Hula Loop

Hi there! Just finished a tiny true bypass loop pedal. A nice tool to have for sure! If you have a tone sucker on your pedalboard a tb loop can fix that. Or if you have more than one pedal you`d like to activate at the same time...hook em up to a loop pedal... voila! You can even bypass your whole board if you`d like! Ain`t she pretty?



Layouts for loopers can be found at beavisaudio.com

Battle Fuzz (Russian Green Big Muff)

Here`s a cool little build I`ve been working on the past week. I wanted to build a Big Muff but I wanted a little more than just the scooped muff we all love..?? I decided to go with the Green Russian version as a starting point. I wanted to make it as versatile as I possible could and still keep it pedalboard friendly.

The tone section of the muff circuit is really where you can shape the character of the fuzz the most. I spent some time with the duncan tone stack calculator and came up with a cool way of getting a lot of tones out of the circuit. By changing a couple of resistors and a cap in the tone section you can dramatically change the overall tone from scooped to bassy, mid hump or whatever you`d like. With three toggles I figured I could switch between two pairs of resistors and a pair of caps in the tone section...this gave me a couple of scooped modes, bass mode, "flat-ish", mid hump+ Cool!

Etched my own board, did the whole military look to the enclosure. Put the toggles and and jacks at the top to save space on the pedalboard. Tight fit!! Very happy with the pedal! Sounds awesome! It can be tuned to whatever guitar or rig! Very versatile, just what I wanted!

Some pics of the "Battle Fuzz"...

Swirly Orange Squeezer

I decided to rehouse my orange squeezer build I did some time ago. The circuit is kinda picky about power and the layout of my old build wasn`t really working out as planned. So, battery power only and a smaller, more organized enclosure. JRC chip for some nice squeeze...!

Red Spit Fuzz

Red Spit! This is basically a Way Huge clone of the Red Llama, or a 70s Craig Anderton Tube Sound Fuzz... It all depends on how you look at it. The Red Llama is really just a tweaked Tube Sound Fuzz. Oh, well... So, mine is somewhere in between those two. I didn`t have all the exact part values so I used what I had. Sounds good! The 4049 hex inverter IC is really what makes this circuit. Old school dirt! Fuzzy and thick with humbuckers, and nice clear overdrive with single coils.

It`s too cold outside to paint yet so this one is done with a brush and hammered paint. Clear sticker printed on my inkjet. Nothing fancy, but it works!

Project can be found at tonepad.com or in the book Electronic Projects For Musicians.

another fx laboratory...

Here`s what I`ve been working on lately... The another fx laboratory! A cool little toy for testing out circuits without soldering! Yes! It`s pretty simple, really... A breakout box which connects to the breadboard where you`ll be building your circuit by inserting components and wires into the "sockets". The breakout box has a true bypass toggle(effect on or bypassed/clean signal), i/o for your guitar and amp connections, status led, and a "voltage sag"(lets you tune the voltage being fed to the circuit from 9V and down). A 9volt battery is used as power source. Pretty neat!

I built this on a piece of plexiglass. Everything is secured in place with screws. Some rubber feet and that`s it! I had plans of putting a bright led into the plexiglass for a cool effect, but it did not really work as good as I`d hoped. The bright led would have drained the battery faster as well. A clear "see thru" plastic box for the breakout box would have looked cool, but I went for some shielding over looks with the aluminum box.

It`s gonna be so much fun trying out different circuits, mods, playing with component values, clipping diodes etc.

You want to build one?? No problem! Mine is heavily based on the famous "beavis board". Over at his site there are instructions on how to make your own test rig. One of , if not the best diy pedal site online! Check out beavisaudio.com.

I`m off to the lab! Peace...

Blue Box Octave Fuzz

MXR Blue Box.. Nasty fuzz with added two octaves down! Blend controls the mix between fuzz and octave effect. Play high up on the neck, dial in a nice mix of fuzz and octave effect and you`ve got instant old school Nintendo sounds jumping out of your speaker! Fun!!



The project can be found at tonepad.com.

ProCo RAT Clone

My first build of 2011 is a ProCo RAT clone! Cool square box with a hammered finish and all the mojo parts to get the vintage tones of the original. There`s a LM308N in there like the old ones had, tantalum caps etc. The RAT is my favourite dirt box ever! Now I need to compare this one to my newer RAT2 to hear for myself if there really is a difference between new and "vintage"..if the LM308N is worth the $$$. It sounds GREAT that`s for sure! Etched my own board from the layout over at tonepad. A fun build! I`ll be making more rats soon with some tweaks and mods.



Update... Compared to my RAT2: More output, warmer and more balls!!