Emanating Fist Electronics Black Dust - Tone Distorter

From the captain:

Dig it. Black Dust. The Black Acid pre-set to fold air. Fuzz and drive, wide open. Maximum attack, minimized footprint. Fuelled with the same PCB as the Black Acid, British made Magnatec BC109's, Arcol carbon comps, BC/Vishay capacitors, prime cuts all the way.

For those not familiar with this circuit type it has a very similar tonal qualities to the old Meathead Dark though I'd say a more refined approach with a more traditional overall tone than that of any Meathead. The mids are quite flat the lows considerably boosted and the highs pretty natural and open sounding. Heaviness, it is some.

There were 2 versions, a big box version (older) and smaller (newer).

Big Box Version:

Small Box Version:

Emanating Fist Electronics Black Acid - Tone Distorter

From the captain:

The Black Acid is basically a fuzz face clone (circa 2012). It is a pool of thought and ideals. All the little iddy biddy nuggets of information learned from screwing around with this circuit over the last 10 years. Nothing revolutionary and no reinvention of the wheel just a different slice of the same cake.

The destination on the trip: The Black Acid has substantial weight and heavy saturation without having a complete strangle hold on the lower frequencies. It has the same perceived amplitude as the old Meathead Dark but with the lows being tighter with greater clarity. It has considerably more output than a stock Fuzz Face but I'd say that it retains more of the vintage nature than any of the Meatheads, I guess you could say the frequency spread is more even. The highs and lows are nicely balanced so the projection is good plus with the mids not being as forced the clean-up from the guitars volume control is very pleasant, though pleasant wasn't really plan here.

The construction style and the internal arrangement is the same as with the Priest. A much simpler circuit with components specially selected to get the job done. At the heart of the Acid is a pair of Magnatec BC109's. UK made transistors don't you know. A great quality component that really complements this circuit set-up. Even running flat-out and blowing the barn doors wide open there is cleanliness or crispness to the tone. Don't get me wrong, it's as sludgy as fuck but sludgy without having cotton wool forced into your ears.

The controls are pretty damn obvious but I'd say the rule of attenuation applies to this pedal, as in I'd advise starting out with the Drive and Fuzz controls wide open and them bringing them back to where you'd like be at. The Fuzz is as you'd find on any Fuzz Face or the Tone Benders Attack control, it's only really gonna kick-in with the heavy on last quarter of the turn. There be plenty of scope for cool tones and amp blending but if you want the heavy open it up. The Drive is basically the pre-gain of the pedal. It's like having your guitars volume control on the floor. The point of this is that it's a great way to un-flab the lows when you're driving the thing hard into the front end of a driven valve amp. It also gives up some great overdrive tones and just makes the box a whole lot more of a flexible tool. The Drive and Fuzz controls also have a pretty sweet interaction thing going off. The Black Acid ain't as 'yeah! lets fucking party!' as the Priest is on the controls front but put the time in and the rewards will be plentiful.

Emanating Fist Electronics Dope Priest - Frequency Sustainer

From the captain:

Take 3. D*A*M Ram Head -> Emanating Fist Electronics XB-70 -> Emanating Fist Electronics Dope Priest. Same shit just a little more refined with an air of maturity, if the Ram Head was a bottle of Jim Beam the Priest is a bottle of Wild Turkey. As with the XB-70 the core circuit influence here is my slowly decaying 1977 Guild Foxey Lady though this time the circuit blue print is tailored to my own ears and tastes rather than just replication. I've taken some influence from V3 Sovteks and the Triangle Muffs, basically lowered background noise, tighter projection and greater ability to cut through dense frequencies. It ain't no reinvention of the wheel just the delivery of sounds that I dig in regards to this circuit type presented in way that appeals to me more than our past incarnations.

Original Pedal:

With a Mids Switch:

Emanating Fist Electronics XB-70

Direct from the captain:

The origin of the idea was to be able to make some Ram Head's at some point with and greater ease. I don't really care to do that to be quite frank, old shit is old, so I have opted for this route. The XB-70 is a Big Muff, but to be precise, a clone of my Guild Foxy Lady...that I think is from around 1977!?!? I can't quite recall to be honest. The year ain't important, though the fact it sounds like torn leather soaked in piss and salt smushed lovingly into ears does. It is a brute of a pedal, has a really intense roar at full tilt, like any good Big Muff really. Though my Guild has the extra added bonus of insanely loud background noise and batshit crazy amounts of feedback ladened sustain. So the XB-70 takes this particular Guild box as a reference point though assembled so it's a little more polite but still packing mucho fire in tah belly. As much fun as it would have been to clone that throwing shit at the walls amount craziness into these for the most part the old Guild sounds that way because one of the transistors is fucked. In other words, most sane folk would consider a pedal that they had purchased that sounded this way to be very defective.

So to summarize. The X8-70 is a Guild Foxey Lady replica, from around the time EH were knocking out the Ram Head Muffs, that has a bad attitude but will play nice and not hurt your feelings.

Original Pedal:

With Mids Switch: