I began to design pedals in my late years of secondary school, and have remained dedicated ever since. Pedals provide me with a perfect balance of mental stimulation, as well as hand craft. It is my belief that life can be understood as an expression of rhythm and pattern. Building pleasant sounding effect circuits is my way of playing back with the universe, and it's a real trip. My design style might be thought of as a hybrid combination of vintage and modern technologies. I build each pedal myself, by hand, as I would for myself or for a close friend.
This is a one-person operation. I work from home, by humble means. The enclosures are drilled and powder coated in my garage. My name is Darron Thornbury, and I live in the outer south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia.
All pedals have a 10 year warranty.
Here are some of the common high quality parts which I use in most of my pedal designs:
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CAGA V2 |
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BSIAB2 |
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BIG FUZZ |
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OPTICAL TREMOLO |
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STEREO PANNING OPTICAL TREMOLO |
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PROFESSIONAL DRIVE |
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TONEBENDER MKII |
Germanium amplifier v2 AUD$199. Free post worldwide. See returns policy. |
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BSIAB2 This circuit (Brown Sound in a Box 2) was by far my favourite distortion back in high school. The cool thing was, if you wanted one, you just have to build one or know somebody who could. The circuit was designed by Ed Guidry, similar to works by Jack Oran and Aron Nelson. Back in the day, it was one of the highest recommended builds on the forums. Many would suggest that his design was the original precursor to many of the "high gain amp" pedals that came out in the 2000's. It's basically a Marshall stack tone faker. It has a tonne of gain, and a huge clean bottom end to fake a big amp. My build also has improved noise spec. This circuit also responds excellently to rolling back the instrument volume knob. Distortion is achieved by overdriving Fairchild field effect transistors (FETs), being the closest solid-state relative to vacuum tubes. No diodes are involved for clipping. There are three stacked gain stages. The first two are μAmp stages, which is a classic valve topology developed to achieve high gain performance from tubes. The final is a class a stage. AUD$220. Free post worldwide. See returns policy. |
The Pedal Show! | ||
FIRST DEMO |
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BIG FUZZ The Big Fuzz is a muff circuit, which has been made to factor all of my favourite elements from the many various models. Further, some improvements have been made to improve user interaction. This includes increased bass, and improved bass clipping response, improved tone control functionality, and fine tuned top-end clipping response and smoothing. The classic design varied greatly over the years, being made in various locations to different schematics and ever-changing component values. One large reason I suspect some models are still higher favoured now, is for their amount of mid-scoop. This is a famous love-hate element of the circuit. However, having this second tone knob adjustment is incredibly helpful. There is an internal mod switch to change for a huge-bodied bass response, as well as switches to change the gain stages to match different models. AUD$220. Free post worldwide. See returns policy. |
brett kingman | ||
InTheBlues | ||
KFIRO | ||
KFIRO | ||
SHAUN KLINGER (iphone) |
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OPTICAL TREMOLO Tremolos interest me as a good design has its own lively pulse, which can sound lively like the instrument itself. By shining a fading light against a photo-sensitive device, this tremolo uses all analog photo-coupling to restrict and fluctuate the output volume. After a decade of development, I've created this completely unique circuit, as my ideal tremolo sound. Always use a high quality regulated and isolated power supply for best operation. Daisy chain power cables may induce clock noise. A line level optimised version can be made on request. Presently, only black+gold version is available until I make some more white version enclosures. AUD$220. Free post worldwide. See returns policy. |
Mike Hermans | |
James Ryan | |
brett kingman | |
InTheBlues |
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STEREO PANNING OPTICAL TREMOLO This is my attempt to make a perfect tremolo sound. After a decade of development, I've created this completely unique circuit as my ideal tremolo. By shining a fading light against a photo-sensitive device, this tremolo uses all analog photo-coupling to restrict and fluctuate the output volume. This is a stereo variation of my smaller Optical Tremolo. It can take a stereo input, or split a mono guitar input between two amplifiers. The PAN switch changes the oscillator of each channel to be out of sync - so one comes up in volume while the other drops. This creates a strange swirling effect. All original analog circuitry and true bypass mechanical switching. Always use a high quality regulated and isolated power supply for best operation. Daisy chain power cables may induce clock noise. AUD$289. Free post worldwide. See returns policy. |
Brett Kingman | ||
James Ryan | ||
Shaun Klinger |
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PROFESSIONAL DRIVE I had been reluctant to join the tube screamer cloners, but over the years I’d assisted in many custom overdrive designs and I feel it was time to settle this. AUD$235. Free post worldwide. See returns policy. |
INThEBlUES | ||
CAPTAIN CHERRY'S |
tonebender professional MKII
AUD$520. Free express post worldwide. See returns policy. Please allow up to two weeks for creation and post. Please note components used will always vary from those shown in the gut shot photo below. Mullard OC81 and OC81D are exhausted now and other transistors will be used.
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Email me at thornbury@gmail.com. I might be a little slow to respond sometimes, but am happy to help out wherever I can.
Please note that I am not taking any orders for completely custom builds, and am keen to build my own pedal kinds.
You can also follow Dazatronyx on Instagram and Facebook.
Here are some legacy links from the previous website: