Hagwood
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That's great to hear, I figured it would be a good one to start with. Any experience with the MojoTone stuff ? I love their pickups and also use their modified CTS pots.
Raga's pedal builds
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ragamuffin
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Yeah Mojotone does good stuff! The base for my 5e3 was the Mojotone kit, I also bought the "small parts kit" from Mojotone for my 5f6 Bassman
ragamuffin
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Got my Tayda box today! I put my component tester to work measuring the gain of the transistors, which turned out to be pretty tightly grouped, not a lot of variance
Spud
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That picture of stuff to assemble is Spud's nightmare!!
ragamuffin
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Nah man, it's like Christmas!
Hagwood
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Man, that’s a lot of stuff. Looks fun !!!
ragamuffin
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Built my first stripboard pedal, an Astrotone circuit with the Analgman specs with the layout from Dirtbox Layouts
The building process went fairly smoothly, though the off-board wiring got a little bit spaghetti-ish
I used a 1590b enclosure that I had and laid it out for topmounted jacks. While painting on the control labels/design I f'd up the "F", but I decided I was fine with that; fuzzy F for fuzz
Tonewise it's rockin'! It's a great "not too fuzzy" fuzz that sounds really nice with humbuckers. I own an Analogman Astrotone which I plan to sell now as mine sounds just as good!
The only hitch is that the enclosure won't quite shut all the way because one of my jacks sits up too high. I think I'll be able to grind down the jack frame and/or the lip of the enclosure backing to make it all fit.
The building process went fairly smoothly, though the off-board wiring got a little bit spaghetti-ish
I used a 1590b enclosure that I had and laid it out for topmounted jacks. While painting on the control labels/design I f'd up the "F", but I decided I was fine with that; fuzzy F for fuzz
Tonewise it's rockin'! It's a great "not too fuzzy" fuzz that sounds really nice with humbuckers. I own an Analogman Astrotone which I plan to sell now as mine sounds just as good!
The only hitch is that the enclosure won't quite shut all the way because one of my jacks sits up too high. I think I'll be able to grind down the jack frame and/or the lip of the enclosure backing to make it all fit.
ragamuffin
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The twin Sunmans are complete and sounding good! One for me, one for my brother who got me into guitar
ragamuffin
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Next up is a silicon Zonk II (Reeves ZO, their take on it). I really wanted a light blue hammered paint job like the original, but for the life of me couldn't find light blue hammered paint. So I bought a can of Rustoleum hammered silver and tinted a small amount with a bit of artist's oil paints, prussian blue and viridian hue to be exact.
Tretgeraet
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Wow, that looks exactly like the light blue (Metallblau) Hammerite to me.
EDIT:
Correction: It looks even better!
I'm stoked that coloring the hammered silver works!
I build this 9 years ago, it's supposed to be a supa fuzz clone.
Last edited:
Hagwood
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Awesome ! I see what you did there with the name - very clever.....
I was researching Gilmour's gear in my tone chasing quest, and saw this setup on a Youtube video. The Sunman BC108 to emulate his Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face and the modern take on the Binson Echorec used on Echoes.....
ragamuffin
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Nice work!
ragamuffin
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I've been doing a lot of research/learning on the basics of pedal design and the Electra Distortion circuit, and did some breadboarding!
First I built the basic Electra circuit, then tried some mods from popular Electra-based pedals (various Lovepedal pedals, EQD Speaker Cranker/Special Cranker, JHS "Shrieking Eel" (not a production pedal, one he designed over some Youtube livestream videos).
I ended up with some tweaked capacitor values, a simple two knob volume and dirt setup, a NPN germanium transistor, and stacked/series clipping diodes.
The stock Electra with a silicon transistor is basically a LPB-1 clean boost with clipping diodes added, turning it into a distortion. Using a germanium transistor gives it a bit more of a fuzzy-drive sound (even without the clipping diodes) so I used four diodes (two sets of two in series) which reduces the amount of diode clipping that you get. I really like the results!
Then I created a stripboard layout for it using the DIYLC program and installed it in my korina jazzmaster in place of the Fuzz Face that I had in there! The Fuzz Face was nice but felt kind of redundant since I have a one on my pedalboard (the Sunface clone)
First I built the basic Electra circuit, then tried some mods from popular Electra-based pedals (various Lovepedal pedals, EQD Speaker Cranker/Special Cranker, JHS "Shrieking Eel" (not a production pedal, one he designed over some Youtube livestream videos).
I ended up with some tweaked capacitor values, a simple two knob volume and dirt setup, a NPN germanium transistor, and stacked/series clipping diodes.
The stock Electra with a silicon transistor is basically a LPB-1 clean boost with clipping diodes added, turning it into a distortion. Using a germanium transistor gives it a bit more of a fuzzy-drive sound (even without the clipping diodes) so I used four diodes (two sets of two in series) which reduces the amount of diode clipping that you get. I really like the results!
Then I created a stripboard layout for it using the DIYLC program and installed it in my korina jazzmaster in place of the Fuzz Face that I had in there! The Fuzz Face was nice but felt kind of redundant since I have a one on my pedalboard (the Sunface clone)
ragamuffin
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Since my last post I finished the Reeves Electro ZO Zonk II, built a King of Tone clone with the accurate BA282 and 1S1588 diodes, and also breadboarded/stripboarded a Sola Sound Yellow Hybrid Tonebender fuzz which I'll put in an enclosure when I get a chance.
The ZO fuzz is pretty tasty; great clarity all across the gain knob. At lower gain settings it gives some really nice "overdrive alternative" type sounds. The texture knob goes pans from dying robot to velcro-y to relatively smooth and gritty fuzz tones. Like the Astrotone it is also very humbucker friendly as far as fuzzes go.
The King of Tone clone sounds good; I haven't played a "real" King of Tone before but my clone sounds nice, I like the lower gain settings on it better than the higher gain ones. I like it but I'm honestly not blown away... I guess it falls in the more "conventional overdrive" camp, while I tend to prefer somewhat quirkier, gritty/fuzzy drives and such.
The Yellow Hybrid Tonebender is a really sweet sounding fuzz! It's not as heavily gainy/fuzzy/saturated as some of the other tonebenders that I've played, but it definitely has that general Tonebender flavor, good dynamics, and fairly natural/neutral/usable eq, and some extra germanium goodness. Highly recommended fuzz if you can manage to acquire one at a reasonable price
The ZO fuzz is pretty tasty; great clarity all across the gain knob. At lower gain settings it gives some really nice "overdrive alternative" type sounds. The texture knob goes pans from dying robot to velcro-y to relatively smooth and gritty fuzz tones. Like the Astrotone it is also very humbucker friendly as far as fuzzes go.
The King of Tone clone sounds good; I haven't played a "real" King of Tone before but my clone sounds nice, I like the lower gain settings on it better than the higher gain ones. I like it but I'm honestly not blown away... I guess it falls in the more "conventional overdrive" camp, while I tend to prefer somewhat quirkier, gritty/fuzzy drives and such.
The Yellow Hybrid Tonebender is a really sweet sounding fuzz! It's not as heavily gainy/fuzzy/saturated as some of the other tonebenders that I've played, but it definitely has that general Tonebender flavor, good dynamics, and fairly natural/neutral/usable eq, and some extra germanium goodness. Highly recommended fuzz if you can manage to acquire one at a reasonable price
