Paul Trombetta Design "Tromboner" Fuzz , Octave

tuemmueh · Post by **tuemmueh** » 14 Aug 2008, 19:44

Sounds like I should check out the Jordan Bosstone much more ... thanks for your inspiration!

Lawnchair · Post by **Lawnchair** » 14 Aug 2008, 23:06

That sounds really good Alex. Nice horn phrasing too. -p

John Lyons · Post by **John Lyons** » 15 Aug 2008, 17:52

Very nice sounds Alex!
Are all the sounds done with the same values?
How did you change to get each different sound, normal, octave, trumpeting?
Was this just a fuzz/gain/level change?

thanks

john

Alex Frias · Post by **Alex Frias** » 15 Aug 2008, 18:07

Same values all the time.

It has a SAG control, a 100k pot to control the powering on the circuit. Join a bigger value caps, in my case 0.1uF at the input and .068uF at the output and an assymetric clipping section (1N34A and 1N4001). All the sounds on the vid are about playing with the knobs on the pedal and the guitar Volume and Tone controls and pickup selection. No tricks?

John Lyons · Post by **John Lyons** » 15 Aug 2008, 18:13

Ok, thanks for the information Alex.
The bosstone is a fun one to try different values with.
The ones I have made all sound different but I used different transistors and caps here and there.

john

Alex Frias · Post by **Alex Frias** » 15 Aug 2008, 18:29

oh, about transistors...

If I used this circuit just for overdriving/distortion/fuzz thing, I would put a 2N5089 piggybacked as the NPN and an average 2N3906 for the PNP.

But for trumpeting/octaving purposes, we must keep the hfe's not so low. I've used a 2N3565 for the NPN and a 2N4125 for the PNP portion. Hfe's around 130.

As I said I liked it and intend to give it a try in my pedalboard, but definitely it's not as interesting as Paul's projects.

Alex Frias · Post by **Alex Frias** » 18 Aug 2008, 13:42

Oh, and thanks for the Paul's kind words!!!

Alex Frias · Post by **Alex Frias** » 26 Aug 2008, 17:49

A schematic just for convenience:

Lawnchair · Post by **Lawnchair** » 27 Aug 2008, 00:03

That looks great Alex. Unfortunately my browser cuts off a 3rd of your schematic. Looks like you've made some nice mods there.

You are of course correct. My pedals are built around the Boss tone. I started cloning the Boss tone in July of 07 and sold a handfull in the Bay Area. I do see now searching that sagging the power for octaves was discussed in the past. I assure you that I came apon it by chance sagging my Bossclone with a level pot from a DD-3. I then tweaked it for a couple months and sent prototypes to Buckcherry and to Thom Bone of Butt Trumpet after I got a legal notice from the band ( Originally the Toy Box was called the Butt Trumpet ) I sold the first Toy Box in Nov 07. I then developed the Tromboner and Mini - Boner for simpler live use.

Man did I get tired trying to sell people on the Boss Tone. I think the name turns people off. I think it's the great Rat and Tone bender killer. Especially when tweaked for more lows.

Donnerbox · Post by **Donnerbox** » 27 Aug 2008, 14:51

Hi Paul ,

Im diggin the Toy Box lots of fun tones in there.....!

Heres something related you all might have fun with

its a Landgraff with a dying battery throwing octaves and strange things...... was much more pronounced on the diode 'regular' setting --- tho Ive never had another tubescreamer do that...

Lawnchair · Post by **Lawnchair** » 27 Aug 2008, 23:25

Thanks Donner, glad you like it. Did you get one from a TGP'er? Fun video, as always entertaining stuff.

Donnerbox · Post by **Donnerbox** » 02 Sep 2008, 17:08

Lawnchair wrote:Thanks Donner, glad you like it. Did you get one from a TGP'er? Fun video, as always entertaining stuff.

Well fatback told me about it and was going to send his.... and then another friend (Lann) was looking to maybe sell his as he had bought the bigger version , good stuff what else are you working on ??

flood · Post by **flood** » 19 Sep 2013, 10:53

I've never had the chance to play PTD pedals, but just going by what I've seen on the net and David Torn's demo of his Tornita, I'm a massive fan of your work man. Big shout out and lots of respect from Bombay, India.

I've been working on my own version of the Jordan Bosstone with a bunch of mods. Things I've found that really help the octave sound are:

1. of course sagging the voltage
2. reducing the input level either on the guitar or effect input
3. a variable feedback loop from output to input. I use a 500k pot, but I think anything above 200k works well. Negative feedback seems to cancel out the highs giving you this nice fauxctave down.

I'm going to try doing the bosstone with an additional gain stage at the output, and see how that changes things. Again, thanks, would love it if you could tell us something about the Tornita! pedal. Cheers!

Lawnchair · Post by **Lawnchair** » 23 Sep 2013, 18:17

Hi Flood,

A humble "Thank you"

It is a great circuit to mess with. A booster section after it is a good idea. I make a dual pedal called the bettabone where you can add vol. boost, more gain, more low end or tame the highs with the tone control. Very handy.

Tornita is Fuzz face based. The values are specifically tailored for the feedback to "sing" correctly and rise to pitch.

flood · Post by **flood** » 25 Sep 2013, 09:08

Lawnchair wrote:Hi Flood,

A humble "Thank you"

It is a great circuit to mess with. A booster section after it is a good idea. I make a dual pedal called the bettabone where you can add vol. boost, more gain, more low end or tame the highs with the tone control. Very handy.

Tornita is Fuzz face based. The values are specifically tailored for the feedback to "sing" correctly and rise to pitch.

Thanks for the reply, Paul, and also for the explanation of the Tornita... I think a lot of Torn's sound is also from his guitars, particularly the new one with the gold foil 'buckers and of course, his style. So with regards to my nailing that sound, I might be being a bit delusional

I've never spent enough time on tweaking the fuzz face as I should, hope I get down to it some day.

I'm stuck on a couple of other projects at the moment, but have a few scribblings of where I want to poke around in the JBT circuit... I too am thinking about a dual switch pedal, but with the second switch set up as a momentary switch for feedback loops or something. I probably won't work on it till November, sadly... I do have this beautiful enclosure that I etched and drilled up for an experimental circuit for a friend (it failed, sadly, I was very new to pedals then) - I'm going to try and put a tricked out JBT in there.

One more thing I'm going to try is a fixed-gain JFET input boost stage before the 100k input pot, hopefully that'll give me one more dose of crazy.