Board friendly Colorsound Supa Tone Bender?

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Gavanti
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Board friendly Colorsound Supa Tone Bender?

Post by Gavanti » Sat Apr 06, 2019 5:34 am

Because I’ve been wanting a wall of sound fuzz on my board, I’ve been trying out a bunch of Muffs, which is super fun. Right now I’m caught between an ARC Shepherd (violet Ram’s Head) and a Mojo Hand 1979 (op amp). I like the way the Shepherd sustains better, but I also like the grittier cutting character of the op amp. The “How to use a Big Muff” thread led me to clips of the ‘73 Colorsound, and the descriptions of the tone relative to the Ram’s Head sound intriguing as a potential middle ground. So I’m looking for board friendly variants Here’s what I have on the potential list:
Skreddy Supa
Barber Trifecta
DBA Fuzz War/Apocalypse
Modding the Shepherd for a Colorsound STB switch

Thoughts on these or others?

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Re: Board friendly Colorsound Supa Tone Bender?

Post by fuzzjunkie » Sat Apr 06, 2019 7:05 am

Those are the only ones I know about.

The NYC Muff, I believe is easily modded to a Jumbo Tone Bender, the Supa and Jumbo are closely related, same circuit with some capacitor values changed.

The Faustone Fuzz Unit and the Sola Sound Bum Fuzz Unit are Jumbo Tone Benders in a different package, there is a cheaper version of the Bum Fuzz available, but they are all big vintage style boxes.

The Earthquake Devices Park Fuzz is a Tone Bender MK-III with more gain, it’s not the same circuit, but a similar tone and result. Those are pedal board friendly and easier to come by.

The Ibanez OD-850 is a Big Muff variation. The tone stack is different, but I think the gain is the same. The Foxx Tone Machine puts out Big Muff style fuzz tones when not in Octave mode, plus you get to add an Octave if you need it.

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Re: Board friendly Colorsound Supa Tone Bender?

Post by Gavanti » Sat Apr 06, 2019 7:54 am

fuzzjunkie wrote:
Sat Apr 06, 2019 7:05 am
Those are the only ones I know about.

The NYC Muff, I believe is easily modded to a Jumbo Tone Bender, the Supa and Jumbo are closely related, same circuit with some capacitor values changed.

The Faustone Fuzz Unit and the Sola Sound Bum Fuzz Unit are Jumbo Tone Benders in a different package, there is a cheaper version of the Bum Fuzz available, but they are all big vintage style boxes.

The Earthquake Devices Park Fuzz is a Tone Bender MK-III with more gain, it’s not the same circuit, but a similar tone and result. Those are pedal board friendly and easier to come by.

The Ibanez OD-850 is a Big Muff variation. The tone stack is different, but I think the gain is the same. The Foxx Tone Machine puts out Big Muff style fuzz tones when not in Octave mode, plus you get to add an Octave if you need it.

Thanks. The Park Fuzz looks really interesting! The online demos sound great. I'll look at the others and also the EHX NYC Muff circuits too to see if there's an easy way to mod a cheap used one. It looks like GGG has CSTB kits as well. I'd imagine Aaron at ARC can convert a Shepherd easily enough by putting the first stage diodes and coupling cap on a switch, but I'd rather be sure that's the sound I'm going for first.

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Re: Board friendly Colorsound Supa Tone Bender?

Post by fuzzjunkie » Sat Apr 06, 2019 8:45 am

Yes, there are kits, and not any harder to build than a Big Muff. One of them, GGG maybe?, actually uses their Big Muff circuit board and leaves off the extra components. A switch would work there too.

Also people have been raving about this pedal on TGP, it has some Muff tones in it and a lot of “can’t find a Muff I like” players have picked one up and liked it. The Caroline Hawaiian Pizza. It’s not based on a Muff or Tone Bender though.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lnJTxjK76iI

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Re: Board friendly Colorsound Supa Tone Bender?

Post by Shadoweclipse13 » Sat Apr 06, 2019 8:47 am

Vick Audio makes a clone/variant of the violet Ram's Head, that's supposed to sound really good. I had one of his Triangle Muff clones which sounded epic, but ultimately, wasn't for me. All his muff clones have a mids selector switch (scooped, neutral, boosted). Here is the page for his violet Ram's Head.
Pickup Switching Mad Scientist
http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=104282&p=1438384#p1438384

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Re: Board friendly Colorsound Supa Tone Bender?

Post by Gavanti » Thu May 16, 2019 9:21 pm

fuzzjunkie wrote:
Sat Apr 06, 2019 7:05 am
The Earthquake Devices Park Fuzz is a Tone Bender MK-III with more gain, it’s not the same circuit, but a similar tone and result. Those are pedal board friendly and easier to come by.
So the Park Fuzz did the trick—thanks! I've been running it with the bass and fuzz close to maxed, and it sounds really big by itself or run into either the Soothsayer or Broadcast, and I don't have any worries about not cutting through.

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Re: Board friendly Colorsound Supa Tone Bender?

Post by fuzzjunkie » Fri May 17, 2019 7:12 am

Cool. I would think that it does stack well with the Broadcast.

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Re: Board friendly Colorsound Supa Tone Bender?

Post by spiffy chap » Sat May 18, 2019 1:20 pm

Skreddy made one called the Supa Tone. I owned one for a bit, but there is this kind of “clean” signal blend.

Personally didn’t like it at the time, but have regained interest in the Cheap Ass BUM Fuzz Macari’s put out. Not small though.

EDIT:Never mind, see you got something.

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