Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
Found this while searching for some schematics for Silicon Tonebenders I came across it on revolutiondeux. Miro posted a layout awhile ago for the Hot Silicon, which is pretty much the same, the difference being the trimmer off the gain control (abuse) which lets you set the gain rather then having a set resistor. Since … Read more
Her’s a unique fuzz circuit from MicTester for your #FuzzFriday. Here’s what he had to say about it: Way back in 1969, I heard “Inna Gadda Da Vida” for the first time. I realized quickly after building some simple transistor stages that didn’t work properly that “the” sound was coming from abused transistors! Experimentation over … Read more
Here’s a compressor design from MicTester. Here’s what he had to say about it over on FSB: Do you remember the old-fashioned way of doing bass compression? It used an LDR across the volume control illuminated by an incandescent lamp across the speaker terminals! It was a simple method back in the 60s….This compressor is almost that … Read more
Here’s another one of MicTester’s creation/adaptions. The Hot Silicon Tonebender is based on the classic SolaSound Tonebender Professional Mk II, but with silicon transistors and an added tone stack. Pretty much any medium to high gain transistors will work, so socket and try a few different ones out (BC109, 2N5088, MPSA18, etc).
Like many of the old germanium fuzzes, the Burns Buzzaround can be difficult to get right. It also uses 3 sometimes costly germanium transistors, and unless you also build a power inverter or use NPN transistors, you can’t daisy chain it with other negative ground effects. To get around these hurtles, Mictester designed a work-a-like … Read more
FSB member Mictester came up with this design a couple years ago. Utilizes 4 transistors, 1 PNP and 3 NPN, though you could probably use an NPN in place of the PNP. Best to socket and try a few different transistors. The schematic says BC213L for Q1 and BC183L for Q2-4, but any medium gain … Read more