volume (mind that this pedal is loud as hell). So, if you are a noise guy and love fuzz, feedback, 8-bit buzz this is a pedal for you. Shredders, bluesmen and good ol' rock guys stay away!

The only downside of this pedal is the price that has grown too high, I was very lucky finding it brand new at low price.
Good Points: Totally insane and loud as hell. Noise machine and good fuzz for suboctave fuzzy stuff.
Bad Points: Price
Price Paid: US$82.00
Purchased At: Local Store
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Submitted by andy from Providence, RI (30 points) on Jun 29, 2010
i got my buzz box for two reasons: 1.) it was modeled after king buzzo's guitar sound (which it most certainly does not replicate) and 2.) i always heard it was great for noise. i've had it for a number of years, and i can almost always find a reason to use it. if you turn the heavy all the way down and everything else all the way up, you get this crazy, screeching high end distortion that suits itself well for vocal work (my opinion & experience, of course). crank up the heavy all the way to completely mangle your sound into an unrecognizable mess. this thing is capable of throwing out the lowest lows and the highest highs.. i've gotten tones out of it that i never thought possible. use it with a death metal and a meatbox after it and you can destroy just about everything in sight. a must for all harsh noise musicians. and to think, it's a GUITAR pedal....
Good Points: - insane sound that cannot be replicated, despite what anyone tells you (i've tried-- a death metal & boss octave is close, but not the same).

- paint job is awesome (not that it really matters, i also use a thrashmaster which has the worst paint job i've ever seen, and almost always earns one or two questions asked).

- i've dropped/thrown/tossed the thing about a million times, and it hasn't skipped a beat.
Bad Points: - price / rarity.

- old power adapter.

- i dont know if it's from years of abuse or a dying battery, but the sound often changes and becomes much more weak .. i usually open it up and tighten all the pots & jacks, as well as clean the PCB ... seems to do the trick. a fresh battery doesn't hurt either.
Price Paid: US$100.00
Purchased At: ebay
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Submitted by caleb from Greenville, RI (2 points) on Jan 24, 2010
had one since 1998; heard about them and purchased it at mom and pop shop music store. SOUNDS OF THE DEEPEST FUZZ W/HEAVY OCTAVE SATURATION the cool thing is if you set at the heavy at 2 or 3 it gets a more managable distortion tone;; still great!!
Good Points: other pedals or makers in my opinion cant replicate it Rippin custom paint job you can literally feel the yellow paint splatters!!! good secret weapon in ur arsenal
Bad Points: b /c it is so called "vintage" the price's now are like 150$ on ebay
Price Paid: US$75.00
Purchased At: Luca music prov ri
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Submitted by apewrist from Kielce (310 points) on Apr 15, 2009
I can't really say anything new apart from that this pedal is not what it seems or what you might think it is. Videos and sound samples avaiable on the internet do not portray it well. I thought it would an instant-harsh type of pedal but it disappointed me (too much hype surrounding it). Still, it's a damn good pedal - really loud, very tweakable. It also produces a whole array of tones you'd never get with other pedals (and I've tried several octave+distortion combos). Just remember - don't expect it do be the only distortion in yor chain.
Good Points: - Solid construction - Paint job - Tweakability - Some great sounds
Bad Points: - With all the hype surrounding it you expect some kind of a holy grail. - Price - Footswitch
Price Paid: US$150.00
Purchased At: allegro.pl
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Submitted by michael from Upland, CA (98 points) on Jul 23, 2008
this pedal has been really popular and sought after in the past year or two. there is definitely a reason for this, but it does not live up to the insane hype that surrounds it. it's just a really crazy, chaotic distortion with the added ability to dial in some octave-type sounds. the low ("buzz") and high ("saw") controls offer decent control over the EQ. the level ("Thrust") knob makes the pedal sound totally different when set at lower settings, so experiment. the reason this pedal is so popular, though, is the blend ("heavy") knob, which adds glitchy, synth-y octave sounds to your signal. the combination of the insane distortion and octave sounds make this a must-have for sonic destruction. too bad it regularly goes for twice (or even three times) what it is realistically (in my opinion) worth.
