FullBender1 is inspired by the Tone Bender® Mk1,
an historic fuzz designed in 1965 by Gary Hurst.
It was not many distributed, being ahead of fashion, and too quickly forgotten in favor of later models from Tone BendOne finally rediscovered it during the vintage fashion of the 90s, et reevaluated because it offered a hairy and dense fuzzy sound, with nice dynamic gate effects…
The first prototype of the FullBender1 which was still called SoftBender1.
Lil’HarpZone was initially motivated by a custom order…
It is now available to everyone !
Lil’HarpZone is a low sized transposition to harp of the famous Metal Zone distortion pedal.
It takes back most of its saturating circuit and features a specially designed One Knob Tone control.
Lil’HarpZone, and its simple controls.
HarpZone is a distortion stompbox made for Harp.
It takes up the structure of the classic Metal Zone®,
and preserves the original grit, but adapts it
to the particular sonic profile of the harmonica.
It also features a booster to take fleshy choruses.
Custom prototype for the french harp player Marko Balland, 2019.
A musician’s order based on the 1963 AC15 pentode channel, with lots of options…
Getting the Covid, I had to stop manufacturing during the spring and summer of 2021.
Here it is finally finished, with gain control and presets, a complete tonestack, an effects loop and a speaker attenuator…
My amps 10 to 25W …
Little Walter’s echo is like the reverb of punk-surf groups: it is as much a matter of timbre and sound texture as of pure delay. So I thought to add a SpanishMoss overdrive to the echo to get back that special sound… I’ll tell you what it’s going to be !…
Contact me for more information…
Initially, a musician’s command based on the original AC15, with lots of options:
A 3-band tone, a booster, a line output with HP simulation, an attenuator …
And all built old-fashioned way on a turrets card (except for the effect loop).
My amps 10 to 25W …
Imagine an instrument preamp with adjustable tone and overdrive …
Add a speaker simulator, and a balanced output to the mixer …
You have everything you need to get your sound and send it directly to the sound system!
Contact me for more info and custom realization…
Initially, an order from harmonica player Vincent Bucher … He wanted a CurvyMama preamp followed by a speaker simulator and a balanced output to the PA …
And also with a chorus push button, and an output for stage amp (if necessary) …
The “CurvyMama SimSym” product page
A greedy sound for the guitar or the harp in a beautiful solid walnut box.
The watts are real, as well in clean sound as in light crunch or in total saturation.
Speaker on your choice: Celestion, Sica or Jensen, depending on the desired sound color.
MicroCombo 3W product page
It is a Californian artisanal stompbox, which updates the Tone Bender II Professional with a silicon buffer and a fuzz circuit equipped with Russian germanium MP39A.
I bring more body, a better polarized buffer, progressive gain pot, adjustable bias …
Modifications and customizations by GuitarPoppa
Association of the SweetGerm preamp and a 25W hybrid PowerAmp.
Germanium brings its color and the grain of overdrive, silicon improves reliability.
Customizable connections: lines, loop, phones etc …
Facebook review from the first client behind the project
A preamp-overdrive designed for juicy guitars and harmonicas.
Single pedal or large format, with speaker simulator and XLR3 symetrical output. Interactive and nuanced Contour and Bite settings… And a special germanium grit !
CurvyMama’s product page
Initially, custom orders from friends … We have selected complementary pedal duos … With an additional economy of scale: a duo is less expensive than the two pedals that it brings together, because some circuits do not need to be repeated.
Contact us to discuss your desires and projects…
These will be two Micro-Combos for harmonica or guitar, respectively 1W and 3W…
The electronics are traditional, without integrated circuits. All germanium power amplifier and selected NOS speaker : The clear or overdriven sound will be lively, warm and rich!
MicroCombo1W product page — MicroCombo3W product page
Realization on request of a harp friend for his Champ 57 reissue …
Two models, dedicated to 5W or 30W power amplifiers.
Continuous volume adjustment, byPass switch and line output always available…
CoolCrunch5 and CoolCrunch30 product page.
Renowned French brand: Stimer amplified the great Django, then the first french rockers …
I can repair or transform these old amps with all due respect.
But only small models, less than 25W: my workshop is very small!
(and international transport is so expensive!)
Recently I adapted a [good] copy of TS9® for bass …
At the moment, I am modifying a Metal Zone® for the harmonica …
If your pedal is correctly designed and manufactured, we can customize it to your wishes!
Modifications and customizations by Guitar Poppa
I make amplifiers for guitar or harmonica … Small, just like my workbench !
They are available as separate head …
The layout and the equipment are to be composed “custom” according to your project.
Transistor models feature a real power of 10 or 25W on 8 ohms.
