Got a couple of 42TM013 trasnformers. Anything I can build besides a wah?

[chumbox]

Just after some schematics or builds I can try a couple of these 1K to 8ohm transformers in. I know they can be used as cheap wah inductors  Preferably some sort of dirt/pre-amp box but I'll take anything.  Just want to give them a go and learn how they fit into circuits. 

[R.G.]

The Thomas Vox amplifier preamp circuits used two 0.5H inductors, one for the Mid Range Boost (like a presettable fixed wah) and one for the Tone-X tone controls.

[Transmogrifox]

As a dirt box you could play with transformer saturation characteristic.  It will probably take a source with a couple hundred mA drive capability.  Maybe look at a spring reverb tank driver and apply that to the transformer.

Then attach something like a 50 ohm resistor on the output and see if you can drive the transformer into saturation.  Probably your aim would be saturation onset when the output coil develops 500 mV to 1V, and you just take the output directly off the secondary coil (from the 50 ohm resistor), then put that into tonestack of choice, etc.

If you don't have an oscilloscope it may be hard to know whether you're hearing transformer saturation distortion or just distorting the driving circuitry.  It will take some playing around to get this right.

I don't know your level of skill whether you need more detail than "use a spring reverb tank driver circuit".  But there's a dirt box idea anyway.

[chumbox]

The Thomas Vox amplifier preamp circuits used two 0.5H inductors, one for the Mid Range Boost (like a presettable fixed wah) and one for the Tone-X tone controls.

Thanks R.G. I looked up the midrange boost concept and it certainly intrigues me using the transformer to do this passively.  Appreciate the advice.

As a dirt box you could play with transformer saturation characteristic.  It will probably take a source with a couple hundred mA drive capability.  Maybe look at a spring reverb tank driver and apply that to the transformer.

I don't know your level of skill whether you need more detail than "use a spring reverb tank driver circuit".  But there's a dirt box idea anyway.

And thanks Transmogrifox.  I know exactly what you mean when you make note of spring reverb tanks driver circuits, I'd just never looked at those schematics and thought, hey I'll pop a transformer where the coil connects, but it makes total sense when you look at it.  It'll take a lot of trial and error to get something decent out of it but I'm OK with that, just needed some direction so I could start breadboarding something.

[mth5044]

I have used that transformer in the mid range boost as RG pointed out with great results, along with the rest of the tonestack. Very nice preamp.

[blackieNYC]

Here are some other ideas
The Jawari (love mine), the Psychtar, and the Bronx cheer are fun sounds. http://www.jiggawoo.eclipse.co.uk/guitarhq/Circuitsnippets/snippets.html

Or you could build a great utility tool.  this pickup simulator works great http://www.muzique.com/lab/pickups.htm  I put it, and then a booster, in an AMpeg Scrambler, to get better octave and sustain. I didn't want to roll off the guitar tone, so the full simulator in the pedal does that. you could put it in front of a fuzz face, if for some reason you don't have your FF in the front of the chain - there's something you like before your fuzz face, but you want the FF to think it's coming straight off the pickup.

RG has a great circuit with transformer isolation, full bass response, but without the large expensive transformer.  See if yours would work.  Can't easily find specs for yours.