Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
I purchased a sheet of phenolic board locally to make some MKI boards, as I didn’t want to pay $25 postage on a $3 board from the USA (postage to Australia is often a killer). I couldn’t find a template anywhere, so I reversed one from a product image online – I did make one … Read more
Just a little one from the Bosstone family. This is said to have been used in MSA Pedal Steel guitars, and it’s basically a slight variation on the Nashville Bosstone circuit. These can be a bit noisy, so really have to watch your wiring and try for quite low gain on Q1. It can … Read more
This is a little unusual – let’s jump straight to the obvious, the giant capacitors. The Union Tube and Transistor Tourbender is their take on a MKII Tonebender using readily available silicon PNP transistors with a negative ground power supply. Basically invert a PNP circuit and then stabilise it with a lot of capacitance. Watch … Read more
Perhaps best known as the Analog Man Astrotone Fuzz now, this started life as the Sam Ash Fuzzz Boxx and the same circuit also appears in the Astro Amps Astrotone Fuzz – which is a supremely cooler name, which is maybe why it has stuck. The original has 47n caps on this input and output, … Read more
A nice easy one – the Electro-Harmonix Muff Fuzz, which has a lot more in common with a Fuzz Face than a Big Muff. At some stage I’ll add some more layouts, including the Mark Hammer mods and the IC version. ELECTRO-HARMONIX MUFF FUZZ – VERO LAYOUT
I know, this is not a pedal and it’s also just a Telecaster – not exactly big news – but hey, it’s my blog and I’ll post what I want. Picked up this Profile Silhouette Telecaster on the weekend for a pretty decent price – second-hand Squier money. It had been sitting in a … Read more
This is one of the more recent Sola Sound MK1.5 Tone Benders built by David Main. MK1.5 TONE BENDER: THE DIRTY HIPPIE MOD – OC75 ONLY This has two additions to the regular circuit. A 10n cap to ground on the input and a 47k bias resistor on the base of Q1 to help … Read more
Here’s a nice silicon MKII variant from Reeves Electro – who are most famous for their insanely well made point to point construction fuzzes. Write-up from Reeves can be found here Schematic can be found here The voice (mids) switch is basically switching between a 10n and 100n coupling cap after Q1 (buffer). The … Read more
In Australia we have a lot of unusual sayings – one that comes to mind here is “you’ve been fleeced”. i.e. you paid too much money for something – specifically a Golden Fleece on the secondhand market when you can still buy perfectly good new one. The Mythos Golden Fleece is pretty much a … Read more
Some notes for later from a recent Vox Tone Bender build. Mainly wanted to jot down the placement of the pots and switch, as this layout is quite tight in a 1590BB – there’s no room for error. I probably should have made the layout a row or two shorter, but I just liked the … Read more