Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
The Selmer Buzz Tone – three volts of nasty sixties guitar fuzz. I’d strongly recommend reading this first before committing to a build. If you don’t, disappointment will most likely follow. Most mid-sixties three transistors fuzzes are notoriously fussy about transistors / biasing. Plenty of discussion in all of the usual places regarding what works and what doesn’t. SELMER BUZZ TONE … Read more
I saw this Gray Bench teardown video the other night, and the values looked a little different to what I’d seen on other Sun Face schematics, so here it is. If you don’t feel like watching the video, the key difference: 51k resistor on the collector of Q1. The rest is all pretty standard for … Read more
While on the JHS thing, I noticed this booster and thought it looked interesting. The output switches between filters to allow for treble and bass boost, unlike most other boosters where it all happens at the input. Very few seem to be around, as I could only find one photo of the internals and one video … Read more
I started copying the original layout for veroboard and gave up toward the end as it’s a cramped mess – this is a similar but more practical version. The germanium John Hornby Skewes Zonk II is similar to a Fuzz Face but without the 100k feedback resistor, and note that the output cap is taken … Read more
The Analog Man Beano Boost takes the classic Rangemaster treble booster and adds a very useful function — a switched input capacitor that widens the tonal range beyond the original’s treble boost. Because it’s a single-transistor germanium circuit, the choice of transistor does shape the tone and clipping character, especially at higher gain settings. That … Read more
Since I’m on a Fuzz Face thing at the moment – the JB Fuzz Face is basically Soviet-era germanium transistors with trimmers. Soviet transistors definitely have a slightly different texture to them when it comes to fuzz. DUNLOP JOE BONAMASSA FUZZ FACE – VERO LAYOUT
After realising I had the “right” transistors for this, I thought I should have a crack at a Vox Tone Bender. I’ve done a generic vero layout with room for mods, with some common values listed – I guess the most obvious is the external bias pot, which could be replaced with a standard 8k2 resistor. The D*A*M … Read more
A full description can be found here, which is the tagboard layout. I built mine on tagboard, but that isn’t for everyone, so the standard vero layout is below. D*A*M FUZZ SOUND FS-77 – VERO LAYOUT
Another Tone Bender MKIII / MKIV variant – is the Park Fuzz Sound. I’d already done a P2P layout, so I thought I should also do a standard vero layout. As maybe one other person and I have used the P2P layout… I guess the most obvious difference is the lack of Fuzz pot – apart from … Read more
The Earthquaker Devices Bows is a straight-up germanium Rangemaster with some modern tweaks. It uses an NPN transistor and has a switch to swap to a larger input capacitor for a full-range boost. The space above the transistor on this layout allows it to be mounted on its side (bent over 90 degrees), as OC transistors are … Read more