3-in-1 Thor/Rangemaster/Fuzz Face, with clip

[jimma]

Hello, all- I don't post here much because I'm usually spending most of my time reading and learning! But here's a build I'm happy with...

  I recently breadboarded a Thor and really, really liked it by itself but liked it even better with a fuzz face into it. I've had a 1590DD enclosure laying around unused for a couple years now, and figured I'd make myself miserable trying to cram the Thor, a fresh FF circuit and a third circuit in there. Breadboarded a Rangemaster (well, a Rangeblaster would be more precise) and settled on that. Here's pic:




Not very pretty, I know- my problem is I'm a player first, and get anxious to try a new circuit on the next gig, and just hate to have to take the time to finish it correctly. I love breadboarding  and building stuff on perf- I really dislike measuring enclosures, drilling enclosures, painting, decals,etc. I just need to get better at those aspects so I can enjoy those parts of the process more. I'll refinish this one- for now I took a sharpie to it so folks sitting in on my rig wouldn't be perplexed.

  The Thor is stock, except I added a resistor in series with the bright cap to reduce it's effect a tad (info found here on this forum, of course). I basically used Xavier's layout, I just adapted it to use the bigger trimpots I had on hand. The Rangemaster is NPN (my own layout), and I only had an AC127 to put in it, but it sounds fine to me. I have an switch in there to choose between .0005 and .022 input caps. I also used a 100k trimmer in place of the 68K resistor. The Fuzz Face is also NPN, run-of-the-mill, nothing fancy here (also my own layout). As with the RM I threw in what I had on my bench-  MPS2222A's and 2n3904's from Radio Shack. I settled for now on a 2222A in Q1, and a 2n3904 for Q2. I'm mostly a BC107 guy, so I'll probably throw a pair of those in there. I wired the box so the Thor gets DC power via the DC jack only (no battery), but the FF and RM only get battery power.

And here's a clip [bypassed first, then Thor only, RM + Thor at 1:33, FF + Thor at 2:30, Thor only again at 3:48]:

http://jjmtunes.com/Thor-RM-FF.mp3

This is my Highway 1 strat into the pedal straight into my s2amps Custom Deluxe head (like a BF Deluxe) into a 2x12 cab with Vintage 30's. Sm57 straight into a Tascam US122 interface straight into Logic 8. On playback it sounds a little fizzy- this rig didn't sound like that in the room. I miced a little to close to the center, I'm afraid, and had only one shot to get the clip done. And as you can hear, the FF gave me hell in that particular room (I have a couple other pieces of gear I can't use in there either). Pedal settings were exactly as you see in the pic (i.e. bright switch off and bottom switch in on the Thor).

  What I really like is the responsiveness of the Thor (at least at where I have been running the gain). I didn't use the guitar's vol knob in the first part, it's just picking dynamics.. I also really like the RM 's effect on the Thor (crunchy and clear, kinda %^&*ed-wah sounding). I find there's quite a boost in volume (not just gain) with the .022 input cap.  It actually works to my advantage for a solo boost to cut through a band live, but some might not like that, though. The FF could use some work- it doesn't sound as good as my two other homebrew FF's (more transistor experimentation is in order), and isn't cleaning up very well. And sure was sensitive to my computer monitor (my other FF's aren't-could be a layout issue, could just be the nature of the beast).

Thanks for checking it out, friends, and thanks for all all the useful info here (and thanks for the layout Xavier). I'll echo many here and suggest a Thor build for anyone interested in vintage Marshally tones, and also a Rangemaster or Fuzz Face to go with it.

[petemoore]

  One fine 3lock Box ! [if you don't mind me saying so].
  I could go on...the sounds are quite varied, everything on the clip sounded very fun, really wide pallette of very different, each a nicely tuned tone, all useful sounds. IoW...amazing soundclip !
  The playing earns honors too, nice varied styles, great demonstration of the new Stompbox !
  You can worry about the looks or not AFAIConcerned, I call it: "working great !"

[Ben N]

Very nice!

[svstee]

Nice! Got any gutshots?