Good Points: + stick a DOD Death Metal right after it, you can destroy pretty much anything + blend ("heavy") knob allows for a variety of different tones for different applications + does everything from harsh and treble-y to totally muddy and indistinguishable.
Bad Points: - it's getting to the point where you can pick it out of someones setup just by listening. - this thing goes for absurd amounts of money, and in the opinion of someone who owns one, it is not worth more than 0. The Danelectro Black Licorice pedal produces a sort-of slightly similiar effect as this pedal, as does placing an MXR Blue Box directly in front of a DOD Grunge in your chain. both come close, but they don't quite produce the same sound, which is why these little metal boxes go for so much money on ebay.
Price Paid: US$135.00
Purchased At: NoiseFX
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Submitted by Steve from Fulton, NY (142 points) on Jul 13, 2007
I had spent the better part of the past three months looking for one of these ever since I found out about it. I finally tracked one down and picked it up. It lives up to the hype, plain and simple. This thing gives amazing results. Everything from stomach churning lows to screeching highs that will shatter glass. The price is something that can be a turn off. I've seen these go anywhere from 120 bucks to almost 200. Though I would have to admit, it's worth it. It really is.
Good Points: -Amazing sounds, high, lows, everything -That tried and true DOD construction -Worth every penny
Bad Points: -The price can be a turn off -Quite rare -While I don't view it as a bad point, some do, it has the old style adapter
Price Paid: US$120.00
Purchased At: Ebay
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Submitted by Emanuele from Italy (64 points) on Jun 17, 2006
Great pedal for noise...extreme fuzz effect with heavy knob all the way left...turning it on the right you have e 2 octave down effect very usefull and nice for noise texture. i usually put it at the begin of the chain...a fantastic brutal pedal indispensable for my set-up.
Good Points: -great range of brutal sounds -extreme fuzz efx -nice look -DOD yeah!
Bad Points: -discontinued -hard to find -i have only one
Price Paid: US$130.00
Purchased At: ebay
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Submitted by christopher from cebu city (80 points) on May 1, 2006
This highly revered and rare noisemaking tool is true to its reputation.Everything you read about it..(the extreme bits)..are mostly accurate. I have mine after a fuzz,then into a delay,then another fuzz unit with multi-effects in the loop,then a bass enhancer,into some analogue filters and finally into a multi-effects unit with amp/cab sims. And man... the fookin' noise I can generate with just a sampled power tool sound,.. could easily send my monitors into a fit of explosive sonic delirium!!..saving money for new ones... I bought this from a guy who advertises it as some effects used by some well known bands and who else..I would say they probably use it quiet differently from noise artists. Still,it means it is a universally acknowledged noisemaker..No subtleties here..just an insistent and determined brutal mutilation of audio signals in more ways than one. Not that it can do everything..(what effects can do that?).. but you will know when it's not there.
Good Points: -bought it cheap -very, very loud!!...yes!! -sits well with other effects -good build
Bad Points: -hardly any in "noise" context -rather rare and hard to find -bloated prices in the second hand market
Price Paid: US$25.00
Purchased At: ebay
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Submitted by tapesss from Brooksville, FL (344 points) on Feb 2, 2006
Wow. i expected this pedal to be pretty crazy. i think i underestimated it, though. upon first opening the box and plugging it in, it started making these squealing, rumbling oscillations and i knew immediately this pedal was going to be damn useful. It's kind of hard to describe the sound exactly. technically, it's a 2-octave-down circuit with a harsh distortion(think grunge). but within the boundaries of that, this thing spits out screeching, bubbling, creepy white noise hell. i especially liked it with a self-oscillating delay being fed into it. the blend function is really useful, in case you want to use the distortion without the octave effect. and of course, the obligatory Blue Box comparison: the effect is much more intense and just downright evil sounding with this pedal, and this one can project itself without the need for another distortion. in addition, it has much more high-frequency response than the blue box. i generally use this with a vocal mic to great effect.
