Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
As I was recently playing around with the Colorsound booster made by Steve Williams of Pig Dog fame, I noticed some similarity to the Guild Treble Booster, AKA the Brian May Box. I made a slightly simplified version of the Guild, without the buffer based on one of the Fryer Boosters. I kind of free-styled … Read more
It’s been a while – and I’ve probably scared most of you away with obscure amp content, but I have to have a crack at this one. Yes, it could have been a smaller layout, but to be honest, I’d still be adding some room around the edges for proper mounting points. I also … Read more
Philips 976B – I have had one previously that I documented here. PHILIPS MODEL 976B VALVE PA AMPLIFIER This is a small Australian-made valve PA amplifier from the mid to late fifties – about 8 watts, intended for 100v line systems running multiple speakers. These were also sold as Steanes Sounds Systems using the … Read more
This is a Goldentone 1776, which is essentially a Goldentone 1774 with trem. It had been reshoused in a 2 x 10 cab with Oxford speakers (one ceramic, one alnico), with the amp chassis mounted on the bottom, with the control panel up the top. The amp would have been mounted the same way in its original … Read more
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This one’s a rare find – a Communication Systems of Australia valve PA head, ~35 watts from around 1967 / 68. It’s super clean, fully functional, with all parts within spec. Anyone familiar with vintage Australian guitar amps will recognise the front panel straight away: it looks just like a Goldentone. That’s no accident. These … Read more
So there are a few bits missing, but if you are familiar with treble boosters, I’m sure you’ll work it out. Being a small and simple circuit, it’s a good candidate for breadboarding. The filter pot is your standard input blend, probably similar to the values that Steve Williams uses in his Pigdog Competition Special … Read more
I stumbled across this while looking for something else – so had to drop it in here. It’s a pretty weird looking circuit, and there are some really strange ideas about fuzz mentioned – including placing clipping diodes across the speaker terminals of an amp. I would not try that at home.
