Saturday, 22 January 2011

Gary Hurst Tonebender MKI


Like the last one, a bit of a pain but the Gary Hurst version is slightly more forgiving I believe.  Again don't forget to cut the trimmer legs that are shown over the -9V rail, there should be no connection there.  This is based on the original Gary Hurst MkI because the reissue was in reality a MkII.  Maybe Gary thought the MkI's are a pain as well! :o)

This one is verified




Updated 31st January 2014:  A lot of people have mentioned that the trimmers in this aren't as important as finding the correct transistors, so I'd recommend building this version which omits the trimmers entirely and puts the fixed resistors back.

Make sure you use sockets for the transistors and prepare yourself to audition plenty! :o)



Tonebender MKI

Updated 31st January 2014:  A lot of people have mentioned that the trimmers in this aren't as important as finding the correct transistors, so I'd recommend building this version which omits the trimmers entirely and puts the fixed resistors back.
Make sure you use sockets for the transistors and prepare yourself to audition plenty! :o)
 
 
 

Krank Distortus Maximus


One for the metal heads or those looking for a bit more gain.  The offboard wiring will be a bit of a pain though!

Thursday, 23 December 2010

Dan Armstrong Green Ringer



Here's a more unusual effect.  Playing chords it has a ring mod-ish quality to it, but played higher up the fretboard and using the neck pick up with tone control down gives a very prominent octave effect which sounds great.  You'll notice I shared holes for the diodes and a couple of the resistors, this was just to keep the final width down so it will comfortably fit in a 1590B box.  It should be easy enough to do unless you're using components with very thick leads.  The resistors I used are Dale metal film and are quite thick but I still managed it fine in my build.  I'd recommend socketing the transistors and diodes because you can get slightly different sounds by swapping them, Q2 is the transistor to experiment with and try germanium and silicon diodes to see which you prefer.

It is recommended that for the clearest octave effect you match the diodes as closely as possible for forward voltage, and some people have suggested that it is also worth matching the 47nF caps and the 10K and 22K resistors, although if you use 1% metal film they're probably going to be extremely close anyway. 

The layout is verified.




Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!