They use a 60s germanium technology, which denies the bad reputation of transistors…
It brings especially a natural compression and a progressive transition to overdrive which have little to envy tubes, with a price also compressed!
I also realize high quality tube models, custom 5 to 15W, with vintage or high-end components where it’s worth and audible.
In both cases my aim is to offer amplifiers intended for home use or small concert venues, without technical weakness, and with a sound that will please the instruments.
I have designed some large format stompboxes (approximately 20 x 11 x 3.5cm), either because they have to contain a printed board of significant dimensions, or because they have to bring together several cards.
These configurations are often the result of custom orders by musicians with strong choices … Their requests have led me to design typical equipment, which are often associations of existing circuits.
Everyone can now benefit from these experiences, or imagine their own project!
Big basic Fuzz and heavy riffs, in the manner of the sixties..
Strato-like guitar.
LikeYourFace with Fat preset ; Fuzz @ 15:00 (more is possible ; Tone @ 12:00 (neutral).
Wild thing (neck pickup) : then Shape of things (bridge pickup).
Fuzz used as a light overdrive : Bright Strato blues
Strato-like guitar.
Neck pickup and Bridge pickup mixed.
Fat Preset ; Fuzz @ 10:00 to get a smooth texture ; Tone @ 13h to get more harmonics.
A scratching sound, with open strings and a bit boosted medium
Archtop Guild X160,bridge pickup at first, the mixed pickups at the end.
LikeYourFace basic, Classic bright option. Fuzz @ 15:00. No preset nor tone.
In-A-Dadda etc. (micro manche)
2xEL84 amplifier from 1967, restored by me. Clean canal, tone control almost flat.
10″ speaker, Weber F10-150T (recommended for Fender Princeton) ; bass reflex cab.
Shure SM57, placed like in the pic above.
A bit of Holly Grail® reverberation, just for pleasure.
Strato-like guitar from the 80s, rather cheap but equiped with Rio Grande texan pickups.
Archtop Guild X160 from 1988.
MicroCombo 3W is a portable and powerful micro-amp for guitar or harmonica.
The all Germanium power amp, the big brand speaker give to it efficiency and musicality.
It will let you play at home or in small places, connected to an external cabinet or to the sound system of the bar.
Options are available when ordering.
MicroCombo3W in its walnut enclosure.
My MicroCombos are small amps of real power 1W and 3W.
They are designed old-fashioned way, from a technological point of view as well as from a design point of view.
• Electronics in through-hole components from the 60s-90s ,
100% germanium class AB power amplification.
Branded, contemporary or NOS loudspeakers.
Reinforced solid wood case (European walnut and plywood) and original Fender canvas.
• Their clean sound is mild, and they crunch at low level without sounding harsh, with a roundness that has nothing to regret from tubes.
They are well suited to rehearsals at home, or to small parties!
They were originally designed for the guitar, but I quickly grasped the interest of working just as much for harmonica, taking advantage of the sonic grain of the old transistors…
The first transistorized circuits for automation and computing required specific components that were straightforward in their response but without extreme bandwidth. Rather close to radio frequency transistors, they are distinguished by their reliability and deliberately moderate maximum frequency. Some models may produce a vintage sound grain, suitable for Fuzz Face. They could make as much reference as the ubiquitous small power audio transistors : American do-it-yourselfers have not been mistaken, and have since a long time embraced the classic 2N404 …
The GeAmp1W MicroCombo is a real micro-amp
for harp or guitar, not a rebadged asian gadget.
Its neat electronics, the vintage speaker
and its solid walnut case give it a great musicality.
It will let you play for the pleasure or rehear at home,
with a sound that even neighbors will appreciate !
The MicroCombo 1W, in his new walnut housing.
CoolCrunch is made to attenuate the volume on the speakers without lowering the master volume of the amp …
One keep then the crunch without breaking the ears …
Due to its small size and simplicity, it fits inside the combos and in your budget.
CoolCrunch30, model 2023,
with its connection cord to the amp and a jack socket to the speaker.
LowVoltTube is an original pedal that combines two references of the guitar sound :
— A preamp-overdrive, TS9 type, with its tone control …
— A tube stage included to generate a real “tuby” grain.
The tube is a 50s NOS model, specially designed to work directly with automobiles batteries.
Boutique quality, but for a moderate price !
LowVoltTube — First issue, 2018.
CurvyMama is a special preamp that will give flesh, curves and grit to harps and guitars…
It can also give nice thighs to skinny guitars !
In that aim, it features an original tone control and a germanium preamp.
CurvyMama, 2022 model.
High frequency germanium transistors have appeared as a second generation. Their elaborate technology made it possible to obtain a consequent gain even at radio frequencies : 30MHz, then 100MHz or more.
