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by Guest Author April 01, 2021 4 min read
Duncan MacKinnon, founder of Stompnorth Pedals, knows a thing or two about valves (AKA tubes) in guitar pedals. Below, he dives into how they work and why we love them...
My introduction to building guitar pedals was a Build Your Own Clone – ESV Fuzz. The ESV stood for Extra Special Vintage on account of its Phillips Ac127/01 germanium transistors. Its sound is amazing and is indeed as old school as its name suggests, but I wanted to take "vintage" even further, so I started looking for valve kits and soon found a booster that used a single 12ax7 valve.
I loved the way it sounded and the response it gave, so I knew that valves were the way I wanted to go with my own projects. As a synth player first and foremost, I was used to manipulating waveforms and textures, but even from this hi-tech perspective I still found vintage hollow-state circuitry [i.e valves] offered more pleasing sounds and possibilities than the more modern solid-state, transistor and op-amp driven circuits - which, of course, are also tremendous.
The sensitivity and flexibility of a valve is, in my opinion, unrivalled in guitar pedal building where subtlety, response, transparency and sound quality (not necessarily fidelity) are the aim. A valve in low voltage "starved plate" mode offers a certain type of response and transparency which is different to the more full-on high voltage valve circuits. You can max-out a 12au7 pedal and still know which guitar you are playing. I also think they have a really pleasing and unique sound all of their own. This is the reason I designed one of my own pedals around a 12au7 running 9 volts.
The Stompnorth Clipshear Getter Drive combines a 12au7 valve with a MOSFET transistor and silicon and germanium clipping diodes.
A valve can be thought of as a glass tube, with an anode (plate) at the top, and a cathode at the bottom. Electricity in a valve flows in the opposite direction to the accepted norm of positive to negative, and it does so in a wash of electrons called space charge; this is the bit I love the most! When you turn a valve on, the cathode has to warm up, and then space charge is produced. This flows from the cathode to the plate through a vacuum. Not carried by radio, or wire of any kind, but literally floating through space, a tiny bit of outer space, (with flying saucers and ray guns), right there in your pedal.
Your guitar signal enters through another internal component, the grid, which sits in between the plate and cathode. When a signal with positive potential enters the grid it gets caught up in, amplified by, and carried in the flow of space charge all the way to the plate, then on into your amplifier in an awesome shower of tone-bearing electrons.
Another fascinating thing about valves is their sheer theatre. They are huge in comparison to other components - you can see the internal workings through the glass. Also, each one is slightly different inside. The getter flash (silver cap) is another brilliant factor of valves. The science is fascinating and they look great, but this subject is best saved for another occasion.
In short, I think valves are magnificent, eloquent, and beautiful pieces of engineering that have un-reinventable qualities, which I think is why they are still so commonplace in guitar gear (and high end audio gear) today. They were not replaced by the transistor as we were told they would be - valves are here to stay.
[product=stompnorth-midgie-booster-overdrive]
The Stompnorth Midgie Booster Overdrive is built around a MOSFET transistor, known for their amp-like feel and here offering 21dB of boost. With selectable silicon or germanium diode clipping, this is a serious workhorse pedal getting you from boosted cleans to vintage crunch. The Midgie Booster Overdrive is handwired point-to-point and features high quality components, including Alpha pots and the large Jupiter capacitor which takes pride of place. This is a superb, super-stackable pedal which works really well in tandem with other pedals. Oh, and the power indicator glows to showcase several of the finest Inner Hebrides midges, personally collected by Stompnorth founder, Duncan!
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[product=stompnorth-bass-midgie-overdrive]
The bass-tuned Stompnorth Bass Midgie Overdrive is in similar tonal territory to the Electro-Harmonix Bass Muff - but that's where the similarities end. Its handwired point-to-point circuit is built around a single Darlington transistor and symmetrical silicon diodes. This is a great pedal to enhance your bass tone and get it growling. Use the toggle to switch between silicon diode clipping and "Fauzz" (faux fuzz derived from transistor feedback) to get your preferred flavour of drive tone. The power indicator features several Inner Hebrides midges, personally collected by Stompnorth founder, Duncan! They won't bite, but this pedal will.
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[product=stompnorth-fishmoth-vintage-fuzztoner]
Stompnorth's Fishmoth Vintage Fuzztoner is based on the classic silicon Fuzz Face circuit popularised by artists such as Jimi Hendrix and David Gilmour. Built around low-noise, sweet-sounding foil capacitors, this very useable fuzz takes the Fuzz Face circuit and beefs it up with some very welcome extra features. The A/B toggle not only switches between brighter and livelier, and mellow "vintage" frequency response; it also alters the dynamics of the entire pedal. The Bias control enables you to adjust the response of the BC108 silicon transistors, providing access to a range of fuzz tones plus a gated, dying battery character. Turned all the way down, you get bucket-loads of bass and thick, wooly fuzz. Turned all the way up is glitchy and spitty.
