I made a handful (less than 10) of these back in the late 90's and sold/gave them to some big (ish) player friends I knew who all raved about them highly. I stopped making them as they were a lot of work as I was wiring them point to point and assembling by hand. The originals were in an MXR Phase 100 size box and had a clear sticker printed with a bubblejet and stuck to the box with a coat of clear laquer over the top. I think most of them were painted light blue ? I actually saw one of these sell about a year and half ago for what I considered WAY too much money ?
I found the prototype a month or so ago and wired it up and plugged it in. Man, I'd forgotten how much I love this thing. It's a simple 1 transistor subtle to high gain boost/overdrive that can push any nice valve amp into saturation and has a very usable 1 transistor active tone control. The original had a toggle switch to switch from a type of treble/mid boost to a full linear boost which I've changed into a footswitch to make it more usable while you're playing ? Full frequency response makes it usable for both guitar and bass and you can get from the Shellac type "clang" right through to BIG "stoner" type bottom end.
This is the new version with new box and new artwork. This is schematically identical to the original and is now available in the small MXR size enclosure but sideways like some ZVEX pedals ?
Since the last blog entry I lent this prototype to "boost collector" Brett Netson from legendary US indie band Built to Spill when they played here in Brisbane and I'm very happy to announce this pedal will also be available as Brett's signature pedal in a different enclosure with artwork developed by Brett and Tym guitars. He was so impressed with the pedal, he's putting his name on it. Stay tuned for more info on that SOON.
"I tell you this pedal is excellent. If you have a good amp with an old tube rectifier circuit this is the ticket to full frequency punch.
BOOM!
It was nice to hang out Tym. Thanks for letting me try this pedal out.
Brett Netson."
Thanks for supporting Tym guitars.
The Tone Boost "Big Box" and Tatanka Brett Netson signature model.