Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
I quite liked the single Hudson Electronics Broadcast; the Dual is just that little bit more practical. It can run from clean through to downright nasty tones. The low-cut is really great too. You will need to build a 24v charge pump for this or run the entire thing at 9V – which does work, albeit … Read more
Bit of a mix of a Tone Bender MKIII and a Big Muff Tone stack. Earthquaker Devices have made quite a few pedals that are Tone Bender / Big Muff inspired – I guess why wouldn’t you? EARTHQUAKER DEVICES TONE REAPER – VERO LAYOUT The tone control is based on the Big Muff design and can be changed … Read more
The Earthquaker Devices Dirt Transmitter is basically a silicon Fuzz Face with a pot to control the input level and a tone stack. The bias for Q2 is external. But gotta love a tricked-out fuzz. EARTHQUAKER DEVICES DIRT TRANSMITTER – VERO LAYOUT
The Earthquaker Devices Crimson Drive uses a JFET to push level into a germanium transistor, pushing it into overdrive territory. Diode clipping is added after to smooth things out a little / add some extra texture. ORIGINAL EARTHQUAKER DEVICES CRIMSON DRIVE – VERO LAYOUT VERSION 2 EARTHQUAKER DEVICES CRIMSON DRIVE – VERO LAYOUT
The Earthquaker Devices Black Ash is their take on a Tone Bender MKII, using low-gain silicon NPN transistors, with a bit of tone shaping added at the end. EARTHQUAKER DEVICES BLACK ASH – VERO LAYOUT
Just a straight up boost / low gain overdrive from Spaceman Effects – the Saturn V Harmonic Booster. It’s a pretty quick and easy build & does it’s job well. SPACEMAN EFFECTS SATURN V HARMONIC BOOSTER – POINT TO POINT LAYOUT SATURN V ON THE BENCH Build in progress pic below, which is a little … Read more
Power your fuzz / high gain circuits with noise problems from this. Like most things, it’s not a silver bullet for your problems, but it will probably help. Here’s a better technical explanation than I will ever manage. There’s a few variations of this circuit – google is your friend if you want to find out more. TLDR: … Read more
The Interstellar Overdriver is possibly the only normal pedal Death By Audio makes, and it’s not challenging to get to work either. Some are a nightmare. Sorry about the weird layout with the dual 100k gain pot – there isn’t one in DIY Layout Creator, so had to make it work as best I … Read more
This one is interesting; it’s a bit MXR Distortion + at the front and a Big Muff tone control at the back. Here we have the Roland BeeGee – I have no idea where the name came from back then. That is an interesting choice from Roland. ROLAND AF-60 BEE GEE – VERO LAYOUT … Read more
Another variation on the Big Muff, the Elk Super Fuzz Sustainar from the early seventies – one of the earliest Japanese copies known. The Elk Super Fuzz Sustainar originally used PNP transistors, which is completely unnecessary now, given the availability of good NPN transistors. The tone section is slightly different from a regular Big Muff, and retains more high-end across … Read more