Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
Brian Wampler has alway made cracking pedals – the Tweed ’57 is no exception. It’s another pedal based around the jfet “amp emulation” technique that is frequently employed in this current era of overdrive pedal design. Here’s the description from the Wampler website: “Brian’s work on the Wampler Pedals Black ‘65 left him grinning. Finally, … Read more
Here’s another Lovepedal for you. What’s in this one I wonder? Well, IVIark (of the great tagboardeffects.blogspot.com) has provided a trace and schematic with the help of rmrosa. Firstly lets see the Lovepedal description; “Your quest for the ultimate Fuzz ends here. Lots of players use it like an OD pedal or full on fuzz, … Read more
This was one of my all time favourite pedals – the *harder to find than hen’s teeth* Super Tube Screamer ST-9. I had it stolen many years ago and I’ve been looking out for a replacement ever since! But, no need now – the schematic is available thanks to the wonderous Dirk Hendrik 😀 So … Read more
The Maxon OD-820 has been touted around the boutique world for many years as a “Klon Killer” supposedly able to do that pristine clean boost with a heap of overdrive in reserve. Not many people have seen the schematic and, while it’s not a Klon, it does feature many of the same ideas. Firstly here’s … Read more
The Bearfoot FX Pale Green compressor – twin brother of the BJFe Pale Green compressor and close cousin of the Mad Professor Forest Green Compressor (Which is one of my favourite compression pedals!). Here’s the description from the Bearfoot FX website: “The BearFoot Pale Green Compressor is an exact replica of the BJFe Pale Green … Read more
Live at LEEEEEEEEEDs! The Who – Live at Leeds is one of the best live albums ever recorded and one of the main reasons for this is Pete Townshends MASSIVE guitar tone created by his walls of super dynamic Hiwatt amps combined with a Univox SuperFuzz. Well – the Catalinbread “WIIO” pedal aims to give … Read more
Blackstar Amps have quickly established themselves as one of the forerunners of the “new to the scene” amp manufacturers. Some great amps twinned with some really interesting tech have really helped push Blackstar to the front of a pretty saturated market. One of their most interesting innovations is their patented “ISF Control” (“ISF stands for … Read more
Humbuckers Dissected – image from StewMac.com [1] So, we’ve all played guitars with humbucking pickups right? The warm, chunky yet still cutting tone humbuckers can produce has lead to some of the greatest guitar tones in Rock ‘n Roll. Just imagine; where would the world be with out Angus Young’s signature humbucker equipped Gibson SG along with his … Read more
The Sarno Music Solutions “Steel Guitar Black Box” is a product I’ve been aware of for a while but never really paid too much attention to. With me recently being asked to look at some full pedal board solutions I started to think about using tube based buffers a’la David Gilmour’s Pete Cornish pedal board … Read more
I love Big Muffs, you love Big Muffs and Skreddy definitely loves Big Muffs. Marc has produced so many great sounding Big Muff variants that you could say he’s the “goto” guy for getting a great Muff type tone. Here’s one of his latest offerings – the P19. Here’s his description from the Skreddy Site: “Specifically tuned … Read more