Boss Tone reproduction

Roger Francis · Post by **Roger Francis** » 5 Jul 2007 5:34 pm

My tube creamer was the same way, it sound best after the battery started waring down, so i ran it on 7.5 volt from my Radio Shack power supply.

Keith Hilton · Post by **Keith Hilton** » 5 Jul 2007 7:32 pm

Donny we put the jack and plug both on the left side, like your unit.

Russ Wever · Post by **Russ Wever** » 5 Jul 2007 9:44 pm

One of the two BossTones I have would act as an 'octave divider' when its battery reaches a certain amount of discharge, giving the original note plus a note an octave lower -
This was great back then, in a time before Octave Dividers were on the market!
Trouble was, besides 'waiting out' a fresh battery, is that it produced the 'octave' effect only in the lower register of the (E9) tuning and not on the higher notes.
~Russ

Keith Hilton · Post by **Keith Hilton** » 6 Jul 2007 10:42 am

Russ and Donny, I am going to try hooking a unit to a variable DC power supply. I will start out at 9 Volts DC and slowly start dropping the voltage to see the result on the guitar sound. I will report back.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 7 Jul 2007 3:30 pm

Excellent! Thank you!

Micky Byrne · Post by **Micky Byrne** » 10 Jul 2007 6:59 am

Hi Jerry, totally agree with you on the Boss tone. Had mine since 1970, never gone wrong, and got a spare one too just in case

As you say, it's all on there "IF" you need it, and technique and tone helps. I have a British made sustain unit like the famous "G" brand, so when I kick in on distortion, I back off the highs on the sustain unit. Works a treat. For the "Strings" simulation I do what most players do picking on strings 4,5 and 8 back off the highs and I kick in another Boss RV3 for more reverb. I just play what a string section will play. Makes the little Boss tone add to the versatility of a steel guitar in a small band. That's apart from my Leslie simulator

Micky Byrne United Kingdom

Micky Byrne · Post by **Micky Byrne** » 10 Jul 2007 7:07 am

Keith, would you have Johnny Spaugh's e'mail address?? I've lost it. He was lead player with the Dean Miller show for a few months in 1984 when I came over to work the upper Mid Mest with John. I know you knew John

Micky Byrne United Kingdom

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 10 Jul 2007 8:00 am

If you pick strings 4, 5, 8 you will get an octave lower sound, even with a new battery.

Strings 2 and 4 in unison (lower string 4 or if you raise string 2 - either way) and you get the violin effect.

Keith Hilton · Post by **Keith Hilton** » 10 Jul 2007 8:07 am

Micky, yes I do know John Spaugh. John played guitar with our band at the biggest night club in Joplin, Missouri in the late 70's. I went to work at the biggest night club in Branson, Missouri around 1980 and worked there 6 nights a week for 5 years, until 1985. John came and played guitar at that club on one occassion. Here is his e-mail address: jspookspa@wmconnect.com John lives at Warsaw, Missouri. Tell him I said hello.

Micky Byrne · Post by **Micky Byrne** » 10 Jul 2007 8:21 am

Thank you so much Keith, John was a really good laugh. We had fun times together, I always remember him playing "Lady Madonna" by the Beatles on his Gibson 335. Bass runs and all...all at the same time :)He got the gals too

lucky man

....must have been the mature grey hair

....by the way I engraved the pick guard on his 335. Hope he still has it. Of course I'll say hello from you...thanks soooooo much.

Micky Byrne United Kingdom www.mickybyrne.com

Micky Byrne · Post by **Micky Byrne** » 10 Jul 2007 8:25 am

Hi Jack, that's exactly what I do....depending on what I'm trying to simulate....

Micky Byrne United Kingdom

Bob Lawrence · Post by **Bob Lawrence** » 28 Jul 2007 6:04 pm

Keith,

Good luck with your project. I made this unit last summer and although I don't use fuzz much I had my friend Bob Mcdonald test it and he liked it better that the Boss tone he has. You can put the unit in or out of circuit with the palm of your hand as you play and the green LED lights when fuzz is in circuit. Big knobs are easy to turn with picks on.

Bruce Bindeman · Post by **Bruce Bindeman** » 29 Jul 2007 8:25 am

Bob,

What kind of switch are you using?

Is this a Bosstone clone or one of your own design?

Regards,

Bruce

Rick Nicklas · Post by **Rick Nicklas** » 29 Jul 2007 2:51 pm

Keith, take this bull by the horns and name it "The Matador".

