A Two for One Overdrive Pedal!

The JHS pedals SuperBolt has long been a staple of many pedalboards as it's a really decent overdrive pedal. A while back, however, JHS released the limited edition "TacoBolt" - a different take on the SuperBolt. It was more of a gated fuzz than a overdrive / distortion in a lot of ways. It was allegedly discovered when a normal SuperBolt had been mis-biased. TacoBolts at this point start at about $275 on Reverb, while SuperBolts are typically cheaper. I'd gotten a request for a TacoBolt from a friend, so I went in search of a good board.

Updating the Miragaia

A couple of years ago, Steggo released an awesome doom fuzz clone using the PedalPCB Arkaim Fuzz board. The build actually ended up being surprisingly popular, and I've even built a custom version in a totally unique enclosure. That new enclosure came out so well, I decided it was time to go back and re-visit the original Miragaia enclosure, as Tayda had expanded the range of enclosure finishes available since I'd done the original design.

A Slightly Different Archaeopteryx Fuzz

Last month I finished up a fairly old school version of the Octavia fuzz pedal with a ton of ceramic capacitors, etc. I'd intended to build about three of these, but ran out of some of the more vintage bits to actually go full ceramic for all of the capacitors. Since I'd already populated the resistors for the third pedal, I decided to substitute some of the same red metallized film capacitors like I use in a lot of my Klon builds for the ceramics.

Another Awesome Vintage Fuzz - Steggo's Take on the Octavia!

I didn't plan this on purpose, it just happened to be when the various projects got done. A couple of weeks ago I finally finished up my first Fuzz Face builds, and today I've just finished up another amazing vintage fuzz - the Octavia. This is another fuzz effect made famous by the legendary Jimi Hendrix. Originally designed by his sound engineer Roger Mayer, the pedal blends an octave up signal with a distorted signal to create one of the first (if not the first) octave-up fuzz effects.

Steggo Finally Builds a Fuzz Face!

Introduced in 1966 by Arbitrer Electronics, the Fuzz Face is one of the earliest guitar effect pedals. It gained a great deal of popularity because Jimi Hendrix made extensive use of the pedal. The circuit itself is fairly simple, only consisting of 2 transistors, 4 resistors, 3 capacitors, and 2 potentiometers. The catch is the gain and leakage of those two transistors is vitally important to the overall final tone of the effect. In modern clones, variable resistors are used to help individually bias the transistors to ensure good tone for both the silicon and germanium versions of the circuit. I'd always wanted to put together a fuzz face, but which one?

Fortunately and PedalPCB has a great board called the Twin Face which combines both the silicon and germanium versions into one pedal!

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 Custom Miragaia!

A couple of years ago I'd built a few clones of the Mountainking Megalith using the PedalPCB Arkaim Fuzz board. These have been somewhat popular, and I have an updated version of the "Miragaia" enclosure in the works. In the interim I'd gotten a request for a custom "doomy" pedal - with Steggi on it. So we aligned on using the same circuit - with a custom enclosure!

Harmonic Percolator Double Take - Albini Mod!

Steggo's new Harmonic Peolorosaurus board will not only build the "standard" version of the Harmonic Percolator, but the Albini modified version as well. I went ahead and built both versions of the circuit. This build report is therefore essentially and addendum to the previous one as there are only a few component changes.

Steggo's Take on the Harmonic Percolator!

One of the first pedals I built was AionFX's Particle - a modified version of the vintage Interfax Harmonic Percolator. It was a really neat Fuzz pedal, and AionFX provided recipes for both the normal unit and a version modified by Steve Albini. When I first started to learn to lay out my own boards, I wanted to get as much practice as possible. So I went ahead and laid out my own version of this circuit.

Return of the Queen - A Special Saurus Regina!

Back in July I completed my first clone of the Lizard Queen pedal - it's really a decent old school fuzz pedal, and I've built a few here and there. I'd ordered some more enclosures and unfortunately one of them was misprinted at the factory. This is a fairly rare event, and Tayda always makes things right, but I wondered if it might be possible to use this particular enclosure for something fun - so enter a special version of the Saurus Regina pedal!

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!

Cloning the Lizard Queen!

About a year ago, Josh Scott from JHS pedals released a really fun video where they did a bit of live action role playing and developed a new effects pedal from the ground up they called the Lizard Queen. Nothing unusual there, but the catch was they wanted to replicate the process used by Electro Harmonix in the 1970's and create something that was simultaneously new and vintage. The result was a brand new fuzz pedal with very old DNA that could be built using available components. Speculation abounded as to whether or not the pedal would ever actually be released, but earlier this year, JHS released both small and large form factor versions of the pedal. Amazingly enough, the large form factor pedal was shown in full detail (front and back) so not only the components but the electrical traces were visible. Therefore this is likely one of the most quickly and extensively cloned pedals out there, but I figured there had to be room for a dinosaur version too!

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!

A Custom Triangle Big Mutt Phi!

The Triangle version of the Big Muff Pi is one of the more popular versions of the venerable circuit. I've built one in the past using a Tayda board, and it came out really pretty well. A friend was in the market for a Big Muff clone, and so I brought in pretty much my complete stable of variants to my favorite local guitar store (Five Star Guitars) so he could try them all on relevant amplifiers. In the end, he decided he wanted a triangle variant. He also wanted something in a form factor slightly larger than my standard 125B Big Mutt Phi build, so I decided to just go back to the Tayda board and come up with a suitably cool 1590BB2 enclosure for it!

Off Axis Fuzz - Cloning One of the Originals!

Originally developed by Roger Mayer for Jimi Hendrix in 1967, the "Axis Fuzz" is a unique and classic fuzz pedal. Named after it's prominent use on the title track of Hendrix's album "Axis Bold as Love" - the effect uses a unique combination of NPN and PNP transistors that provides stable tone response without interference. As I'm a sucker for fuzz pedals and classic effects in general, I decided to take the plunge and see what the hub-bub was about!

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.

Another BMP Variant? Cloning Frantone's The Sweet

It's been a while since I've done a Big Muff Clone (in my world two months is an eternity!), and I figured it was time I finished up a project that's been collecting dust - Frantone's The Sweet. Frantone is an independent pedal builder who does a lot of very cool fuzz effects (though there are others thrown in there). I was intrigued by her big muff variant as it includes a couple of germanium transistors and I honestly wanted to see what it would do. Unfortunately there isn't a commercial PCB available, but since when has that stopped me?

Hoofing It! Cloning the EQD Hoof...

It's either a little late or a little early for Fuzz Friday, but I just got this beauty together and had to get it out there. The Earthquaker Devices Hoof is an extremely popular silicon/germanium hybrid fuzz pedal. New copies run about $179, so it's not incredibly expensive, but it's not really cheap either. It's a neat sounding pedal, and since you can never have too much fuzz, I figured it would be a great addition to the pedal board if nothing else!

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!

Ice Age Fuzz - Cloning the ZVEX Wooly Mammoth

Fuzz pedals are one of the oldest types of effects pedals out there, but there is always something new coming out with tweaks and variations on various circuits and concepts. The ZVEX Wooly Mammoth is a newer niche pedal with a fairly distinguished following. It is also unfortunately fairly expensive, making it a great candidate for cloning. Once again, South Obolon FX had laid out a really decent board for this build, so I took the plunge!