Good Points: walls of distorted, mushy octave mess with ample high-frequency content and more low-frequency content than you could ask for. looks great(kooky), awesome DOD construction. dangle a patch cord out of it and it will self oscillate on it's own
Bad Points: collectors drive the prices up.
Price Paid: US$150.00
Purchased At:
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Submitted by spit + smudge from Savannah, GA (214 points) on Jul 20, 2005
Purchased two for around 85 bucks each. Worth EVERY penny I've spent on them too. Perfect for contact mic noise, perfect in a chain, perfect for synths, it's amazing what this can do. It's brutal, period.
Good Points: What else can I say about it, read what others have said.
Bad Points: tad bit expensive. goofy black with yellow squiggle lines ala late 80s style.
Price Paid: US$0.00
Purchased At: ebay
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Submitted by nkondi from Portland, OR (610 points) on Jun 16, 2005
i feared this for two reasons...too many reviews, and too much money involved in securing one. both fear have subsided, really believe the hype. this does alot, and i think it has a few more trick than most want to admit, or theyre just not as creative as they could be with it. it works great in a feedback loop, and works real well with the rupture. sputter, flutter, crunch, it does all this. i even been able to coax great merzbow-esque analog synth fun with this...dont believe it? get a fist full a pedals around this and go...this is worth every penny...
Good Points: sturdy construction great sounds
Bad Points: spensive
Price Paid: US$156.00
Purchased At: noisefx.com
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Submitted by the splund from Oxford (10 points) on May 22, 2005
This pedal is incredible, in both loop and guitar setup's this thing can produce some frankly disturbing sounds. Plug it into a loop and the slightest tweak can produce a new spectrum of sounds from crackling squalls and subharmonic poops and farts, this shit's all over your signal and does'nt care. Couple this thing with the meat box and you have the sound of plate tectonics at your finger tips.
Good Points: Possibly the most unsubtle pedal ever. Screams, squalls, chips, cracks, poops and farts almost all at the same time. Built like a brick shit house, unlike newer dod's
Bad Points: Does hum but thats what the off buttons for. Can be a bit to noisey for guitar, but great in a loop.
Price Paid: US$100.00
Purchased At: ebay
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Submitted by ck3 from Portland, ME (402 points) on Nov 5, 2004
If an MXR Blue Box is too mellow, subdued, and one-dimensional for your tastes, this may be the ideal suboctave fuzz for you. I was lucky enough to find one N.O.S.
Good Points: Sounds like shearing, cenobyte-infested metal hell in a feedback loop. Can mutliate a guitar signal a couple of different ways with some tweaking. More versitile than its MXR cousin.
Bad Points: Can generate an extraneous and potentially undesirable humming noise with most of the harsher settings. It uses an odd AC jack type (thank goodness for the Godlyke power-all system). The distortion sound can be tinny without the octave blended. It is no longer in production and fetches collectors' prices in the current used market.
Price Paid: US$132.00
Purchased At: noisefx.com (trade +$)
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Submitted by Ryan from Austin, TX (6 points) on Oct 14, 2004
oh man, this is a crazy ass pedal. i think this is more than a 2 or three trick pony. it makes a vast array of sounds through a feedback with loop and running nearly any instrument through it is practically guaranteed to have it's signal teared to bits
Good Points: -noisey and somewhat unpredictable -works fantastic in almost any part of a pedal chain -solid built for the most part
Bad Points: only one-the synth tones may not be everyone's cup of tea.
Price Paid: US$100.00
Purchased At: ebay
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Submitted by Ben from United States (250 points) on Oct 13, 2004
Yes, it's worth it. I avoided it because I hate hyped up DOD pedals, but this pedal can do some incredible things in a loop. I definitely don't like most of what it does, way too noisy, but found some applications that work really well. I wish I could get it to do some of the weird octave effects without the noisiness.
Good Points: Can take an otherwise lackluster pedal chain and drive it to oblivion.
Bad Points: Two trick pony?
