Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
Manufacturer’s info about the original: Sheer raw power. Dynamics that feel like a roundhouse kick to the chest. Incredibly responsive clean up with the flick of the wrist. This is the WIIO. The WIIO is an overdrive inspired by the powerfully unforgiving British amps from the ‘70s. Its all right there at your fingertips – … Read more
The marketing: The Catalinbread RAH was built specifically to nail Jimmy Page’s gigantic guitar tone from Led Zeppelin’s legendary 1970 performance at Royal Albert Hall. At the time, in contrast to the Marshalls that he eventually came to be associated with, Page was using Hiwatt heads on stage, modified for a bit of extra gain. … Read more
Info from Catalinbread about the original: What do you call an effect that isn’t quite a Bit Crusher, or an Octave, or a Harmonizer, or a Ring Modulator, or a Lo-Fi dirt box/fuzz – but a bit of a blend of each? Yeah – we don’t know either, so we came up with “Harmonic Pixelator”. … Read more
There is an ongoing discussion on FSB about this pedal, because we know that there are some hidden surface mount components underneath the board, and so this is based on a best guess by Marc Ahlfs after some experimentation he did on the circuit. Info from Dunlop about the original: No one cares more about … Read more
Info from the builder: The Dyna Red is a classic distortion that immediatley sounds familiar. What sets the DRD apart is that it also manages to mimic the FEEL of a healthy plexibasketweaver. While it is known for its crunchy classic rock distortion – it also has a very tasty ‘just above driven’ sound that … Read more
Runoffgroove and Beavis Audio have been great resources for the DIY audio community for a long time now, offering projects and guidance which has helped many people over the years, me included. This is Dano’s take on a ROG project, a nifty little 0.5W amp that has a lot of fans out there, but with … Read more
Another one of these nice little PT2399 projects to try out. This was a from a schematic posted by Merlin Blencowe and it seems to give a nice range of vibrato and chorus sounds for such a simple design, using just the PT2399 IC and nothing else driving it. Clip made by Merlin (he posted … Read more
This layout was based on the original schematic, but here’s the manufacturers info about the reissue: There are few Fender products with as much “indie cred” as the Fender Blender. Once thought of as an overly harsh fuzz pedal, the Blender, thanks to players like Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins and Kevin Shields of My … Read more
