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- Опубліковано 15 жов 2024
- #POTD NO.18 Rotosound MkII Fuzz
As seen on @macaris_official IGTV
PEDAL OF THE DAY NO.18 ROTOSOUND MKII FUZZ
In 1967 or maybe 1969! This is what was going on.
#pedaloftheday #macaris #solasound #freakenbender #colorsound #rotosound #highnumbers #highceilings
Righteous fuzz and I spy The Cure album in the background 😎
Most guitarists usually associate Rotosound Fuzz Pedals to hard rock and garage rock, but here's a fun fact about that pedal. Quorthon from Bathory, a band that was one of the pioneers of the Black Metal genre also used the Rotosound Fuzz on all his early albums. Those early Bathory albums pretty much laid the foundation of Black Metal.
That raw, sizzling, and fuzzy guitar tones heard on all their early albums till "Blood Fire Death" was a result of the Rotosound Fuzz. This song of theirs is an excellent example of how vicious the Rotosound Fuzz can sound when used for metal.
ua-cam.com/video/9keM5Nyzuvg/v-deo.html
TheNocturnalEvil - that’s amazing I would have never guessed Bathory used one. I have the Rotosound reissue, I wonder it the circuit is based on the original like in this video. Did Macaris make the reissue, is it comparable at all?
@@regortex3364 They used the Rotosound Fuzz on "The Return" and "Under The Sign Of The Black Mark" albums.
The basic circuitry of the re-issue is the same as the vintage units but they don't sound the same because they have numerous differences.
The original vintage units used a tag-board based hand-wired construction and made in UK CTS potentiometers. They used to use Mullard Black Glass OC71 transistors
The re-issue uses PCB based construction and some sort of unbranded potentiometers. The potentiometers on the re-issue are mounted directly on the PCB. Such a construction is quite a bummer when you consider the price of the pedal. They don't even use OC71 transistors, they use Toshiba AC128 transistors which are completely different from the Mullard OC71 transistors.
No, Macaris didn't make the re-issue. I hope he considers making one though. He's one of the few pedal makers who still make Sola Sound, and Rotosound effect pedal clones just like they were used to be made in the old days and with genuine NOS parts.
Maybe a better option will be to contact Joe from JDM Pedals. He has a huge stock of NOS Mullard and General Electric transistors. He makes excellent quality clones of vintage effect pedals at quite reasonable prices.
The Rangemaster clone I bought from him as a gift for my wife was as good as vintage Rangemaster units and used a genuine NOS Mullard Black Glass OC44 transistor. Not to forget it had additional stuff like a range knob and a three-way tone switch. It cost me a little over $130.
TheNocturnalEvil - yeah the reissue I have is pcb. I have a yellow Macaris Sola Sound Tonebender reissue from around 2009 I think. It’s pcb as well, pcb mounted pots as well. The pots look expensive and are well made but are utterly useless as they’re scratchy and noises as hell. They’re sealed so I took one apart, cleaned it, lubed it, didn’t do a thing. Piece of crap. I like the pedal though it sounds good, I think it a weird hybrid similar to a MKIII. I have a MKII reissue also a Sola Sound, from the 90’s, it’s also pcb and if memory serves it has AC128 or BC109’s, can’t remember. It’s supposedly the same one that Jimmy Page used in the “it might get loud” video, it sound good as well. I’ve never seen a tag board, flying leads to the pots style Macaris Tonebender. The nicest fuzz I’ve ever seen is the new Ilse of Tone pedals, their construction and components are what I would build if I had the resources, they’re expensive but unlike most fuzz pedals, they’re not overhyped bullshit. Thanks for sharing your knowledge, I could talk Black Metal and fuzz pedals for hours with you I’m sure.
@@regortex3364 Not all the re-issues sold by Macari's use hand-wired construction and NOS parts. My wife owns a Macari's Sola Sound Pro MkII Tone Bender re-issue made by David Main. That pedal has nice old-school tag-board type hand-wired construction and NOS Red Dot Mullard Black Glass OC75 transistors. She loves collecting fuzz pedals, and she got it after joining a really long waiting list at Macari's.
Your assessment of the potentiometers used on Macari's pedals is quite right. I opened up her Tone Bender re-issue and noticed an odd thing.
I saw the brand name Omec written on the potentiometers. Now what's funny about that brand name is that such a potentiometer brand doesn't exist. So I looked for brands with similar-sounding names.
That's when I found the U.K based potentiometer brand named Omeg. Omeg is a top-tier bespoke potentiometer manufacturer who manufactures their potentiometers at Sussex.
It seems this brand Omec is some sort of counterfeit brand that has a name similar to Omeg.
So far the potentiometer is working fine without any problems or scratchiness but I have my doubts about it.
I'm not much of an effect pedal user, I mostly use rack-mounted effects, but I do own a VFE Focus mid-boost pedal, and a Texas Instrument OPA1612 based HM-2 EQ pedal custom built by PedalDoctor FX. Both of them use Alpha potentiometers which are well known for their durability.
I was kinda appalled by the fact that a premium vintage re-issue effect pedal seller like Macari's sells pedals that use counterfeit potentiometers.
@@regortex3364 As for Isle Of Tone pedals. Yep, the Haze 67 Fuzz does sound excellent.
What's even more astonishing about the Isle of Tone Haze 67 Fuzz is that it's a point-to-point hand-wired pedal. Such pedals belong to a rather rare breed of premium pedals. It takes a lot of time, patience, and skill to do the point-to-point hand-wiring.
You're more likely to find tag-board type hand-wired pedals than point-to-point hand-wired pedals. Point-to-point hand-wired effect pedals are the crème de la crème of hand-wired effect pedals.
However, at $750 it's really pricey.