The New Tone Thread

rayc said:
The box is open at 26 secs. I don't know anything about the contents.
Further down in the comments was: "Tech speak: P/Supply is 6V unregulated at 800ma (analogue power supply only - typical switch modes are too noisy) It measures 9v no load. The Aussie Fuzz comes complete with its own (separate) power supply."
I assumed it was starved plate but I don't know what specs mean for that.
How does the above translate for doh folk like moi?
Still pricey - does sound good though.
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Ok, I will study the vids more closely. Point is, ANALOGUE power supplies are fekkin' noisy if you don'r do 'em right! Especially feeding a triode which has nothing like the power line noise rejection of an opamp. Well, basically bugger all.

Aus 200 is about 95quid? I would not like to put even a basic pedal kit together for that sort of money especially since you are going to have to spend a lot of time dealing with ham fisted numpties that can hardly fold paper, leave alone SOLDER!

Dave.
 
It doesn't really sound like a "fuzz" though. It hints at it, but it doesn't get hairy enough IMO. To me it really just seems to act more like a tube driven distortion pedal. Sort of like a preamp in a box. Maybe in front of an already overdriving amp it would get fuzzier.
 
Yeah - that thing is cool - sounds much better than what I would expect for a 6 volt input and a real tube (that just sounds like bad idea jeans in principle).

But yeah - maybe a terminology problem - I associate "fuzz" with a Big Muff or Octafuzz or some silicone diode nastiness that you have to use sparingly - this sounds more like a real usable tone.
 
I was pretty reluctant to watch that vid, I generally hate fuzz tones myself, but I'm surprised to be honest, it actually sounds pretty decent...
 
on the topic of fuzz (or at least the way I understand it), this might be a good time to disclose a long running project of mine:

MuricaMuff.jpg

This is a black russian big muff - I think I bought it from a HR BBS user in the classifieds many years ago. It was a real tone sucker when it was stock (whether on or off), but I sort of overhauled it - added 9v input for power, made it true bypass, swapped the input and and outputs to be on the damn correct sides, put in a bright pink LED (to commemorate its bolshie pre-re-education identity), changed pretty much all the wiring. But in general I left the circuit and the electronics alone.

It's kind of useless on my main rig, but I think it sounds great (now) with a clean amp.
 
antichef said:
on the topic of fuzz (or at least the way I understand it), this might be a good time to disclose a long running project of mine:



This is a black russian big muff - I think I bought it from a HR BBS user in the classifieds many years ago. It was a real tone sucker when it was stock (whether on or off), but I sort of overhauled it - added 9v input for power, made it true bypass, swapped the input and and outputs to be on the damn correct sides, put in a bright pink LED (to commemorate its bolshie pre-re-education identity), changed pretty much all the wiring. But in general I left the circuit and the electronics alone.

It's kind of useless on my main rig, but I think it sounds great (now) with a clean amp.
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that's way cool .......... let's hear it!! I love project gear like that.

Here's a clip of that Ross Flanger ..... I ran a Tube Works Real Tube pedal into the Ross and ran that into my Ampeg Reverbrocket .... set the Teac DR-05 5" off the floor about 3 feet in front of the speaker.

You can get a LOT of variety out of it.
You have a manual knob that lets you manually sweep the flange and leaver it whereever you choose.
Or you can choose automatic sweep and there's a mix knob that lets you vary from fully manual to fully auto or anywhere in between so you can use manual but add just a little sweep for instance.
Also you can go from subtle to full-on obnoxious .... I ran the intensity pretty high to make it easy to hear what it's doing.
I think you'd usually use less flange than I have on this clip but I have it cranked to about 3/4s most of this clip.
 

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Lt Bob - wide range indeed - cool job done. The vid suggests it does the rubber band thing really well too.
I have a mid 80s Yamaha multi FX thing (FX500) that comes close but is a pain to tweak as it's all scroll down select etc stuff. I like your demo better - looking at the machine & seeing the occasional tweak is less riveting than listening & imagining.
I have a Big Muff clone - the Morrison Bug Fluff. It's interesting, well made, sustains till the cow come home, but rarely used partially because I don't know what it's supposed to sound like/do and I lack any kind of subtly. Perhaps the Aussie Fuzz is my kind of thing - bog basic and does just the one thing!
 
antichef said:
This is a black russian big muff - I think I bought it from a HR BBS user in the classifieds many years ago. It was a real tone sucker when it was stock (whether on or off), but I sort of overhauled it - added 9v input for power, made it true bypass, swapped the input and and outputs to be on the damn correct sides, put in a bright pink LED (to commemorate its bolshie pre-re-education identity), changed pretty much all the wiring. But in general I left the circuit and the electronics alone.

