Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
Check this schematic out for the critically acclaimed (and very popular with big stage acts!) Friedman BE-100. It’s a fairly standard hot-rodded Marshall design with a few interesting twists – the “Sat” clipping control off the cathode follower and the FX loop design (which I believe is the MetroAmps loop design). Also check out the … Read more
If you’re looking for a five to nine watt practise and recording amplifier – build this, it sounds great and only uses two valves! It’s got a special mosfet based phase splitter design which I’ve not seen anywhere before – so I’m claiming my design is unique 🙂 Build it and leave your comments below.
Ken Fischer with his Trainwreck amps If you’re interested in guitar amplifiers and haven’t heard of Trainwreck amps then you must be stuck on a desert island. Known for their no frills design, great clean shimmer and screaming lead tones Trainwreck amplifiers were hand made in the 80s and through the 90s by the late … Read more
So, if you’ve heard of the Japanese pedal company Vemuram you’ve probably heard about this: Vemuram Jan Ray = Timmy Clone. It’s an attractive pedal – nice brass enclosure, vintage looking knobs. Check it out in action here against the Timmy (yes, there are slight differences – the treble control has a different range and … Read more
I like collecting BJFe designs, I like their simplicity and the fact that they sound really good. Here’s one of Bjorn’s latest offerings – the Baby Pink Booster. Here’s the description from the Bearfoot FX website; “+15 dbs of clean guitar friendly boost and a tasty buffer … Deluxify your drives ! If you’ve seen … Read more
The Wampler Ecstasy has recently been renamed the “Euphoria”, for what reasons I’m unsure but it could be to do with a few not-so-positive forum topics popping up on google when you search for Wampler Ecstasy! I thought I’d already covered this one but a quick trip over to IVIark’s tagboardeffects.blogspot.com reminded me that I haven’t! … Read more
So, on the topic of “Voxy” sounding boxes here’s another – the Catalinbread CB30. Most of you who read this blog regulary will know that I do like Catalinbread pedals; they always sound good and their aesthetic appeal and build quality is top notch. Unsurprisingly the CB30 is no different. Here’s the description from the … Read more
I’ve not covered many Vox sounding pedals on the blog so I thought I’d stick one up – the HipKitty Oxblood Distortion. It’s supposed to be able to turn your huge full stack into a little boxy Vox AC15! Right-o.. Here’s the description from the HipKitty website; “The Oxblood Distortion was designed to emulate the … Read more
More interesting stuff from Blackout Effectors now – the Mantra Overdrive. There’s been some hype around this one *and* it comes in a gold enclosure! It doesn’t get any better than that 😀 Here’s the description of the Mantra Overdrive from the Blackout Effectors website; “Equally capable of invoking the sacred sounds of a classically … Read more
The Blackout Effectors Twosome playing a bit of Table Football Blackout Effectors make some really cool looking and sounding boxes. With their introduction into the ProGuitarShop product line I decided to take a look at a few of the nifty fuzz boxes they offer, in particular the Twosome Dual Fuzz and the two circuits which … Read more