Catalinbread CB30

Info about the original from Catalinbread:

The CB30 is designed to give you jangly, dynamic, responsive overdriven tones, just like it's British 30 watt counterpart. The tone controls work exactly the same way as the actual amp, where the more the treble and bass increase, the more scooped the mids become, making it capable of being quite hollow and jangly. The CB30 can be dialed in for that immediate attack, compressed mid range honk, finished by the shimmery high end jangle, an elusive sound for many players. Like all the foundation pedals in our line it sounds excellent on its own, or when stacked with other pedals (no really, just wait until you put a treble boost in front!)

As owners of the real deal know, the amp has an amazing touch sensitivity, with the ability to go from clear and chimey, to that unique overdrive character with just your picking dynamics. The CB30 has the same response, and cleans up extremely well with your guitar's volume control. The CB30 is true bypass, and comes in a rugged silkscreened case, has black aluminum knobs that feel great, and are easy to see on stage. If you're looking for an expressive, chimey overdrive, we think you'll enjoy the CB30 for years to come.

MXR Phase 45 modded

Now Miro has verified the original, here's a modded version of the Phase 45 and offering a few useful addition such as external Bias and a Mix control, Phase 45 / Univibe 10:1 Ratio switch and a Rate LED.  The switch is 2 position 4PDT but you could also split it and use 2 x 2 position DPDT which will then allow you to select the caps individually offering a little bit more versatility.

I actually managed to get this 2 columns smaller because of the removal of some components and others going on the switch instead of the board, so it will easily fit in a 1590B.

Germanium Transistor Tester

I'm lazy and use a Peak DCA55 to measure transistors which will automatically give you the leakage reading for germanium with the added advantage of identifying the pins for you so you don't even have to refer to the datasheet. This is an alternative from information posted by RG on the Geofex website and will allow you to measure gain and leakage for much less money.  The layout is for PNP transistors but to test NPN just reverse the power and DMM connections.

Have a look through the article on Geofex for further information, but the main procedure is included with the layout:

Catalinbread Naga Viper

I like the small ones, they only take 5 minutes, and I bet it isn't much longer than that until someone verifies it! :o)

Info from Catalinbread about their original:

The Naga Viper is a booster in the grand old tradition of the Dallas Rangemaster "Treble-Booster".  The Rangemaster has been used by many influential British guitarists including Tony Iommi, Brian May, Marc Bolan, and KK Downing and Glen Tipton of Judas Priest.  These guitarists, while completely unique in their styles, share the Rangemaster secret of boosting their cranked tube amps into a juicy, harmonic-laden rock tone that always cuts through the mix.

The Naga Viper is our version of this famous circuit and it enhances the classic circuit with the addition of two extra controls - Range and Heat.  The original Rangemaster had just one control - Boost.  The Range knob is a continuous control allows you to go from classic treble-boost to a full-range boost and anywhere in-between.  The original could only function as a "treble-booster".  The Heat knob gives you control over the gain level, unlike the original which was fixed at maximum gain.

Why a "treble-booster"?  Well, it is not like merely turning up the treble control on an EQ pedal.  Besides enhancing treble response, it adds its own subtle harmonic distortion and gives you a lot of "push" to really saturate the front-end of your tube amp.  But remember, the Naga Viper has a Range control that allows you to dial in exactly what frequencies get boosted.

The traditional way to use a treble-booster is to plug it straight into an already cranked and overdriven tube amp like the Marshalls, Laneys, and Voxes the British guitarists used.  Since the amps were already cranked up, a full-range boost would result in a muddy sound with no definition.  That is why we want to boost "treble"!

But in this modern era of electric guitar, many guitarists use overdrive pedals that emulate the sounds of cranked big amps into their smaller combos.  The Naga Viper is carefully voiced to allow you to boost your "amp-in-the-box" pedals too to get those famous juicy, saturated sounds at "reasonable" volume levels!  In particular, the Naga Viper was made to go with our Dirty Little Secret MkII and CB30 overdrives.

MI Audio GI Fuzz

6 knobs plus a Bright switch, and still needs an onboard trimmer.  I will be extremely impressed with anyone getting this in a 1590B!  Basically it's a modded silicon Tonebender MkII and it must be one of the most tweakable ones out there so I'm sure it would be a great addition to many peoples collections.

Info from MI Audio about their original:

The GI Fuzz is a high gain fuzz design, featuring a trio of ultra low noise, high gain silicon transistors. This is not a fuzz for the faint hearted. It has about 20db more gain than a Fuzz Face, so you can think of the gain achievable as being equivalent to a a Fuzz Face at full tilt being driven by a booster! This is military spec fuzz, complete with a camouflage green aluminium enclosure and stencil script. The GI Fuzz is not a clone of anything out there.

MI Audio settled on a design which makes the GI Fuzz one of the most versatile fuzz pedals out there. At last, the fuzz pedal has joined the 21st century! No longer the 2 knob, unstable, radio receiver of yesteryear. You get 6 knobs, an internal trimmer, a 3 position switch, and the ability to create anything from fat bluesy tones, to traditional fuzz, to all-out sustain, to gated, synth-like bleeps.

  High Gain silicon fuzz.

  Fuzz generated by a trio of high gain silicon transistors

  Ultimate flexibility with the following 8 controls (1 internal):

        ● Fuzz - from nothing to all out fuzz
        ● Load - input impedance control
        ● Bias - controls the bias of the 2 transistors
        ● Body - midrange control
        ● Tone - balancing control for controlling highs and lows
        ● Volume
        ● Bright switch
        ● Internal Gain trimmer.

  Professionally powder-coated and silk-screened enclosure, measuring only 4.3" x 2.2"

IN DEPTH CONTROL DETAILS FROM MI AUDIO:

  A huge gain range, from nothing to sustain-for-days

  It can be used as a low gain device (for a fat bluesy bite), which is fairly unique for a fuzz pedal, since fuzz pedals tend to have a very narrow range of gain.

  To tame this pedal, there's an internal gain trimmer to wind things back (which I recommend)

  Load control, which is a variable input impedance. This can be used to match the GI Fuzz to humbuckers as well as single coils (Fuzz pedals tend to have low input impedance which is a better match for single coils. Now you can also use humbuckers without any problems). You can also use it to go from a tradition fuzz sound (low input impedance) to a more articulate sound with detailed highs (high impedance)

  A bias control to set up the operating point of the transistors, from a fat symmetrical fuzz, to an asymmetrical 'mosquito' buzz, and beyond, to a gated synth-like sound (almost sounds like your amp is about to die!)

  Body control, which full range mid range control. The mids, of course, are the most important frequencies for determining how your guitar tone sits in with the rest of the band.

  Tone control, which controls both lows and highs, as opposed to simply a high cut filter. This is like bass and treble controls rolled into one. The combination of the tone and the body controls is like having a low/mid/high EQ

  Volume control with output to spare. You can use the GI fuzz to overdrive your amp.

  3 position bright switch to help tame the top end. This is useful if you're going to use your GI Fuzz with a bright 'modern' voiced clean channel, or if you're going to use the GI with overdrive pedals (which tend to be darker, and by comparison, make a normal fuzz sound shrill).