Sunday 30 July 2017

Ewave Distortion Giant

Recently traced at FSB. Couldn't find a demo vid...


Thursday 27 July 2017

VOX MKIV Tonebender

Description of the MKIV origin from the captain.
 
The origins. Tone Bender MKIII, Tone Bender MKIV. Same party different frock. Aside from the obvious differences in the enclosure type of these pedals any true solid definition of which is what in regards to circuit type is and will always be a little bit of an ambiguous subject. The way I always made sense of it in my head was in regards to the biasing. The early MKIII's were choppy, heavy, clumsy, a fuzzy lump hammer. The later MKIV's were smooth, dynamic, articulate, a distorted boxing glove. In between, you have a foggy transitional period. Even with the those definitions in place it never always runs true.





Sola Sound MKIV Tonebender

I think the best description of the differences between the MKIII & MKIV tonebender comes from non-other than the captain:

The origins. Tone Bender MKIII, Tone Bender MKIV. Same party different frock. Aside from the obvious differences in the enclosure type of these pedals any true solid definition of which is what in regards to circuit type is and will always be a little bit of an ambiguous subject. The way I always made sense of it in my head was in regards to the biasing. The early MKIII's were choppy, heavy, clumsy, a fuzzy lump hammer. The later MKIV's were smooth, dynamic, articulate, a distorted boxing glove. In between, you have a foggy transitional period. Even with the those definitions in place it never always runs true.

Couldn't find a video of an original, so I figure the best example of the pedal is going to be the DAM version. Want to be clear, this layout is for an original Tonebender MKIV not the DAM one as travis pointed out.




DAM Fuzzsound

Here's four different versions of the DAM Fuzzsound, all of which are a mix of the MKIII & MKIV Tonebender.

From the captain:

Fuzz Sound MKIV (used to be badged as the MKIII) Basically a pimped out version of the Tone Bender MKIII and MKIV but with more tonal scope, more muscle and packing space age features.
First up, a few quick words on the differences between a Tone Bender MKIII and a MKIV. They do both use the same circuit blue print if you will but there are subtle and noticeable differences to each pedal in the tone department. Without over complicating matters, as I do what to get to the point, the Sola Sound made MKIII and the MKIV basically sound of their time. The early MKIII's sound fuzzy and choppy, later MKIV's sound smooth and distorted. Then there's a blurry line in the middle. Basically the biasing evolved to the point that the pedal became more overdriven than fuzzy. Ya know, I guess, to suit the needs of Musicnauts of the day.
The FS-75 is the blurry line in the middle and some. It's not a direct replica of either but the flavour I have gone for is an all out balls to the wall, big hair, big boobs, fat cars, fast food, dirty denim, dirty hippies, 8-track stereo cranking, 3-D glasses rocking fuzz tone. To quote, its: "1970 rollin' in sight"




Btw, yes it does bass



Fuzzsound FS-75 Jr



 Fuzzsound MKIII


Fuzzsound Black on Black



Fuzzsound R&G



Rotosound Fuzz

Well I've been in a bit of Tonebender kick lately, so I decided to do a bunch of MKIII & MKIV variants. The Rotosound Fuzz was built by Sola Sound in the late 60's and is based on the MKIII Tonebender.




Wednesday 26 July 2017

BuGGFX Raincoat

From blistering, octave-tinged fuzz all the way down to dirty, fat overdrive with a turn of your guitar's volume control, the Raincoat has a sound all of its own. Is it an overdrive that does fuzz? A distortion that does overdrive? A fuzz that does it all? We have no idea. All we know is, it's a Raincoat; the Raincoat.




Monday 17 July 2017

Iron Butterfly Fuzz Wah

Not much info on this one, not even who actually made it. Found the schematic years ago over at DIYSB where it was reversed with the help of none other than dino. Figured I'd tale a shot at a vero since I did so many other wahs.



Thursday 13 July 2017

Standard Hemmo Fuzz/Booster w/ mods

Found an old schematic of Standard Hemmo Fuzz, which has two outputs. One for cleanish boost and second for fuzz. Drew it as described and added diode clippers as notes suggested. Added volume pots for both modes, 2PDT stomps for mode select and basic bypass. Some of you might find this rather usable...


Saturday 8 July 2017

Systech Overdrive

Here is a simple layout for a nice pedal from the 70's.
The schematic I've used is available here.



Friday 7 July 2017

Spaceman Sputnik II

"Starting with the same germanium transistors as the much-loved original Sputnik, but with slightly different specs, we added a few slight tweaks to get very close to the sonic details of the original circuit. Many of the other parts in the Sputnik II are different but of same or similar value, including many vintage and rare parts.
While extremely similar to the original, the Sputnik II is a beast all its own. The Sputnik II takes everything we loved about the original, and adds in the things we dreamed of after its original release it:
• Full-size control knobs for every parameter
• Foot-switchable DRIFT mode, with its own status indicator
• Additional FILTER options for maximum tone-shaping
• Additional circuitry making it more friendly to active pickups, buffers, synths, pedals, etc
Within Sputnik II lies a plethora of fuzz tones. Smooth, gritty, vintage, modern, thick, thin, buzzy, bassy, splatty, sputtery, noisy, buttery, controlled or very much out-of-control. A truly endless cornucopia of fuzz."

Here is another pedal reverse-engineered by Dino (Digi2t).
He also added an extra diode reverse switch.
For all infos on how to build this pedal you can find Dino's original thread (with his own vero) and schematic on the DIY forum here.




Sunday 2 July 2017

Krank Krankshaft Overdrive


Another Tubescreamer anyone? Info at FSB.

Aeon Drive v2

Nice hotrodded son of Tubescreamer circuit. I thought we'd want this here too. There are audio clips for this circuit up at guitarpcb.com, as well as build docs. I've added a series polarity protection and a 47p cap in the feedback loop. If one desires, both can be left out.