The Very Model of a Modern Master General? A New Steggo Fuzz Clone!

Steggo had gotten a request for a clone of the EQD Fuzz Master General. That pedal is an update of the vintage Ace Tone FM-2 Fuzz Master Professional, which was famous for it's fairly untamed octave up character. Fortunately PedalPCB had a board ready to go in the Fuzz Cadet, so I grabbed a couple of boards and got cracking!

A New K-T Event Fuzz - With a Fun New Board!

I've built a few versions of the Black Ash Fuzz at this point, mostly on the South Obolon FX board. The first one was a straight modern build with all modern components, well apart from the somewhat unique transistors. It sounded great, but part of the schtick of the original pedal was the fact that it used a lot of vintage and/or unusual components in the build. I did a second version of the pedal where I took a step closer to the original - carbon film rather than metal film resistors, higher voltage film caps in place of the low voltage film caps (which were used in lieu of the paper in oil caps). I'd posted that build on the PedalPCB forum, and another forum member posted their amazing version of the circuit - that lets you go really old school - and they were nice enough to make me a version of the board!

16-bit Four Octave Synth - Cloning the EQD Bit Commander

Carrying on yesterday's theme of unusual modulation pedals, I'd also gotten a request for a clone of the EQD Bit Commander. This is an analog synth pedal that will turn your guitar's tone into a square wave with four octaves (two down and one up) of tone. It really gives you that early 80's video game sound in one fairly customizable package. 

Rainbows and Unicorns? Cloning the Rainbow Machine

Earthquaker Devices has a lot of unusual modulation effects. I mean a lot of unusual modulation effects. One of the most unusual is the Rainbow Machine which is described as a "polyphonic pitch mesmerizer." It's a tough pedal to dial in, but it does have a fairly dizzying array of sounds on tap - with the pitch control being perhaps the most important. I'd received a request for a dinosaur version of the pedal, so I decided to take the plunge and see what I could make happen with it.

Don't Fear the (Hoof) Reaper - A Double Fuzz With Octave

There are many combination pedals on the market today. Sometimes these combine two different types of pedals, other times they pair very similar pedals. I've done several of these in the past including a clone of the Cheese Source (a distortion + fuzz clone), a clone of the ThorpyFX Heavy Water (essentially a clean boost + dirty boost), and even a build inspired by the venerable Mu-Tron Bi-Phase (two of the same six-stage phaser in one box, with some extras). A few years ago, Earthquaker Devices decided to mate wto of their fuzz pedals - the Hoof and the Reaper together in one pedal, an sneakily added an additional octave up circuit (later released as the Tentacle) to the mix. The pedal was available in both the normal "Hoof Reaper" version, and with a "Cloven Hoof" variation - the "Cloven Hoof Reaper." PedalPCB has a board available for this project, the War Scythe, so I decided to take the plunge... well, twice!

Cloning the Famous EQD Monarch

The EQD Monarch is an out of production FET based overdrive pedal that gained a lot of popularity as a dirty boost without a lot of extra distortion or compression. It was also available as a DIY kit for many years through StewMac (and others), but while StewMac still offers many DIY effects pedal kits, the Monarch is no longer among them. I had a friend who wanted a Monarch clone - largely to allow a bandmate to leave his original unit in the studio and gig with a more easily replaceable copy - so I started doing some investigation on boards and kits available. As it turns out, the pedal is more than a bit finicky, and there were some flaws in the original design which likely led to a fair amount of frustration for both the users and the DIY community. Chuck Bones (of the PedalPCB Boneyard) did a great analysis of the circuit, suggested some modest improvements, and then took that a few steps further ultimately creating the Viceroy - a six-knob, two footswitch Monarch on steroids. Down the road, I plan to build the Viceroy, but for now I was more interested in getting a good direct clone of the Monarch working well - and across its full range.

New Black-Ash Variant - Closer to the Original

Back in December I finished up a clone of the EQD Black Ash fuzz pedal. For that first validation build I went with all modern components, but the original Black Ash used a lot of vintage bits in its construction - including carbon composition resistors and what appear to be paper in oil capacitors. I wanted to experiment with the components a bit and decided to try to take the build a few steps closer to the original to see if it made much difference.

Cloning the Rare EQD Black Ash

The EQD Black Ash was a limited production fuzz pedal using a variety of vintage parts including carbon composition resistors and paper-in-oil capacitors. The total production was limited to 1500 units, and prices are rapidly rising at this point, with examples starting at roughly $300 and going up from there. When it came to cloning this particular pedal, I'd considered going with a vintage build like I've done with a variety of other pedals, but I've found they often have a higher noise floor than pedals with modern components so for this build I decided to go with modern components to validate the design and sound. I may go back and do a vintage build at some point in the future, though!

Birds of a Feather - Updating the EQD Plumes Clone!

When I built my first clone of the EQD Plumes pedal, I indicated that there was one difference between my version and the original. My first build used a simple 3PDT switch which meant it was either on or off, unlike the original pedal which could be used as an instantaneous boost or distortion if one kept their foot on the pedal switch. I figured it would be possible to add this functionality to the pedal, so I went in search of the right daughter board. Fortunately PedalPCB has an specific bypass module, the Intelligent Relay Bypass, that will in combination with a momentary switch make the pedal work just like the original!

Cloning the Ubiquitous EQD Plumes

The Earthquaker Devices Plumes is an almost ubiquitous overdrive pedal with three different tone settings - LED distortion, boost, and silicon distortion. It is a neat little pedal, and its low price (around $100 new) makes it a great point of entry for newer guitarists. It has a good enough voice that you'd want to keep it around on the pedal board which doubtless contributes to its enduring popularity. For this build I'm using the PedalPCB Greengage Overdrive board. Once again PedalPCB laid out a nice board with plenty of room for all of the components.