Sunday, 2 January 2022

FAL Treble Boosters

 Found these posted by the one and only pinkjimiphoton on the usual places. Both are very old and rare always on fixed treble boosters. Should be quick fun small builds. You can easily make them NPN by flipping the electrolytic caps, power and ground connections. I believe low gain transistors will work fine in them.


FAL Treble Booster 1967



FAL Treble Booster 1969




Saturday, 1 January 2022

Monster Effects Mastortion

I know, I know, it's been a long time since a new layout has been posted. We have not gone away, just time has a habit of getting away from you, especially with the current state of the pandemic. I've got a running list for more layouts to come, but I don't want to post them all too quickly. I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy.

I want to start the year out with a new layout. This is one I've had waiting in the wings for awhile and finally had time to site and make a layout for it, so without further adieu. 

 The Monster Effects Mastortion was originally a limited edition pedal designed with Brent Hinds of Mastodon as a heavy OD/Distortion that's on the verge of fuzz. Not much info on it, as it was originally made in very low numbers. It's basically YATS with a set tonestack. The only changes I made was to the power section as the original has an interesting setup with bridge rectifiers and I don't feel it's necessary or adds anything to the pedal. Schematic can be found here.






Sunday, 4 July 2021

Earthquaker White Light

An out of production EQD overdrive that's based on the Distortion+.

From the source:

The White Light Overdrive is based on vintage overdrives that defined the sounds of classic hard rock. This vintage voiced stompbox is similar to a vintage DOD 250 or MXR Distortion+, but don’t mistake it for a direct clone of these OD’s of yesteryear. The White Light gives total control over the voice of the dirt along with a modern presence that is both dynamic and responsive to your playing. The Weight control allows you to adjust the saturation and low end, giving you plenty of tonal shaping options. The White Light Overdrive doesn’t discriminate – it likes both humbuckers and single coils, and will add some real 70′s grit to your tone. The Compression switch lets you choose between an open voiced overdrive with more high-mids and bite, or more compression with less bit and flatter mid-range.

Controls

Gain: Controls the amount of distortion.

Weight: A multi-functional control, allows the level of saturation, bass response and the over all feel of the device to be altered.

Level: Controls the output.

Compression Switch: Less= Open w/ more high-mids and bite. More= Crunchy and compressed with a bit less bite and more flat mids.





Monday, 28 June 2021

Bearfoot Honey Beest

Been awhile since a new post on the main site. Life can get in the way, but here's a new one. Keep an eye out for more, we still here and going strong.

From the Source:

Descended from the Honey Bee, this one is capable of more dynamic dirt and quicker and thicker honey. If that’s what you’re after, the Beest can help.

The Honey Beest is an extension of the classic Honey Bee, adding saturation and treble to a much loved design. The heart of the Beest is the addition of a pregain booster controlled by the Pregain knob. The pregain booster is not a simple linear booster, but has an intentional upper mid and treble accent that lets you mix the two gain stages to get just the right saturation and treble. The Nature and Pregain knobs make a wide-ranging EQ section. The Drive and Pregain knobs give full control of the distortion saturation and compression. This also makes the “big bottom” part of the Nature control more useful. Turning the Nature knob full left and the Pregain full right creates a full range overdrive…sort of like if you’ve got a 50-watt 4×12 Supro. 

 

 

 



Wednesday, 2 September 2020

Dinosaural Tube Bender

In October 2003, Dan Coggins (formerly of Lovetone) released his first commercial pedal under the Dinosaural brand, called the Tube Bender. His design goal was to make something that was sort of a tonal hybrid of the Tone Bender and Tube Screamer, hence the name. And honestly, having listened to it, I’m not sure there’s a better way to describe it. He only made around 140 of them between 2003 and 2007, but many of them were snatched up by musicians and producers in the UK. So while they’re exceedingly rare, you’ve most likely heard it.

 

I added a mod from the AION Wyvern Silicon Drive of  a second position to the Tone Shift switch that’s in-between the flat and scoop modes. I've included the hfe readings from an original pedal as per Aion's trace, so you can try different transistors with similar gains. 

 

It's so rare I couldn't find a demo of it, but I think you get the gist of what it should sound like.