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Analog Man's first new pedal of 2010 is the ASTRO TONE fuzz. This pedal
is based on the 1960's SAM ASH FUZZZ BOXX and ASTROTONE FUZZ made in New
York City in 1966-68 by the Astro Amp company. Analog Mike had a NOS
Astro Tone fuzz back in the 90s, here is a copy of the manual that he
saved from it.
The Analog Man ASTRO TONE is not quite the same as
the old pedals. I took our first prototype, made to 100% original specs,
to play with my power trio. At the shop we compared it to an original
and the sound was exactly the same. But I did not like it, I could not
hear it well with the band, it was not thick enough. The problem with
the original design was that there was very little low end, the sound
was quite thin. You REALLY had to crank up the volume on it to get a
good sound. But this would make the ON sound too much louder than the
OFF sound for live use. And the tone knob was really limited in the
useful range. So we took the circuit and with some modern software
analyzed it and found out how we could retain the low end, and make the
tone control somewhat more useful. But we made sure that we could still
get the EXACT sounds of the original pedal if that was desired. By
turning the tone knob up higher, you can still get the original sounds
which are good into a large, cranked amp. But we made it so that it now
sounds awesome even into a little amp like a Fender Deluxe Reverb, at
near unity gain on the pedal.
The sound is not as compressed as a
Fuzz Face, not SUPER thick and saturated, something between a fuzz and
distortion. Its fuzzier into a smaller amp (Fender Deluxe), and more of
a BOOSTER into a large distorted amp (Marshall 1970s Super Lead). It
can also be stacked with other pedals, for example running a fuzz face
into it can get a sound like Spirit in the Sky, which buzzes and cuts
out. Or run the Astro Tone into an OD pedal like a TS808 or KoT to make
it fatter.
Features: True Bypass switching Super Bright LED for
lower power use, buffed so as not to blind you! Uses less than 1 mA of
power when off, only 3 when on, so an Alkaline bat tery will last a few
hundred hours of normal playing time. Three simple knobs - Volume,
Fuzz, and Tone. High quality, hand wired REAN input and output jacks.
In and Out jacks on top for best pedalboard real estate management
Normal Boss style power jack, on the right side, negative ground so no
polarity problems original 1966 Fairchild Silicon transistors, not
affected by heat like a Germanium fuzz. Sound is not as compressed as a
fuzzface, not SUPER thick and saturated, something between a fuzz and
distortion but closer to a fuzz.
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