here ya go. should be good to go. yes, could probably make the vero a little smaller.
schematic to follow soon.

this circuit has been thru some changes since i started it, a lot of discovery along the way including a few epiphanys where suddenly esoteric info made more sense..
like adding the trimmer to the original version's attack control to dial in the response of that control...i could replace it with a 22k resistor, but i like being able to tweak it.
it borrows the old "britface" temp stabilization mod for q1, as it's an npn germanium.
i grounded the emitter of q1 for max gain, which seemed to work out well.
found that using a diode clipper from e of q2 seemed to add a nice compression and sustain.
a broad range of fuzz sounds, from relatively clean to putrid jagged filth that would make Lucifer's Trip smile is available with a tweak of tr1.
tr 2 will let you vary the attack...and the compression...as well as the overall voicing of the fuzz. the larger the resistance, the less effect the attack control will have, but the greater the compression available will be.
tr3 is more for fine tuning, but seems to help get it the last "little bit" of balls available.
the output buffer helps add a little sparkle, and adds a little to the available grind.
this thing sustains like a mother@#$%er, but never loses the fuzz edge...you can dial it from clean, to overdrive to crunch to distortion to fuzz to shattered ice right from your guitar. i used this thing last nite live and was actually amazed it worked as well as it did..
i found optimal settings were 3 o'clock on attack and volume, and 12:00 on volume.
anyways, i think i like it.
the original vision was to add a rangemaster to a two tranny tonebender, but i ended up basing it on the silicon tonebender andrew carrell and ricky d. vance worked up a long time ago.
my total lack of knowledge really came into play as this thing developed over the last 2 years..and the same basic cct kept evolving.
while the one i'm rocking actually has a daughterboard for the buffer, the vero layout i worked up has it all on one board.
since i haven't built this version yet, it's not ver-o-fied, but i believe it to be good, as there's not too much i could screw up on it.
nice sounding cct...have a play on the breadboard, criticisms and advice as always gladly accepted!!

and with no further babble, here ya go...the toneblaster mk 2.5, probably the closest to an almost original circuit i've come up with (which isn't saying much)



schematic to come, and of course, stupid pedal trick...

if you build this, please let me know!!

peace out, happy xmas/kwanzaa/chanukah/whatever floats your boat. just have a decent day!

EDIT> CAUTION TO NOT MISS TRACK CUT BEHIND RESISTOR AT C9 ADDED..

Kev,
update your file, please...same thing, caveat added.

Cool, thanks. 'Page/thread bookmarked, image saved/downloaded... Good Yuletide to you and yours!

here ya go, video or it never happened...

So who was on the phone?! MAYBE it was Bela the Wonder Dog... !

Seriously, NIIIIIIIICE.

I bet one would go very well with my Lucky 7, and my fingerstyle approach. Your pedal's dynamics and overtones morphing throughout the envelope and decay are what I'm ALL about.

Yer makin' me wanna build one. Actually, two- one for myself, and one for a very good friend. Any thoughts on how this circuit might be tweaked a little to make one build favor humbuckers, and another build favor Fender-style single-coils?

And if so, would it be possible to make that switchable, one pedal that could go both ways?

AND if so, would P-90s fall into one camp here, or the other?

Or, do you think that performance-wise, it's the same difference no matter what kind of pickups are hitting it?

well, i've used it with a strat with an onboard preamp and single coils...nope. doesn't sound good with any buffer, so it has to be first in line.
also tried with my main strat, red, the one with a pearly gates at the bridge, and it sounds great.
with my black strat (single coils) it sounds great.
with my sg/les paul last nite live, it was amazing.
you heard it on the tele, tho that's three buckers.
so far, it sounds great with all of 'em.
you could add a 50k pot in line with the input, and then tweak the pre-gain a little, but your guitar volume knobs will already do that.
it's a nice pedal, all about light and shade...but has a real metallic edge to it, too. weird circuit, but i'm digging the hell out of it.
very edgy, very fuzzy, but very warm. it LOVES tube amps...they can generally take a much hotter input than solid state stuff. in addition to being a fuzz/treble booster/distortion, it's a true overdriver, you can push anything into distortion.
i may make a set of 10 of 'em and see if people like 'em.
anyways, i would imagine p90's will work just as well as single coils or buckers bro. the sg has a 500t at the bridge, so it's hot.

BUT!! there's one caveat...it has a relatively low input impedance, so it needs to be first in the effect chain. no buffers or anything (other than another fuzz that's TB, maybe) before it, like a fuzzface, the guitar becomes part of the circuit.

Very cool from clean to nitty gritty with just the right touch...

way cool!

the attack knob sounds more like a threshold + mix?

All good indications. My main-squeeze actually has ceramic 500T and 496R pickups in it; I spent a lot of time tweaking their heights and that of their pole-pieces to really get the best out of 'em, and people frequently assume that I've got some expensive boutique or custom-wound pickups in there; I've had people not believe me when I told them what they were! (It probably doesn't hurt that I'm using D R Pure Blues pure/solid nickel on round-core strings, .011" - .050" gauges... they really warm and fatten 'em up, try 'em on your SG with the 500T... )

ANYWAYS, looks like the ToneBlaster Mk 2.5 will get along just fine here and abroad in the near future!

Hey Caevan,

I've been using D'Addario EPN 115 Pure Nickel (11-48). I am fairly pleased with the tone. I know I should be playing flat wounds, but I've never liked the feel of them. I am intrigued by the .050 6th string on your DR's. Do you think they would provide a warm, liquid clean tone (think Wes, Joe Pass, Bucky Pizzarelli)? I might try a set when I next have my guitars set up. They're both playing very well right now, so this would be a future experiment.

Regards.

a little OT: I'm us GHS 11-48 White Bronze on my Acoustic 416, T3 and T5. I like the guage. I plan to run JS111 Thomastick-Infeld 11-47 flat wounds after Christmas as they are under the tree @ $22 bucks a set. Unlike D'addario Chromes the Thomas's are wire core nickel wrapped instead of hex-core Stainless Steels and they are supposed to be much brighter than regular flats...no more squeekey strings if they work out...

Ps. Fred, I saw Bucky from the second row earlier this year with TommyE and he's fricken fantastic at the age of 84+/-. He played a seven string guitar with some kind of blacked-out flats and delivers the best bass lines I've ever heard while chopping chords...

Nice Jimi,

Hey Larry,

You know Bucky's son, John is no slouch either. A very fine player. My only complaint is that John tends to "scat" over his solos. He steps all over himself. You can't hear the solo over the damned "scatting". Do you know what many outdoor enthusiasts (hunters) call bear shit? They call it "bear scat" Aptly named in my opinion. I find it so annoying that I went to his (John's) website and sent him an email, complaining about this annoying habit. As I said in my email to him, "I want to hear you play, not scat!".

But imagine that scat through Jimi's Toneblaster Fuzz... !?!

I've worked with John Jr on a tour. I just attached a wireless lav mic to his strap to pick up his scatting, since he was wandering around the stage. It was perfectly appropriate for the nature of that particular tour, which was more about a best selling novel than the music. John Jr was cool, nice cat all around. We talked guitars of course.

Thanx Fred, will give John Pizzareli a listen and see what this "Scat" thing is all about...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egs21b_N2tE&NR=1&feature=endscreen <--- here are father like son playing those 7 strings I described...and Fred, thanks for the info on John, he plays great and is a good singer too...I'm with you on the "Scat", a little goes a long way and he would do better to use it sparingly...