Price Paid: US$110.00
Purchased At: MF
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Submitted by Ololiuqui from Annandale, VA (6 points) on Aug 7, 2004
Great distortion/octavizer. If you want a fucked up over the top effect, you know you need this. I've never heard anything like it yet.
Good Points: Noisey!!! I like the Pollack-esque paint drip job on the sides.
Bad Points: Hard to find!
Price Paid: US$45.00
Purchased At: Chuck Levin's
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Submitted by jf from Los Angeles, CA (6 points) on Jun 30, 2004
it's my Chosen destroyer. kind of a three-and-a-half-trick pony, but, Oh, the TricKs. And yes, it's noisy, noisy, noisy; yes!
Good Points: Ruins Everything
Bad Points: Ruins Everything
Price Paid: US$0.00
Purchased At: picked one up in Manchestr, uK,
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Submitted by Lich from West Kingston, RI (22 points) on Nov 21, 2003
i just got it a few days ago off ebay (cost me as much as a new boss pedal!) and i've been playing with it a lot. i love it. as everyone's said, it destroys anything you run through it. the Heavy knob is the octave knob, Buzz is distortion, Saw is treble and Thrust is level. correct me if i'm wrong with that. so far i've run guitar, a drum machine, feedback from a loop and feedback from a mic through it. my best luck has been with feedback from a cheap mic plugged into a grunge or metal pedal. with the Heavy knob up, it turns the feedback sqealing into a loud, bassy mess, but still retains of the high stuff.
Good Points: will mangle anything.
Bad Points: inconsistant. with the Heavy pedal high, it sputters in and out, and sometimes dies completely.
Price Paid: US$80.00
Purchased At: ebay
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Submitted by Beavis from Afghanistan (258 points) on Feb 15, 2003
This thing is crazy!!! It will annihilate any signal put thru it. It is also very loud. Nice distortion box too
Good Points: Loud, disgusting and interesting
Bad Points: DOD switch DOD power jack
Price Paid: US$15.00
Purchased At: A shop in Kuala Lumpur
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Submitted by John from Glagsow (30 points) on Jan 25, 2003
This creates the most vile, disugusting, churning, bilious sounds known to man. My amp threatened to pack up its bags and leave home when showed the Buzz Box. I have to confess I didn't know what it was for at first, thinking that it was just a really mean octave distortion. If you've heard 'musicians are morons' by 2nd Gen, take the sound of the drums on that and imagine what it would be like if your guitar made that sound, louder than you could ever dream of. This really is a horrible unit, I can't imagine what would happen if Aphex Twin or Leech Woman got hold of one of these.
Good Points: Does what it says on the tin, removes earwax, paint, wives, looks great, causes mental breakdown(the audience)
Bad Points: has a DOD switch, causes mental breakdown(your own)
Price Paid: US$0.00
Purchased At: Borrowed temporarily
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Submitted by D/A A/D from Halifax (410 points) on Nov 27, 2002
This pedal will compleatly desimate any signal in its gut rentcing, ear poping, speaker blowing path. I love the fact that when this thing came out in '96 that the ad campain said "No its not broken, it is suposed to sound like that"!!! that is awesom, and true. I would say it sounds somthing like a cross between a blown sub speaker with a chiansaw going through it, and a broken (and in flames) analogue synth. As previous people stated - I have the "heavy" knob at 12 o clock - thus more control over the sound...
Good Points: see review...
Bad Points: old dod power jack...
Price Paid: US$55.00
Purchased At: Moris Music
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Submitted by J. from Atlanta, GA (44 points) on Sep 4, 2002
Contrary to popular myth, Buzz didn't commission this - someone else modeled it after Buzz's Blue Box (mxr), with the point being to duplicate the hellish melvins guitar sound. Anyway, this does whip out a load of evil. Not as warm sounding as the Blue Box - this has more of a trebley bite to it, and is quite a loud pedal. Great noise pedal. Setting all knobs on high is similar to running over a drawer full of forks with your lawnmower. Not sure if it lives up to the crazy prices people are paying for them, though....
