Balls Effects / Balls Amplification

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WOW. Missed the PRF and figure the best way to jump back into the game is to make a current version of this thread and catch everyone up on the last year(?)'s worth of builds. Sorry for the big ole pic dump....

PEDALS

Optical Compressors:

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Vertical and horizontal layout Custom Drives (klone):

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Powerful Boosters:

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Vintage style MkII Tone Bender w/AC125 transistors:

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Rangemaster for my guitar player. He's a tremendous musician but a straight up technical nincompoop so i've been slowly building very simple gear and placing it in his hands to get him to sound great. This through a 20 watt 1x12 plexi combo and he cant go wrong:

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Custom work. DOD 210 preamp (always on) into a DOD 250 overdrive:

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Triple true-bypass looper:

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Moon Unit delay & verb:

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All red Balls Super Black (maybe for a PRFer? Not sure):

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UTILITIES

Direct Box. Nothing fancy, standard 'motown box' passive DI. I used Hammond PTs for these and apparently forgot to dust before I took pics:

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AMPS

K-15. First combo amp with a scratch built cab that i'd ever done and it worked well and I ironed the kinks out. It was for a friend that got a good deal in exchange for his patience. High-ish-gain 1x10 circuit that follows the basic Trainwreck Express/Liverpool format with my adaptations as needed. 2xEL84 for ~15 watts (a LOUD 15 at that) going through a Celestion Greenback.

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Also for the bike-minded folks among us, I took it for a spin to my practice space so I could lay into it off an attenuator. Fit it into an old Timbuk2 messenger!

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BR-20. 6G3 Brownface Deluxe style in a head with modern conveniences. Externally adjustable bias, switchable impedance, half power switch, and a couple of other tricks to keep the bias-wiggler tremolo running noise free.

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T-100. Its basically a half-power Sunn Model T. All the Sunn sounds but lighter, more compact, and a *slightly* more reasonable power level. 2 x 6550. Still loud as hell, but the intent was mostly for loud cleans and it has plenty of that:

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BF-15. 2 x EL84, 15 watt amp with preamp in the 60's Fender vein. Lots of clean, lots of chime, and grit if you wanna crank it. 1x12 combo with a Jensen C12N. Added post-phase inverter master volume to keep it chill when needed:

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BF-15+. Very similar amp to the one posted above but with a tip in the other direction. No master volume, but an added and switchable Rangemaster/Ballsmaster style boost to the front end. Plays the same as if you had a RM pedal or amp-top unit in front of the input, but all internal. Transistor is a Soviet MЛ38a.

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Website: http://ballseffects.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetonyballs/

Re: Balls Effects / Balls Amplification

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benadrian wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 12:39 pm I appreciate your commitment to perfboard and hand wiring. In days where even the smallest builders are getting short run PCBs made, it really gives me the warm feelings of a had-crafted thing.
HA, thanks. I'm a true luddite with this shit but the maintainability that comes with handwiring is something i'm pretty adamant about.
Website: http://ballseffects.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetonyballs/

Re: Balls Effects / Balls Amplification

4
Ahh. I really missed this thread. Great to see what you've been up to. I took up building pedals from PCBs this pandemic, and now appreciate your craft even more. Now, I actually understand how they work, and I can geek out on the parts inside, etc.

Those combo amps got me hot and bothered. Beautiful work as always Tony!
New Shit:
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