My classic rock band has been adding some Cream songs to our set list lately, and although I have about 500 OD/Distortion/Fuzz pedals, none of them gave me that fuzzy Jack Bruce tone of driving a Marshall amp into oblivion like Jack's tone on the early Cream albums. I wanted something that still retained the punch and low end of my Gibson EB3 that was touch sensitive (i.e. dynamic), with a smooth decay but had more of a fuzz bass tone than a distortion or overdrive. I knew that I wanted it to be a germanium fuzz pedal, but getting it to be stable with low noise, I ended up using a Bjorn Juhl circuit and then modifying it to do the job. It's a variation on a Vox tonebender MKII (the 3 transistor version, but instead of using a germanium transistor for the input stage, it uses a Jfet at unity gain (1:1) but at a much higher current to drive the germaniums, which allows lower noise and stability. After that, two 20K trimmers dial in the the vintage NOS germanium transistors (which are rare & no longer available) to their optimum output and tone. The left knob sets the volume, and the right one sets the "attack" (amount of fuzz). The mini switch is a 3-way that selects between a mild hi-cut (top) - none - & more hi cut (bottom).The 1590B enclosure is acid etched, has Davies Oxblood bakelite knobs and a standard true bypass with all top jacks.
I made a quick sound clip of it with my EB3 into my SVT7 pro with a 215 cab, with the attack at the minimum setting. At first you might think that it's a little too fuzzy but when blended with the live band, it's perfect.
Update (4/20/19): I played a gig last night with it and it was awesome when using it on the Cream songs. Here's a quick clip when we played White Room. (recorded on a Zoom H4n in stereo off to the side of the stage):
I just found a couple more of the NOS germanium pair of specific transistors for this pedal so I am going to offer ONE more for sale.
SOLD
