Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
Something like this have probably been done before… Yes, Fuzzdog added a 3-band Marshall style tonestack to a Rat a while ago. Oh, and there is Idiotbox Blowerbox, a Rat tuned for bass with less gain with a James tonestack…. This one is quite similar to the latter but has more gain on tap and … Read more
I dug out my breadboard to clear some thoughts and played around a bit. Well, I ended up with one of my top 3 fuzz circuits, Roland Double Beat. It is perfect as is, just added some minor filtering here and there. But the stock Double Beat rotary switch tonestack sucked IMO so I just … Read more
Just is a variation of a russian big muff. The base eq of the circuit is preserved i. e. dark, bassy and heavy but there is much more gain and volume on tap. There is also an old school inductor based Mid Boost circuit at the recovery stage that boost and saturate frequencies at 800Hz. … Read more
This one started as an attempt to improve an obscure old japanese germanium fuzz circuit from the late 60s called Sekova FA II Fuzz which suffered from quite low output and lack of sustain. After some experimenting I removed the clipping diodes, tweaked the bias and added another gain stage upfront which is borrowed from … Read more
Another take one the Bee Baa. Did a version a while ago called Pink Goat with a the notch filter tone setting reworked among other things. Here after some more tinkering we have Stone Bee. Compared to stock Bee Baa it has a bit more gain and less highs in all three gain stages. Tone … Read more
Another old circuit have been under the axe, Jordan Bosstone. An attempt to fatten things up a bit and use a bass gyrator control. Wanted to try out the setup that DOD used in 90’s and ended up with the tonestack from the infamous DOD FX69 Grunge…hence the name of the circuit. Not sure if … Read more
Last layout for a while. This is sort of a hack job, combining a Rat tuned for more low end with a LED/silicon diodes clipping switch. Then the signal is splitted into two signal paths using the Mid Scoop and Mid Boost tone sections from Boss FZ2. Signal is then fed into a treble cut … Read more
Harmonic Percolator is one the coolest vintage dirtboxes out there with its simple yet unique design, its odd even order harmonics texture, odd mojo parts and it is also a very good overdrive with the gain control rolled back. But using mostly humbucker equipped guitars nowadays it tend to be overly compressed and a bit … Read more
An updated version of a project I was tinkering with a couple of years ago. The idea was basically to find some use for some low leak USSR germaniums other than in Fuzz faces, Rangemasters and Tonebenders, And to do a germanium version of Zvex Box of Rock. Some biasing tweaks was necessary since BJT … Read more
YAFF (Yet Another Fuzz Face) with some addons. After the fuzz section there is a J FET buffer before the tonestack to keep things clear. Tonestack is inspired by Death by Audio Fuzz War V2 but with a bit more focus on the mids. A ge diode acts as a clipper on the treble side … Read more