Good Points: Crazy evil sound, neat paint job, named after a friend, accompanying booklet tells you how to get that "anal satan" sound.
Bad Points: crappy DOD construction, limited quantity nudges it into collector scum territory.
Price Paid: US$110.00
Purchased At: guitar center
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Submitted by Phil from Seattle, WA (78 points) on May 26, 2002
Commisioned by Buzz from the Melvins, this is just a noise pedal. It's a MXR Blue Box + some. I have a Blue Box... get the Buzz Box!, much more control. really under a 0 usd is a deal for such a cool twisted beast. I got this years ago and t's still great.
Good Points: versatile(for noise)
Bad Points: for noise applications I see no bad points just don't overuse it!
Price Paid: US$20.00
Purchased At: Lentines (1998)
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Submitted by Gus from San Francisco, CA (282 points) on Apr 2, 2002
I can't for the life of me imagine how DOD thought that they could market this thing to guitar players. Any signal run through it is crushed into an oily brown cloud of noise. Harsh, chaotic clipping mixed with synthesizer hiccups, and a lot of gain make this an outstanding noise box. It is sad that they have become collecter items, as prices are high. I thought I got gouged when I paid .00 for it from Sonic Flux. That was a little more than a year ago. Sonic Flux now sells them for 5.00. It's great, and there's nothing else that sounds close to it. So if you want the mayhem, you've got to pay. The plus side is that no guitar people actually USE them. So they tend to be in imaculate condition when you buy them.
Good Points: Loud, hissing noise with synthesizer blips and bleeps. Utterly useless for guitar players. They tend to be in great shape (as they never got used by a guitar dork) when you find them.
Bad Points: Expensive. Rare. Collecter geeks horde them...
Price Paid: US$75.00
Purchased At: Sonic Flux
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Submitted by K. from Sealy, TX (532 points) on Feb 25, 2002
I searched high and low for this pedal at a reasonable price and couldn't find one, so I ended up paying the eyegouge prices you see everywhere, and I have to say I wasn't at all disappointed. The buzz box is just sick, it distorts almost any input signal in strange and unique ways. Best not to max out the "heavy" control too much as the sound gets pretty muddy and tweaking the "buzz" and "saw" knobs will give little variation, but w/ "heavy" set mid way you can obtain something of a filtering effect from the "saw" control. The buzz box is just simply THE perfect pedal for severe noise, I can't recommend it enough. Death to Wes Borland.
Good Points: Sick, sick, sick, sick, sick.
Bad Points: Insanely expensive and hard to find, muddy sound w/ all the controls maxed.
Price Paid: US$0.00
Purchased At: e-bay
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Submitted by Bob from San Francisco, CA (34 points) on Oct 8, 2001
The Buzz Box is an unbelievably fine pedal for noise. It took me a while to figure out what the function of each of the four knobs were, but once one gets used to this little box... ooooh! I was experimenting with just a mic plugged into a fuzz pedal and then into the Buzz Box and then into a 2 second delay. A little tweaking of the Buzz Box can produce a phenomenal amount of different cacophonic sounds even in this simple set-up! Insane!
Good Points: Seemingly endless sound possibilities in one pedal.
Bad Points: Perhaps many bad points for geetar players. None for me!
Price Paid: US$75.00
Purchased At:
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Submitted by Seth from Sydney (40 points) on Sep 23, 2001
okay, I picked one of these up NOS from a local store who had it in stock for YEARS so I got it on the cheap. It is a combination distortion/psychotic octaver. A square wave tracks one or two octaves down, though how it decides which one is beyond me. An insane MXR blue box.
Good Points: totally unpredictable, crazed pedal. It farts, rips, buzzes, splutters, amd bleeps - totally destroys anything you pump into it. Watch out if you pump or than one sound into it at a time!!
Bad Points: see above since it discontinued some sellers charge 'vintage' prices, which is a crock. The distortion section is hissy and pretty ordinary
Price Paid: US$45.00
Purchased At: Turramurra Music
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