More expensive, and fragile at the beginnings, they have not been much used by pedal manufacturers, before all concerned by economy and robustness.
The OC44 was however exploited by Arbiter in the first Treble Booster, the Rangemaster, where its gain and bandwidth yet modest worked perfectly.
With the contemporary recoil, we rediscover the quality of these transistors, the fineness of their sonic grain, and their real interest in designing modern boosters and fuzz …
These are the most common germanium transistors. They were designed for audio pre-amplification circuits in consumer and mid-range equipment, where they quickly replaced the tubes. They are distinguished by a gain which can reach 200, and a maximum frequency of about 1MHz.
Pedals made in 1966-68 first operated with black glass models like OC75 and then encapsulated glass like OC76 and OC81 … As the AC125 and AC126 by Philips / Mullard were a bit expensive, cheap versions like the NKT275, and some SFTxxx had their hour of glory before being forgotten, then rediscovered around 1990 …
These transistors were at first designed to drive the loudspeakers of radios and consumer audio products. They are distinct from other families by their dissipable power and their maximum collector current.
In 1967, some models have been known as bringing a so called “creamy” sound texture to Fuzzboxes. Therefore, they gained a reputation that made this family of components enter the guitar effects culture.
The genius of craftsmanship does not depend on its attachment to the past or on the handmade… It is specified by personalized productions thanks to the direct contact with the customer, and the possibility of improve the product in the course of its realization. Its limitations are of course in technological and budgetary limits, but even more so in those of our desires!
My activity is to design and handcraft stompboxes, preamps or small amps.
It feeds on my experience as a musician and technician trained in the 60s.
Some of my pedals perpetuate the tradition, with updated means.
Others have an original design.
They are built in the international 1590BB format, approximately 12 x 9 x 3cm.
This size is no longer fashionable but is justifiable : My pedals use traditional components manually welded and not micro-components assembled by robots. The wider printed tracks and pads are more sturdy, and desolderable, therefore repairable without risk of takeoff… Same for potentiometers…
On an other hand, my circuits are more provided than most of stingy circuits in ordinary productions : active filtering in the supply line, really playable presets, pull down components minimizing switching noises…
I reproduce the historical circuits in the love of their sound …
And I perfect with all respect what is worth it.
• Technicity : verified and corrected schematics, sorted components, neat powering.
• Functionality : Well balanced impedance, progressive settings, raised output level.
• Musical potential : refined tone and grain, dynamic response to instrumental playing.
• Customization : custom features and settings, duets coupled in a single box…
The (S)cream
TS9 type Overdrive
with a diversified sonic texture.
LikeYourFace
Germanium Fuzz ,
development
of the Fuzz Face.
FullBender1
Germanium Fuzz ,
development of the ToneBender Mk1.
The identity of a pedal lies in its sound color and grain, as well as its dynamics…
…It will combine these parameters in musical quality,
and finally its behavior must “please” the instruments that are connected to it…
LowVoltTube
Preamp/overdrive
with a NOS low voltage
tube inside.
CurvyMama
Preamp/overdrive
with a warm and fleshy tone for harp or guitar.
SweetGerm
Germanium preamp
to make guitar
or bass sing
Go to the following : “Mods and Customization”
Go and read Terms of Sales (in french)
3 bluesy improvisations , using each of the 3 presets…
Low drive @ 9:00 — Consecutive presets : classic / clear / deep.
Strat-like guitar, neck pickup.
Two different drive settings, harmonies in D …
Classic preset — Consecuting settings : low drive @ 9:00 / mid drive @12:00 / low drive @ 9:00
Strat-like guitar, bridge pickup.
Two different drive settings, on Next time you see me…
Deep preset — Consecuting settings : low drive @ 9:00 / mid drive @12:00
Strat-like guitar, neck pickup.
Two different drive settings, playing rhythm patterns in F sharp minor …
Deep preset — Consecuting settings : low drive @ 9:00 / mid drive up to 12:00
Strat-like guitar, bridge pickup.
4 different mixings, silicon diodes + LEDs, playing a slow theme …
Successively : 1 : Leds 100% / 2 : Leds 50% + silicon / 3 : Leds 25% + silicon / 4 : Silicon 100%.
Deep preset — Drive up to 1h:00.
SG-type guitar, mixed pickups.
• The (S)cream is JTC4558 equipped.
• Diodes : 100% silicon on the first four samples ; leds + silicon on the last.
• 2xEL84 amp from1967, fixed by me. Clean canal, light mid notch @ 500Hz
• 10″ Weber F10-150T speaker, bass reflex boxed.
• Recorded with a SM57 close to the speaker, between dome and edge.
• A bit of Holly Grail® reverb…
