Roland AD-50 Double Beat w. mods by Mark Hammer

 Mark Hammer tweaked one of the coolest yet most forgotten circuits a few years ago. Roland AD-50 Double Beat was a Fuzz Wah from the 70's with a fuzz with three tone settings and a "so-so" wah. He added three more tonestings for more versatility.

I built the stock Double Beat a while ago and found the normal setting sounding really good, one of the best fuzz sounds around while setting 2 and 3 sounded iether very thin or dark and dull so those settings is modified for this layout as well.

Also the stock Sustain control goes from fuzzy to very fuzzy so I added a Pre Gain control before the circuit since it cleans up really good. Original had 2SC1000 transistors which is obsoslete but really liked the sound of metal can 2N2222's in this circuit.

Tone settings is as follows: 

1. Normal Fuzz. Sounds killer!
2. Treble Boost. Original had 250pF cap which made it sounding very thin. Cap value is increased a bit to make this setting a bit more usable.
3. Treble Cut. Dark and muffled with original cap values. They are slightly reduced in this layout.
4. 2-pole Low Pass Filter. Similar in sound to setting 1 but a bit smoother.
5. Crossover Distortion. Same eq as setting 1 but has a quite rough "sandpaper grit" feel to it
6.  Scoop. Similar to scoop mode in a Superfuzz.

 

Fuzzhead Fx Stoner Bee

 Another take one the Bee Baa. Did a version a while ago called Pink Goat with a the notch filter tone setting reworked among other things.

Here after some more tinkering we have Stone Bee. Compared to stock Bee Baa it has a bit more gain and less highs in all three gain stages. Tone section is replaced by one of the best big muff tonestacks around, the one from Grind Custom Fx Ultrastoner. Since the sizzle can be a bit much for some there is a "Highs"control which blends in a filter cap across the base and collector at Q3.