Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
This is a slightly modded Interfax Harmonic Percolator that I made today. It’s an odd little circuit – it can run from clean, a bit overdriven, then into distortion, and finally to overly compressed fuzz madness. The range of sounds are so broad, it’s almost worth setting it up as a dual pedal (which I … Read more
Just a Rangemaster with a rotary switch for selecting input capacitors – it uses some odd parts, as this is what was available in my local electronics store – the 5 lug tag strip in particular, a regular Rangemaster is on 6. It’s also a slightly odd rotary, but it was all that was left … Read more
Now this is mainly for my own purposes, as I doubt anyone else will want to build a Rat this way & I only plan on making one. Just a standard Rat, built on 0.15″ vero and I’ve prioritised looks of build practicality (or at least what I think looks good anyway). I have built … Read more
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
A bit of a classic – the MK1.5 Tone Bender. Some great phots and background information here on Fuzzboxes.org and some great video demos below – who better than Ant Macari to talk Tone Benders. Note that some earlier versions carried a 500k volume pot, instead of 100k resulting in more bass – ultimately bringing it … Read more
Nice bit of MKII history on fuzzboxes.org The MKII might be the most popular of the Tone Benders, although personally I’m split between the MKI & MKIII. There’s also this interesting timeline on the D*AM forum. Not sure who made it, but it’s a handy reference (thanks ClassicFuzz). TONE BENDER MKII SCHEMATIC & VALUES TONE … Read more
Bit of a classic guitar effect – the MXR Phase 90. Electrosmash has an excellent reference that covers all things Phase 90, including the schematic https://www.electrosmash.com/mxr-phase90. JFETS can be pesky, so make sure you match them as best as possible and buy from reputable suppliers. The script switch is strictly optional. It’s one of those things that … Read more
The Klon Centaur – no introduction required really. Arguably the most mythical of all overdrives? Likely the most expensive of all overdrives… This layout took a lot longer than I thought it would. In the end, I also realised that I could have shaved a row off, but hey… maybe I’ll come back to … Read more
I haven’t looked at an Ampeg Scrambler in a long time – in fact, my first attempt a few years ago went nowhere and ended up in the bin. It’s a pretty wild octave fuzz from the late sixties; not a huge number were produced so the originals are expensive now. Scramblers were designed … Read more
