Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
Just a little one from the Bosstone family. This is said to have been used in MSA Pedal Steel guitars, and it’s basically a slight variation on the Nashville Bosstone circuit. These can be a bit noisy, so really have to watch your wiring and try for quite low gain on Q1. It can … Read more
Perhaps best known as the Analog Man Astrotone Fuzz now, this started life as the Sam Ash Fuzzz Boxx and the same circuit also appears in the Astro Amps Astrotone Fuzz – which is a supremely cooler name, which is maybe why it has stuck. The original has 47n caps on this input and output, … Read more
This is one of the more recent Sola Sound MK1.5 Tone Benders built by David Main. MK1.5 TONE BENDER: THE DIRTY HIPPIE MOD – OC75 ONLY This has two additions to the regular circuit. A 10n cap to ground on the input and a 47k bias resistor on the base of Q1 to help … Read more
I accidentally messed up a small Colorsound Fuzz Box board by drilling mounting holes in the wrong place – but I didn’t want to waste the vero board, and I thought an Electra Distortion & Colorsound Fuzz Box might make a nice pair of one-knob pedals. Perhaps not the most exciting post to return … Read more
Some notes for later from a recent Vox Tone Bender build. Mainly wanted to jot down the placement of the pots and switch, as this layout is quite tight in a 1590BB – there’s no room for error. I probably should have made the layout a row or two shorter, but I just liked the … Read more
A bit of a classic – the MK1.5 Tone Bender. Some great phots and background information here on Fuzzboxes.org and some great video demos below – who better than Ant Macari to talk Tone Benders. Note that some earlier versions carried a 500k volume pot, instead of 100k resulting in more bass – ultimately bringing it … Read more
I guess this is where it all started – The Glenn Snoddy Fuzz-Tone. I modified an existing MKI layout on the larger vintage size vero for this, sized to fit in a wedge enclosure. Initially, I was going to do the original layout used, but it was a bit of a mess – as was the practice … Read more
I wasn’t aware of this version of the MKI until today. I’m sure you have probably seen the new line of Tone Benders that Sola Sound is releasing. I noticed that the Stu Castledine version was on vero, and the rest were all on the more familiar MKI board. So after a little digging, it turns out this … Read more
Similar to the previous Zonk Machine, this has a MKI switch for a larger input cap. Have had this on the breadboard recently, and decided to jump to a vintage-style veroboard. There are of course more differences between a MKI Tone Bender and a Zonk than just an input cap, but for convenience’s sake, … Read more
This is my version of the Zonk Machine, based on one of the early vero layouts. I added a switch for the input cap, which is possibly the most unoriginal mod known, and increased one of the input caps from 1n to 2n2. I used an OC76 for Q1 and Q3 and an OC44 for Q2. I found … Read more