It's kind of useless on my main rig, but I think it sounds great (now) with a clean amp.
Click to expand...

Wow. I have one of those and it is borderline unusable. It's truly a pain in the ass to patch it in upside down, but I'd do it more often if it sounded better. So did changing the wiring actually affect the tone?
 
Nice clip Bob, for some reason, I've always loved flanger & chorus pedals...I'm assuming the Ross flanger you have is an older, vintage-y one right???

I'm also interested in the Tube Drive pedal you have, I always wanted one of the original Tube Driver pedals (way back in the 80's), but never got one...Tell me some more about the Tube Driver pedal if/when you get some time dude...


Again, clip sounds good dude....
 
Hahaha, that's an awesome flanger. I have the Boss BF-3 and I think that it sounds like total ass. It's really metallic sounding, nothing natural about it. The only cool features it has are the ultra mode, which isn't meant to sound natural, and the momentary mode, and that it's stereo. I've had some fun playing with 2 amps through this pedal. But the basic flange itself is pretty dreadful.

That Ross has more of what I consider a natural flange sound to it. Not 100% great, but miles ahead of this Boss. I've heard a couple of those Mu-Tron flangers...that's 100% awesome. But the Ross seems like an excellent attainable flanger. Thanks for posting the example!
 
minerman said:
Nice clip Bob, for some reason, I've always loved flanger & chorus pedals...I'm assuming the Ross flanger you have is an older, vintage-y one right???

I'm also interested in the Tube Drive pedal you have, I always wanted one of the original Tube Driver pedals (way back in the 80's), but never got one... ....
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Yeah .... the Ross is from the 70's ..... I actually have several old Ross pedals .... a 10-band EQ .... stereo delay and a combo Phaser/Distortion pedal. The red Ross is semi-valuable.

The Tubeworks pedal is this one here.
3 band EQ and gain and volume ..... plugs into the wall and I believe it's not a starved plate design where the tube is meaningless.
That's why it plugs into the wall ..... so the tube can get hit with some decent voltages.

Sometimes it sounds great ....... other times it just sounds ok.
It seems sensitive to the power it's getting so it can be noisy though it usually isn't.
I probably should try some different tubes .... it could easily be that mine has a dying tube and that would account for the times it seems 'off'.

Pretty versatile pedal ..... I'll carry it sometimes when I'm not sure what kinda backline crap I'm gonna be playing thru 'cause it'll make any amp rock out.
 

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Lt. Bob said:
Yeah .... the Ross is from the 70's ..... I actually have several old Ross pedals .... a 10-band EQ .... stereo delay and a combo Phaser/Distortion pedal. The red Ross is semi-valuable.

The Tubeworks pedal is this one here.
3 band EQ and gain and volume ..... plugs into the wall and I believe it's not a starved plate design where the tube is meaningless.
That's why it plugs into the wall ..... so the tube can get hit with some decent voltages.

Sometimes it sounds great ....... other times it just sounds ok.
It seems sensitive to the power it's getting so it can be noisy though it usually isn't.
I probably should try some different tubes .... it could easily be that mine has a dying tube and that would account for the times it seems 'off'.

Pretty versatile pedal ..... I'll carry it sometimes when I'm not sure what kinda backline crap I'm gonna be playing thru 'cause it'll make any amp rock out.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the run-down Bob, I've always wanted one of those pedals or the Chandler, I've read one is better than the other & vice-versa, but don't know myself....I remember seeing that & the Chandler pedals in guitar magazines back when I was a teenager...



I saw an original Chandler for sale in the classifieds section of another forum a couple months ago, & the guy was asking like $250 for it. I thought it was a little high, but apparently since they're "vintage" folks are paying that for 'em...

If you ever decide to get rid of that pedal, lemme know dude...
 
They're going for stupid money on ebay now. I bought it new for about 40 quid in the early 90's. Was the 2nd pedal I bought after an HM2
 
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