Ibanez Bass recall

Casio® Inc. Announces Recall of Electronic Keyboards

Bass Amplifiers Recalled by Fender Musical Instruments

Heavy Metal Band Names Flow Chart

If you are searching for a name for your new band, check out the AMZ Band Names page.

Cuil (pronounced “cool”) wants to be the next Google. The new search engine, founded by former Google engineers, uses a different method to rank pages, which gives results that can be radically different from a Google search.

Try it out:   Click here to search Cuil for guitar effects pedals.

My instructable on metal box finishing has been entered in the voting by the editors. Please go to the page of my instructable and vote for it… just click on the vote button next to the Book Contest banner below the orange bar.

Vote here: AMZ Metal Box Finishing Instructable

Thanks in advance! -Jack

This summer I have a big renovation project at my house so
I do not have much time to write new articles or blog posts.

I will continue to make sure that all orders for
transistors, ebooks and pc boards are shipped quickly.

Lots of new ideas, mods and circuits to
come, once my home project is finished!

This tone control network was submitted to the patent office in April 1937 but it is still in widespread use today. I’ll redraw the circuit and you will probably recognize it…

Look familiar? This is the classic Big Muff tone control. I left out a few of the numbers from the patent drawing that are not relevant, but you should be able to match the components in this drawing to the one at the top.

The specific values will be different for use with a tube circuit but the principle is the same.

Just as interesting is the following patent submitted in 1939:

It appears that the tone control circuit in this 1939 patent submitted by Fyler is identical to Ballard’s patent that was filed two years prior. If you are interested in the full text of these patents, you can download the complete pdf files here:

Ballard Tone Control Patent

Fyler Tone Control Patent

Thanks to the blog reader (Jeff) who sent these patent numbers to me!

The junction field effect transistor (jfet) was invented by William Shockley at Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1951.

But did you know that the original jfet was germanium? In his patent, Shockley describes making a transistor with N-type and P-type germanium layers to form the transistor junctions.

If you want to know more, download the original jfet patent and see the details.

Results are after the break…

Room temperature was 72°F and my fingers were warm and dry.

I picked up a germanium AC188 with a pair of needlenose pliers and managed to place it into my test rig without touching the body of the transistor with my fingers.

Using my Peak transistor tester, I checked the gain and leakage, then pressed my fingers against the transistor case for 10 seconds and tested again. Then another 10 second heating with the fingers followed by a final test.

1st Transistor
HFE, Leakage
84, 150uA
95, 380uA (after 10s)
100, 500uA (after second 10s)

2nd Transistor
HFE, Leakage
84, 150uA
96, 400uA (after 10s)
100, 520uA (after second 10s)

As you can see, handling the transistors for just a few seconds caused a substantial shift in the gain and leakage measurements. I may do some more exact tests when I get the time.

Fuzz: The Sound That Changed the World

Directed by Clif Taylor

I bought a copy of this DVD and finally got time to watch it last night. I must compliment the producers on making a very professional video that all pedal enthusiasts will find interesting. Not only do you get to see some guitar playing legends such as Billy Gibbons and Peter Frampton, but the film features many current pedal builders talking about tone and design. There are also short demos of numerous custom effects pedals (mostly fuzz and distortion).

It is great to be able to put faces with many of the forumites you have only connected with through their text posts, and to be able to hear them talk about pedals and guitars.

I give it two thumbs up! Anyone who is seriously interested in pedals should see this film!

Check it out: Fuzz: The Sound That Changed the World

The results of the blog search are different from what you get with a normal Google query.

Click here to try it out!