MSA PEDAL STEEL: Jordan Bosstone Fuzz - Nashville Variant

Just a little one from the Bosstone family.  This is said to have been used in MSA Pedal Steel guitars, and it's basically a slight variation on the Nashville Bosstone circuit.

These can be a bit noisy, so really have to watch your wiring and try for quite low gain on Q1.  

It can be a tad thin at times, although this mainly shows up on lower fuzz settings - increasing all of the 22n caps helps, some recommend 47n.  There's almost no point in increasing the output, if you leave the input cap as is.  The cap coming off the 560k pair of resistors is also worth playing with to increase bass response.  This is really obvious when you dial the fuzz right back.  

This is an impractically large layout for some, but it will work for what I have planned.

MSA PEDAL STEEL FUZZ / NASHVILLE BOSSTONE - 0.15" VERO LAYOUT

The version I made below has a larger input and output cap - sounds great, especially on low fuzz settings.  Strangely for a circuit capable of all-out fuzz, I think my favourite setting is for an almost clean sound that gets a fuzzy when I dig in on my guitar.

2N2102 for Q1 ~50hfe, 2N4036 for Q2 ~110hfe.  180n in, 22n, 47n out.

MSA PEDAL STEEL FUZZ - SCHEMATIC & FREQUENCY RESPONSE

Just changing C2 increases bass response 

Same for C1

ORIGINAL MSA MODULE

JORDAN: Boss Tone, Versions 1, 2 & 3, Point to Point Layouts

A nice simple one - the Jordan Boss Tone.

JORDAN BOSS TONE V1 - POINT TO POINT LAYOUT 

The California version.

JORDAN BOSS TONE V2 - POINT TO POINT LAYOUT 

Still the California version, with a few minor variations.

JORDAN BOSS TONE V3 - POINT TO POINT LAYOUT 

This is the NPN / PNP transistor version, also known as the Nashville version.

MSA PEDAL STEEL FUZZ - JORDAN BOSS TONE V3 - POINT TO POINT LAYOUT 

This is a minor variation on the V3, Nashville Boss Tone.  This circuit was built into some MSA pedal steels.

Note:  The 100 ohm / 47uf cap power filter is not present on the original, as they were all battery powered (and there was no room in the tiny enclosure for unnecessary extras).