Foxx Tone Machine

Playing guitar and buying equipment are two pastimes in my immediate family history. I was in 3rd or 4th grade at our old house, and remember my dad pulling his pre CBS Jazzmaster out of wherever he had it stored to reveal to us that he played guitar when he was younger. To a young boy cutting his teeth on Nevermind, Use Your Illusion, and the Black Album, he might as well have donned a cape and spandex.

As the next few years went on, and my brother and I began to play and acquire gear for ourselves, while exploring Dad's old junk. Or at least we thought it was junk. The aforementioned Jazzmaster, a 60s Blackface Deluxe Reverb, and a Foxx Tone Machine fuzz pedal, total value on today's market pushing $10,000; all of which were sold (pause for tears). The Foxx Tone Machine was a nasty fuzz/octave pedal to begin with, and his was in ill repair which made it even worse. At the time, we all laughed at the outdated technology and sound, as we tossed it aside and moved on to more modern distortions and effects. 

He sold the pedal, and a few decades went by without giving much thought about it. A few years back, it crossed my mind and I began to watch videos to see what was what. My ears and mind were blown away by the "thick ocean" of fuzz, which when agitated by the octive* switch (misspelled on the original release), unleashed a raspy lighting god snarl that would make children cry. I had to have one. A quick eBay search revealed that original Tone Machines went for $400 - $700, and inferior reissues for around $300. A more in depth hunt showed me that the owner of Danelectro was actually the designer of the original Tone Machine, and had released a cheap replica of the circuit, called a French Toast, to the tune of $40. Click. Buy it now. Shipped. Fuzz heaven. 

I played it in spurts, the sound was nearly identical, but the quality of the pedal housing was crap. A month ago I decided to pull the guts from the Dano and research parts/theory to rewire it with good components in a metal housing. When all the parts had made their way to my house, I set up shop at my desk and began the process of desoldering the junk from the effects board and researching how to wire it back up. While much of the theory is still above my pay grade, I got quite the education on electronics during this process. I also grew angry and disappointed often as I encountered speed bumps of all kinds. 

Yes, I know it's ugly...

During the removal of the trim pots and other components, I was also getting initial practice with a soldering iron. Bad time to learn, and I damaged many traces on the board. On day two I wired in a few pots, and by day three I had wired ins/outs, leds, 3pdt switches for both fuzz and octave. Trial run, could it be this easy? Plugged everything in aaaaaaand... nothing. No power, no signal, but my true bypass was wired correctly and I had a clean tone when disengaged :) With no multimeter, I tried to logic my way through the trouble shooting, rewiring to points past traces I had lifted, checking joints, etc. Tried again: nothing. This process continued for a few days until I broke down and purchased a meter. I spent an evening or two poking around checking continuity and voltages. Total $$ invested was well over $150 at this point and it appeared as though I was making no headway. 

Friday evening, after a long drive I escaped to the basement to play with the meter some more, on the verge of throwing the aluminum brick hard into a dumpster. I couldn't figure out why no power was reading through the DC jack. On a whim, I removed the shitty jack from the Danelectro board and wired it to my new build. POWER. Holy cow, the Hallelujah Chorus erupted and I dashed to my amp to test it. It made fuzz sounds. Even better. The switches were not wired properly, but that was a quick fix and I made plans for Saturday to finish the wiring and purchase a new jack. 

Saturday morning I took my eldest to the nearest Radio Shack, purchased a jack, and spent the car ride talking circuits. Got home, wired up the new jack outside the box, POWER. That settled it, with switches wired properly, I mounted the jack to the box and made a final test; it didn't work. Christ. To the internet, and I should have realized, metal jack, metal housing, I was sending all my volts directly to ground. The following day I insulated the jack with some rubber O-rings and electrical tape, spent some time sorting out the wiring of the pots, and at long last, everything functioned without major issue. Phew.

That afternoon I removed the guts, and made a first attempt at flocking the housing with my middle son. It was a messy rush job, I was trying to fit too much into our weekend. Luckily, most folks online suggest a second coat. It didn't end up perfect, but the second coat left it pretty well covered and thick. Most importantly, it was fuzzy.

As the final coat dried, I took to Gimp (freeware photo editor) to rework a Foxx label to match my rearranged pedal. I added an octave switch, and realigned the titles to match my pots/inputs layout. I printed it on an ID card maker, the label is plastic, but gets the idea across. I had to reduce the size significantly to make it fit between my components. That's what I get for not planning ahead, but oh well.

Last but not least, I bolted the guts back into the flocked housing, tested it to be sure it was working, and once I was assured she was sound, hot glued the logo to the pedal. So, many weeks of money, research, work, and headaches later, I had my take on a Foxx Tone Machine. My version has LEDs, true bypass, 100k pots, and a footswitch for the Octive control. Satisfied with my work, I got reacquainted with the pedal in its new skin. It is a rich and thick tone, which gets beautifully nasty with the Octive engaged. It begged for some Hendrix, Nirvana, and a staple in our household, the riff to Blue Oyster Cult's Godzilla. Somehow, looking down while playing and seeing a replica Foxx housing made the sonic experience more satisfying.

This effort boils down to a bit of a tribute to my dad. The Tone Machine is piece 1 of 3 to rebuilding the rig that got my brother and I into guitar in the first place. It's certainly not a perfect build, but the imperfections will be part of the story. I love the sound, feel a bit more connected to my history as I play it, and hell, I'm getting a lot out of it just looking at the damn thing.

3/28/16 Edit. While functioning sound wise, I've discovered it has a nasty habit of burning out power supplies. I am getting some advise from the friendly folks at DIYstompboxes.com  Pictures below are for troubleshooting purposes.