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[product=stompnorth-clipshear-getter-drive]
Stompnorth's flagship Clipshear Getter Drive combines two separate boost/overdrive circuits with optional silicon and germanium clipping diodes to achieve a multitude of low to mid-gain tones. Stompnorth founder Duncan MacKinnon designed the Clipshear Getter Drive to be an integral part of your rig, an "always on" pedal that enhances your core tone. It provides up to 17dB of clean boost that can push the input of your valve amp. The first circuit is a MOSFET transistor which gives amp-like response and overdrive characteristics. On its own it provides clean boost through to mild crunch. The MOSFET feeds into the 12AU7 valve circuit, which has a warmer, sweeter character and gets into full overdrive territory. The clipping diodes are the final section of the pedal and add distortion to the signal if engaged.
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by Jim Button April 18, 2023 12 min read
by Guest Author August 26, 2022 3 min read
by Jim Button June 24, 2022 5 min read
I’ve just taken delivery of this beautiful pedal.
To get a first impression I’ve put it through a Simplifier DLX and straight into a FRFR speaker. Delightful.
I’m a guitarist in a Christian Church worship band, so I’m always looking for O/D that is both subtle and musical - that makes a statement without the darkness. The Forest Song, with its rich range of driven tones delivers.
Indeed, high gain plus low volume is an interesting musical mix in this pedal. It works. My complements to the DB development team, and to Boost for supporting them.
This Pedal is easy to use and has many sweet spots! Perfectly tuned combination of two legendary circuits! Highly recommended!
super fun trem, decent sound, huge volume. havent spent a lot of time messing about with it, but did have a play with the slide and drift feature which are a nice bonus. cant wait to have more time to play around with it.
Boost Guitar Pedals are great as always, fast delivery
been playing it a few days now, and have it set up so it works with with whatever i thow at it. its in my chain after OD but Before Distortion. feedback dial is great and can have it very far clockwise before it sends you in an infinity loop, mix is a bonus, i haven't messed about with the shapes much yet because i found a dreamy setting i dont want to change. would highly recommend isolated power suppy, it did not like daisy chain or cheap single wall one, but works smooth with isloated brick
Boost Guitar is great again to got it within 24 hours of shipping
Perfect for that traynor amp growl on bass. There’s a lot of scope with gain and EQ controls (which sound ace wherever you dial them in). Had the Tronographic Rusty Box before this which I regrettably had to sell; this is a perfect (and smaller, less power hungry) substitute.
I spent months searching for an affordable vibe pedal that actually sounded authentic.
Not only does this have the very sound that I was after, without a ton of tweaking, but it is priced reasonably too. It is not at the cheap end of the market, but for a hand-built pedal with dual speeds this is unbeatable.
The sound is spot on. Warm and rich with the throb missing from many of the lower-priced pedals. The second speed makes it easy to switch between chord and solo settings.
The delivery was amazing too - ordered in Friday afternoon and delivered on Sunday morning!
I can’t recommend this highly enough to anyone looking for the best univibe around.
add another 5 stars, im no pro but i know what sounds i like and the Bloom is the sound i like. ive had Boss BD2, donner dumble drive, Tumnus and Tumnus deluxe but to me The Bloom tops them all. its a well built easy to dial in. having full gain is so clear and not nosiy. only tried with my strat single coils atm. the distortion isint the best but im comparing it to the Drunk Beaver Batv2 and have a feeling that its a layer distortion for another distortion pedal. fuzz is lush. the chip and fat switch really bring it to live and gives you more options for sound. i cant believe this is made by 1 guy. To me Drunk Beaver are up there with the best pedal makers. could send hours going on about the great things. and im only useing a boss katana mk2 no tube amp but you can get some faux tube headroom with the right switch. if you like the demos, well i got good news, it sound way better in person
Boost Guitat Pedals are great too, fast delivery, great communication. couldnt ask for a better store
Bone white Davies 1611
The Bleak District Tapescape is one of the best delay and ambience style pedals ever invented. The controls are all intuitive but highly flexible, the sounds are rich and detailed, the modulation can go from dreamy to nightmarish very quickly, and all of that inside a small footprint with a low power requirement. It's difficult to get a bad sound out of it, honestly.
Add in that Boost shipped it out quickly and it arrived with a nice note written on the invoice, is there anything else you could ask for? Definitely will be buying more from both Boost and Bleak District in future.
Part came as described. Website was easy use.
very cool pedal
Awesome service and communication all along!
Will gladly order again
I ordered a set of strings from Boost, that did not initially turn up. After contacting Boost via the website they immediately sent out another set (no questions asked). Both sets arrived a few days later (Thanks Royal Mail!). Boost were prompt in dealing with the issue (gave) me a set of strings and got things sorted out. Highly recommend you use these guys.
My favourite strings, at a great price! Very reasonable postage rates and speedy service. My first purchase from Boost, but will definitely not be my last. Hassle free, excellent...
Jazzmaster happy🙏
I didn’t know that particular manufacturer from Italy, but I definitely recommend their "Vintage Vibe”. It’s simple, intuitive, it looks awesome, the build quality seems impeccable, and most importantly, it sounds fantastic.