gearmanndude | 7 years ago

http://www.gearmanndude.com Available NOW! Orders generally ship within a few days of payment. This is a quick little run through with my http://www.zemaitisguitar.com Zemaitis metal front, cocked rocked and loaded with http://www.darkmoon.nyc Darkmoon AUROPA custom wound PAF style humbucker pickups, a 1968 Fender Princeton Reverb, and http://www.bulletcable.com Bullet Cable, black straight, and white coily cable of love. YEP!

One fuzz to rule them all! In designing the circuit, I was looking for that classic 'Tone Bender MKII-meets-Fuzzface' flavor, yet wanted the ability to go over the top, like some of the more modern fuzz designs that approach muffy, synthy sort of bliss. That's a whole lot to ask of one pedal, and one circuit. But if I was going to put my name on it, I wanted it to be able to do heavy-synth sounds, classic vintage fuzz sounds, gated-farty sounds, and even heavy overdrive tones...oh...and I wanted it to have excellent interplay with the guitar's volume control. LOL! All that..in one box of joy. No problem, right? WRONG! It left me stumped for years, as I experimented with classic circuits and taste-tested tons of Germanium and Silicon transistors and other seasoning variables, but I always ended up puzzled and defeated in my quest.

SO! I climbed the Secret Mountain, and gave hot tea, steeped in tone leaves, and burned incense with the wise and kind wizard of the west. He poured knowledge in my ear, and I slipped into a dream...in this dream, there were Fuzzfaces, Tonebenders, and NYC era Big Muffs, all galloping upon great, fuzzy steeds, riding side by side, hand in hand, all weilding NPN silicon transistors selected for their excellent gain to noise ratio. There was smoke...there was fire...there was love...there was joy. It was truly beautiful. When I awoke, the great western wizard said, "now go forth, GMD, and build the fuzz of your dreams, and take it to the people".

The DB has many personalities, because there is so much interaction between the knobs. For example, the BLUSH (bias) doesn't really do much of anything for the first half of the rotation if you have the HIPS (bottom end) knob set on 6 to 9 o'clock. This is normal. Although the harder you hit the strings, you can find a magic spot, where you really get the farty, synthy, gated fuzz...like super squished out bias, approaching annihilation. The interplay between the Blush, Hair, and Money controls, creates some great textures - from woolly, to velco, to gated, to almost bit crushing squelchy freakness. The HAIR control, acts like the Attack knob on a vintage tonebender, and the MONEY control, is a passive volume control between the first boost stage and the fuzz face part of the circuit that would act more like an actual pre-fuzz/gain knob.



What's all this mean? NOTHING! Plug it in and RIP IT UP!!!!




CONTROLS:

JUICE: Level
COLOR: EQ
HAIR: Attack/Gain
BLUSH: Bias
HIPS: Bottom End
MONEY: Pre Fuzz Gain



Made, with Love...in the USA