Fuzzbox, Distortion, Phaser, Chorus, Echo and other Guitar Effects Info

Can you hear the difference between digital and analog mixing systems? Digidesign, the owner of the ProTools computer recording software, wants to know and has posted some clips to allow the curious to test digital vs. analog. Check it out:

ProTools vs. Analog mixing

Separate Bass and Treble Controls for the BMP
(more…)

AMZ Mosfet Booster

(more…)

My new Epiphone Valve Jr. amp head

(more…)

Barbarello Fuzz from Pop Electronics
(more…)

Leo’s Fuzz from Pop Electronics
(more…)

TS-9 and dual Mini-Booster

(more…)

Germanium transistors are back!

I found some really nice 2N404A germanium transistors with low leakage and gold leads. Also have some 2N1309 mil-surplus that are high gain and very low leakage as well. All transistors are tested with a Peak Electronic Design Semiconductor Analyzer, and guaranteed to meet minimum gain and leakage specs.

I sorted a batch of AC128 transistors and tossed about 60% of them to get a few that are good enough for fx use… get them while I still have some available. All three types are for sale on the page at:

http://www.muzique.com/pcb.htm

I was looking at some very old information that I had archived on floppy disks and it took me back to the old pre-Internet days… did you know that there was an active online music community long before the Internet?

Not only were there independently operated bulletin boards that you dialed up, but there were several commercial online services, including GEnie, Compuserve, Prodigy, and later, America Online. I have been members of all of those at one time or another, but was very active in the GEnie network in the late 1980s and early 90s.

Which brings me to schematics and DIY effects. A number of my pedal designs, including the Son of Screamer, Fuxx Face, Mini-Booster and others, existed long before the Internet was commercialized. There was an active music forum on GEnie that was hosted by Craig Anderton and my designs were available there for free download to users. The forum was quite active and users could communicate with each other privately via an internal message system much like email.

In 1995, my site went live on the Internet and became the second guitar effects and schematics site to be available! The first site was called the Leper’s Abode and it has since disappeared, leaving my web site as the longest continuously available DIY site on the Net.

Looking back, there were online DIY stompbox builders before the Internet, before boutique pedal companies, and long before the current crop of online discussion forums. But we had to access the info at 300 bits-per-second!

Double your voltage, double your fun!

(more…)