Tone Monk effects have been around for a while now. He's run into a little trouble recently: http://freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15903 (The shortened version is that he's been building lots and lots of "his circuits" using PCBs he's blagged for a knock down price from Madbean (and possibly General Guitar Gadgets) by pretending he was using them in an educational manner *AND* that all his circuits are ripped off - but that's nothing new now is it!). However, the Tone Monk pedals are still very popular so I thought I'd cover a few! First up the "Seed of Life", here's the official Tone Monk description:
"Our Seed of Life Professional Overdrive was developed for guitarists to end their ultimate quest for tone. In the beginning of 2010 we released our Seed of Life VII and took the circuit a few steps further. There are several features in the circuit of the Seed of Life that allow you to actually control your tone. An Input control that controls your input the way a tube preamp does. With the texture options and controls of this pedal you have the power to shape your tone in ways you have never heard it before. The 3-way texture switch offers an array of saturations from transparent to colored tube driven qualities. The Form EQ control allows you to roll off high end frequencies at half the rate that it accentuates low-mid frequencies, in reaction to the texture you choose, to 'form' your over all tone. The drive control works as gain drive saturation. All controls interact with each other, so you can literally get thousands of sweet spots and finally have the ability to create your own sound. The Lush/Fat option allows you to choose between the standard rich tone of the Seed of Life and a wider tonal option. Many players who use a combination of Humbucking, Single coil, and P90 pickups find this feature to be extremely useful and a breeze to compensate for the change in pickup output/tone on the fly without having to actually change the tonal settings on the pedal. All of our pedals are hand built, one by one, and include: A combination of silver, lead free, and rosin core solders where needed in the circuit. No PC mounted potentiometers, switches or jacks- everything hand wired. 22 gauge silver/copper/tin wiring where needed for minimal resistance and proper conductivity. WIMA, Panasonic, and Xicon (electrolytic) capacitors. All tested. All properly matched diodes. CLIFF Switches and Switchcraft Jacks."
Here's the Pro Guitar Shop demo:
If you check out the modifications sections the circuit in the Seed of Life is the same as is noted in the "Expensive Boutique Screamer", which is in fact the same as the Landgraff Dynamic Overdrive. Seiche posted this diagram on freestompboxes.org:
So there you have it, if you want to build one buy a GGG pcb and get building.
just opened up a tone monk ankh, and it's a GGG Jack Of All Mini-Booster (modified AMZ Mini-Boost), and the "vesica piscis bypass" buffer is a GGG ICS RTS PCB buffer with all the stock parts, it appears.
just opened up a tone monk ankh, and it's a GGG Jack Of All Mini-Booster (modified AMZ Mini-Boost), and the "vesica piscis bypass" buffer is a GGG ICS RTS PCB buffer with all the stock parts, it appears.
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