I have been experimenting with various distortions for over a year now, after exhausting the pickup possibilities and becoming dissatisfied with the distortion and lack of EQ in my PV Special. So far I've built and modded a Tube Sounding Fuzz, Sweet 16 (Jfet booster), Rat, Fuzz Face/Tone Bender, Blackfire, and the Angel Duty and Angel Booty found here. If I were starting again, I would build modules of each to try various combinations, with out building a whole device, as detailed on R.G. Keen's site. Each has its own character and voice and has been modded to my taste. I'm grateful to the members of Aron's Stompbox Site, as well as B Tremblay for his great site, Phillip for Fuzz Central, Gary Burchett for helping with ideas and schematics and many others for their fundamental work in these areas, including Jack, R.G., Joe(s), Doug, Tim, Alf, Aron, Frank, etc.

There are all kinds of little tricks you can do to vary the tone of these things. Cap Blend pots are cool for varying the low end typically, but could be used for the high end as well. You could also use switching to reverse the stage order, I have just used the one I thought would work the best.

The Angels are combinations of my favorite stages, excluding any op-amps like the Tube Screamer or Rat. You might want to through one of them into the mix. I've experimented with bias, symmetry, pre-emphasis, EQ, various transistors and types, plus a variety of circuits. Really they are just recombination's of existing ideas, nothing new. An example of what someone with relatively little electronic knowledge, looking for the ULTIMATE tone can come up with. Hope you find one you like.

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