Keith Hilton · Post by **Keith Hilton** » 29 Jul 2007 7:30 pm

Rick, I have decided to use Jerry Roller's name:
I named my unit--"Hil-Tone". I have everything going, mass producing labels and circuits this next week. Bob, interesting knobs and switch. Bob good to hear from you, are you going to be in St. Louis?

Rick Nicklas · Post by **Rick Nicklas** » 29 Jul 2007 7:36 pm

Oh darn... I was hoping for some sort of royalty check to supplement my $30-a-gig with the Matador's.

Bob Lawrence · Post by **Bob Lawrence** » 29 Aug 2007 12:21 pm

Bruce,

The switch is a push button DPDT / ON ON

Keith,

Thanks! for your comments. I was just testing a few different layout ideas and out of 3 designs, I liked this one the best. The case is a little bigger that the first one I used but it's more convenient for prototyping ideas.

The schematic I used is one that my dad (Fred) used to build his many years ago. I am not sure of the source but it does have a reference to Future Electronics, Montreal , Canada.

Caps: It uses two .05UF and one .02 UF
Pots are both 100K

Here's a picture of the input jack side: (screws are mounted from the inside)

I am going to St' Louis this Friday and hope to see you there.

Bruce Bindeman · Post by **Bruce Bindeman** » 29 Aug 2007 6:16 pm

Bob,

That is certainly well built. I like what you did with the plug.

Bruce

John Bechtel · Post by **John Bechtel** » 29 Aug 2007 9:12 pm

During the time I was working the OPRY in the late 70's, Hal Rugg, Sonny Burnette and Weldon Myrick were pushing the Violin/string-effect on almost every song with the BOSS~TONE and besides strings 4,5 & 8 for the octave, their ‘usual’ strings of choice for the violin/string-effect were #1 plus #4-raised to F# on the (C)-pedal change, besides, I imagine; the #2-lowered plus the (A)-pedal raise on string #5. I understand, any means of getting two unison strings! _ _ _ The tip Sonny gave me to get the best distortion for the string-effect was to turn the Attack Full-CW and then back it off ever so slightly to remove the edge and then adjust the volume to match the uneffected volume! I think all of our BOSS~TONEs came from Shot's store. I remember Shot replaced something on the inside of mine and told me it would produce a better sound, and it did! Originally the distrotion was kinda weak!

Keith Hilton · Post by **Keith Hilton** » 30 Aug 2007 10:54 am

I am in full production of the Hil-Tone units, which is the same type unit as the original Boss Tone unit Sho Bud used to sell. I will have these units in St. Louis, at the Convention, or you can order them from Hilton Electronics 248 Laurel Road Ozark, Missouri 65721

Tim Bridges · Post by **Tim Bridges** » 30 Aug 2007 12:08 pm

How much are they?

Keith Hilton · Post by **Keith Hilton** » 30 Aug 2007 8:47 pm

$ 149.00 plus $6.00 shipping.

Michael Johnstone · Post by **Michael Johnstone** » 31 Aug 2007 8:20 am

I always had trouble working that little slide switch with fingerpicks on - not to mention I had a couple go intermittant on me so I did this mod.

I just fashioned a little piece of pickguard material to mount the new switch to and epoxied it in place. If I was doing a reproduction of a Bosstone I'd definately use a mini toggle switch - now that I've tried it. Ergonomically and reliability-wise,it's a real improvement. BTW that little piece of black electrical tape acts as a hood to keep from accidentally turning the pots once they're set which is real easy to do otherwise - another design flaw that could be improved on in my opinion. I still pull that little puppy out for rock & roll gigs or special efx. Nowadays other units may sound just as good or better but they're not as handy.

Mike Maddux · Post by **Mike Maddux** » 5 Sep 2007 9:18 am

Can we get a picture of the new unit?

Wayne Franco · Post by **Wayne Franco** » 5 Sep 2007 8:57 pm

I had a distortin unit years ago made by TC Electronics. I used it only for a line booster for years on my Banjo. When I started playing steel one day I plugged it in and used the distortion sound for the first time. Unfortunately it was stolen. I have never heard a unit I liked better. Is anyone familiar with the Bosstone compared to the T.C. Electronics unit?. If it has that kind of sound I'll certainly buy one. I swear you could play faded love on one string and you'd think you could hear the fiddle bow on the strings.

The Steel Guitar Forum

Boss Tone reproduction

My version of the Bosstone

Picture of the Input Jack side

Can someone compare the bosstone to the old T.C. Electronics