Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
This is the input amplifier from a Revox A77 reel to reel (circa ~ 1967) – which also happens to be almost identical to the mic preamp in Trident A-Range mixing consoles from the early seventies. So far out of the preamps that I’ve been working on, which is the Neve, RCA and this, I’m … Read more
The Buzzaround’s Italian cousin – the Elka Dizzy Tone. Extremely similar, some are seen with a 1M Attack pot. This layout is based on the D*A*M Fuzz Sound MKIII layout. ELKA DIZZY TONE – 0.15″ VERO LAYOUT VIDEO DEMO
And more Tone Bending… just make sure you add a decent size capacitor to decouple the output, I doubt anyone wants / needs stray DC escaping your fuzz. MARSHALL SUPAFUZZ PROTOTYPE – TAG BOARD LAYOUT MARSHALL SUPAFUZZ PROTOTYPE – VIDEO
Just to continue on Tone Benders for a little longer… Marshall SupaFuzz on tag board. MARSHALL SUPAFUZZ – TAG BOARD LAYOUT
This is the early version of the Marshall SupaFuzz based on a Tone Bender MKI – it’s close to the original layout used. Strangely it never had a coupling cap on the output, so best to add something decent sized there. I’ve also seen a couple of photos with a power cap across V+ … Read more
A bit of a classic – well one of the first guitar effects really, the Dallas Rangemaster. A nice simple one for a quick build using leftover tag board. In theory there is room to fit the output cap on the board too, but I liked the straight lines of the components. DALLAS RANGEMASTER TREBLE … Read more
Looking for some affordable germanium diodes? It’s hard not to go past the price, quality and availability of the old soviet stock. They can behave a little differently than their European and American friends, but otherwise, they are well worth a look as an affordable substitute. BEST 1N341 / 1N34A SUBSTITUTES USING SOVIET-ERA DIODES Д9Б … Read more
While I was thinking of what could be made with tag board off-cuts, this popped into my head. The D*A*M Red Rooster Booster is probably my all-time favourite booster – I’ve only ever made one, and it was so good I stopped there (it was a point-to-point npn version with trimmer). This is a PNP … Read more
I typically buy tag board strips with 18 lugs, usually leaving 6 left over after a few of my recent builds. So, what to do with a small board? Fuzz Face… has to be one of the all-time classics of guitar effects. ARBITER FUZZ FACE – TAG BOARD LAYOUT – PNP GERMANIUM ARBITER FUZZ … Read more
I’m sure there are more than a few layouts out there for the Tone Bender MKI on tag board – I’m sure a couple more will not hurt. These are based on the Zonk Machine tag board layout, and I’m planning on adding an extra tag or two to adapt it to a D*A*M FZ-673 and … Read more