Black Keys's Big Muff: dealing with mids frequencies

Another Big Muff clone! This time, I was inspired by the Black Keys (if you do not know this band, go check it out, it is awesome!). Dan Auerbach, the guitarist/singer, uses a lot of fuzz effects, and especially a green russian Big Muff, and a Earthquaker Devices Hoof (a Big Muff variant with some interesting modifications as we will see later).

So I decided to basically mix these two variants in one Big Muff! Here it is, a 4-knobbed Big Muff:

Klon Centaur Clone and mods (Aion Refractor)

The Klon Centaur is one of the DIYer's favorite pedal. Indeed, the original version of this mythical overdrive actually costs more than 1500 euros! This pedal is more like a legendary unicorn than a real pedal that you can test one day... Even the reissue, the KTR, which is not hand assembled costs more than 300 dollars... The amount of clones (aka "klones") of this pedal has grown insanely over the years: JHS, Rockett, ARC Effects, Electro Harmonix with the Soul Food, almost every pedal manufacturer has issued their clone, always closer to the original pedal.

Summary

• Klon centaur circuit analysis
• Klon centaur mods and tweaks
• Klon centaur history and versions

For those who do not know the Klon Centaur yet, it is an overdrive created in the 90s by Bill Finnegan and MIT engineers (yes!), that is probably the "hypest" pedals of all. It was used by many guitarists, including Jeff Beck for instance. It is a three potentiometers overdrive: gain, volume and trebles, famous for the light crunchy tones it provides to your sound. It has also an excellent reputation as a buffer or clean boost. In fact, I have already made Klon buffer PCBs to use it in a patch box.

Recently, different PCB makers made Klon Centaur PCBs available, so you can make your Klon Centaur yourself. I used a PCB from Aion Electronics, the Refractor overdrive. This PCB is amazing, a fantastic work has been done by Aion Electronics to make the circuit fit a 1590B enclosure ! If you want something a bit bigger (for instance if you want to make a Klon-like look), you can use the Madbean Sunking PCB. I also wanted to see if there were audible differences between my EHX Soul Food and a replica of an original Klon Centaur (without the goop ^^).

Here is the result!

All you need to know about resistors in guitar pedals

In this article (that will be part of a series of articles about the different components you can find in a guitar pedal), we will try to decipher the role of a component you surely already know: the resistor! The resistor is a simple 2-legged component. It is the basic brick of every electronic circuit, like the simplest cubic Lego brick. You will find resistors everywhere, it has many, many, many possible uses. Here, we will be interested in its role in guitar pedals.

What does it looks like?

The common resistor looks like a brown / blue cylinder, with rings of different colours and 2 legs.

 

Rub-a-Dub Reverb (1776 Effects)

Here is my latest build, a Rub A Dub reverb! It is a really simple yet useful "always on" reverb that can go from a minimal amount of reverb to long ambient delay washes, I love it! One knob, simplicity at its finest.

What is guitar signal?

We hear about it all the time: it should not be degraded, you have to respect it, we can boost it, clip it or digitalize it... What are we talking about? Electric guitar signal of course! As you may know, the vibration of the strings is converted in an electric signal by your pickups, to restitute guitar sound under an electric form. How does it work? How can an electric signal encode pitches or volume? How can it be modified by guitar pedals?  

Where it all began: your guitar pickups!

Big Muff Ram's Head clone (73 version)

Here is the Big muff Ram's Head clone I have made recently. The Ram's Head is one of the most iconic Big muff models. Produced in 1973, it was the second issued version of the Big Muff, just after the Triangle model. Multiple versions of the Ram's Head existed until 1977, including the "violet era" Ram's Head that sells around 1000 dollars on ebay! The Ram's Head v2 is well known as it was used by Pink Floyd's guitarist, David Gilmour. He used the Big Muff combined with a boost in order to have a nearly infinite sustain during some solos, like the famous Comfortably Numb's one.