tungsten tone

The B5 Tungsten Tone overdrive pedal was originally designed to compliment the Valve Junior and other single preamp tube amps. However, since its introduction it has been used in countless amp and recording situations. It has become the “go to”pedal to those musicians I have built them for. It adds its own unique sweet overdrive to any amp lucky enough to be connected to it.

This pedal has been tweaked and modified to the hilt to produce clear note articulation and round huge tone no matter where you play on the neck. Chords or a blistering solo, this pedal makes your tone stand out. The applications for this pedal are plenty, some musicians have even used it for vocal treatment and to give a keyboard track some warm tungsten character.

A lot of my customers wanted more gain and better bass response out of their rig without losing note articulation. The sea of pedals available today are mediocre and can suck down an already weak guitar signal down into the mud due to electronic switching and just poor design. So, I looked at many classic overdrive designs and some of the new ones and painstakingly fleshed my way through countless designs and mods and finally developed an outstanding design.

The new TK-421 mod is now available. It’s still has all the unique Tungsten Tone characteristics, except it’s in a bigger enclosure with an additional foot switch and status LED indicator to activate the shape function for a more round and open tone. This hands-free feature is perfect for the performing musician.

This pedal is so unique due to the vintage parts used, none of the pedals I build sound exactly the same. They all have their own unique signature. If you want your tone to sound like everybody else, then buy a Tube Screamer. If you want an overdrive tone that is truly unique that you can call your own, then send me an e-mail to get the build process going.

IT’S IN THE DOPE

What really sets this pedal apart from so many others is the parts that are used. We got our hands on some late 60’s and early 70’s diodes , transistors, and LED’s that were salvaged from some old U.S. Navy equipment. The age of these vintage components and heavy use over the years has degraded the doping material of these semiconductors just enough for them to clip in a very unique fashion. The result is overdrive that sits between germanium and silicon driven devices, a warmer fuller overdrive that does not clip so harsh or too subtle. The Tungsten Tone uses these vintage aged devices to achieve its unique tone and character that is just so hard to find.

This pedal is built to order. They are handmade by myself. They are not mass-produced. No migrant workers in a sweatshop here. It all starts with a blank copper clad board, a lot of time, and pain staking effort! If your looking for a mass produced overdrive pedal ripe with cold solder joints, tone sucking electronic bypass switching, then you are looking in the wrong place.

I have had numerous request to purchase just the semiconductors for modifications and initial pedal building. We can accommodate some of these request provided our limited inventory does not drop too low. So, if you are a builder looking to add some dimension to your overdrive pedal, e-mail us to see what our inventory looks like.

Please check out our Price List for pricing. Feel free to e-mail b5amps@me.com to place one on order, or if you need further information.

I built this custom Tungsten Tone pedal for a customer who wanted it to match his favorite guitar. In this case, the Les Paul pictured to the right. I attempted to try and match the pedal’s finish with the Les Paul’s maple top and the result was remarkable! The pedal has a beautiful 3D like appearance that mimics the Les Paul’s maple top.

He later sent me a picture of the two and wrote that he “couldn’t be happier with the tone and the look!” “Your Tungsten Tone pedal retired my collection of Tube Screamers and ended my quest for the perfect overdrive.”

-S. Lutz

Bellevue, WA