#alternative effects setup

FUZZ KING, Boomerang

"My "pedalboard" circa 1966."

"The Fuzz King, Maestro FZ-1 and others of the era used germanium transistors, which are notoriously leaky compared to silicon types. These early fuzzes used this leaky characteristic to create enough voltage across the base resistor of Q3 to turn it on sufficiently to produce glorious fuzz tones.

The Fuzz King uses a 3.3K ohm base resistor which is too low to create enough voltage to turn on Q3 sufficiently, unless Q3 is extremely leaky, like in Drew's unit. The Q3 in mine is on the low end of the "leak range" and would barely turn on.

What I did was to put a 20K ohm trim pot in series with the 3.3K base resistor. Then I could increase the base resistance (and thus the base voltage) with the trimmer until Q3 "came to the party". It's not the only way to do it, but it worked well in my case.

Walco - bass-treble expander

according to the picture on the package this effect was intended to be clipped to the guitar strap - the clip of the device above might have been removed, though, maybe to place the effect on a pedalboard.

Craig Parlee - homemade pedalboard

combo pedal Pete Cornish style, containing: 2 EH Big Muff Pis EH Deluxe Electric Mistress EH Small Stone EH Micro Synth MXR Envelope Follower DOD Stereo Chorus DOD Power Supply Crybaby Wah Wah

MWfx - Judder

“ Come on, quit kidding yourself. You know what this is. Absolutely ridiculous stutter/chorus/sample rate mangler. It does it all. Truly an epic mess to behold. Get yours today or don’t and continue your life of regret. I know I’ll regret this sale. Don’t wait before my hoarding instincts kick in. “