Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
The Fender Blender would probably just be a blip in the history of fuzz if it weren’t for the likes of Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins) and Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine), as it was generally regarded as too harsh sounding. This aggressive fuzz is good for metal leads and also can create an octavia sound … Read more
The Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster offers 25 dB of clean boost with flat EQ (and it’s also a line driver). It uses a combination of two NPN and one PNP transistor. Originals use BC107s and BC177s, but other transistors should work fine as well. Check out the demo video below for more info.
This is a pretty unique fuzz from the mid-70s by Univox. It was designed by Shin-Ei and like a few other Shin-Ei designs it can suffer from volume loss. To get it back up to unity or above, DIYSB forum member LucifersTrip made some mods to the circuit that keep the original sound, but improve … Read more
Here’s a compressor design from MicTester. Here’s what he had to say about it over on FSB: Do you remember the old-fashioned way of doing bass compression? It used an LDR across the volume control illuminated by an incandescent lamp across the speaker terminals! It was a simple method back in the 60s….This compressor is almost that … Read more
This circuit is most known for being manufactures and sold by Univox, but was designed by Shin-Ei as the FY-6 and licensed to several manufacturers including Ibanez, Teisco, Kent, Companion, Apollo, and several others. The Super Fuzz has been used by many guitarist since it was first made in 1968, including Pete Townsend, J Mascis, … Read more