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Analog Man Astro Tone Fuzz
Analog Man Astro Tone Fuzz
Analog Man ASTRO TONE fuzz


 
Our Price: $185.00



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Product Code: AMASTROTONE

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Add a CBI Ultimate 15 foot Guitar Cable $26 [Add $26.00]Add a great sounding 15 foot long guitar cable, black with straight metal soldered Neutrik ends.
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18" Power Cable for PP2 (one straight and one 90 degree end, unless specified in comments) $3.99 [Add $3.99]Does not work with our $15 Boss type power supplies, has 2 male ends for use with multi-outlet supplies like Voodoo Labs, etc

Extra 36" power Cable for PP2 with one 90 degree end $4.99 [Add $4.99]Does not work with our $15 Boss style power supplies, has 2 male ends for use with Voodoo Labs etc
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US 120V 9vDC $15 [Add $15.00]- This is a normal 9V Boss type external power supply/adaptor for USA use with 120V AC wall power.

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Euro 240V $15 [Add $15.00]- this is an external power supply/adaptor for use with 220/240V AC to make 9Vdc for the pedal.

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UK 240V $15 [Add $15.00]- this is an external power supply/adapter for use with UK (3 prong) 220/240V AC to make 9Vdc for the pedal.
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Add an MXR style knob cover $2.00 [Add $2.00]- This knob cover fits on the larger of the two versions of MXR style knobs we used to use on our AM pedals. It won't fit the knobs we normally use the last few years (except the POT) but if you choose this option we will put the older style knobs on your pedal. They make it easy to turn the knob with your foot. If you want more than one, you can add them to your shopping cart from the Accessories - Pedal Parts menu.
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Description Extended Information
 
he Analog Man ASTRO TONE fuzz is somewhere between a fuzz and distortion, it acts differently into different amps. But it sounds great into almost anything! I always had trouble using Fuzzfaces live, this one is MUCH easier to use and you can hear it well with a band.
Here's a nice demo from Guitarsenal
Features

ASTRO TONE Fuzz

Analog Man released the ASTRO TONE fuzz in 2010. This pedal is based on the 1960's SAM ASH FUZZZ BOXX and ASTROTONE FUZZ made in New York City in 1966-68 by the Astro Amp company. It was one of the earliest and best fuzz pedals. Analog Mike had a NOS Astro Tone fuzz back in the 90s, here is a copy of the manual that he saved from it.

Here is the old ASTROTONE, a dark grey pedal.

Here is a link to this old ASTROTONE FUZZ pedal that Mike repaired for a customer, showing the insides of the pedals.


Here is the ASTROTONE next to the more common SAM ASH.


There were two versions of the Sam Ash case, the boards were the same in both.



This was the first pedal that Analogmike cloned, way back in about 1994. Mine was really a clone, down to the artwork on the board and the board mounted pots. Still works very well! I met Gene Cornish from The Rascals at at the Long Island, NY Classic American Guitar show in the mid 90's where I brought this prototype pedal. Gene told me that he was using one in the 60s and Leslie West saw him use it. The next time they met, he saw that Leslie was using TWO of them in line! Ira Stone, who played with and knew Leslie back then (and came to my shop to check out some pedals recently) confirmed this, saying "Leslie used two Sam Ash fuzz tones in line many times with the Vagrants".


Analogmike finally got an engineer, John Foege, from Georgia Tech, to help with some of the time-consuming design work (board layout, testing, etc) so this was a great first project. He used some nice software to design the board, and it came out great.

The picture at the left is computer generated simulation, not a real picture of our board.


Here is the actual inside of the pedal.


The Analog Man ASTRO TONE is not quite the same as the old pedals. I took our first prototype, made to 100% original specs, to play with my power trio. At the shop we compared it to an original and the sound was exactly the same. But I did not like it much, I could not hear it well with the band, it was not thick enough. The problem with the original design was that there was very little low end, the sound was quite thin. With a clean amp, I REALLY had to crank up the volume on it to get a good sound. But this would make the ON sound too much louder than the OFF sound for live use. And the tone knob was really limited in the useful range. So we took the circuit and with some modern software analyzed it and found out how we could retain the low end, and make the tone control somewhat more useful. But we made sure that we could still get the EXACT sounds of the original pedal if that was desired. By turning the tone knob up higher, you can still get the original sounds which are good into a large, cranked amp. But we made it so that it now sounds awesome even into a little amp like a Fender Deluxe Reverb, at near unity gain on the pedal.

I found several hundred original Astrotone transistors about 20 years ago. They are little plastic, flat, pill shaped Fairchild transistors. They have gold plated leads - they were made back in the days when gold was cheap and transistors were expensive! These transistors are pretty consistent, and usually well behaved, but we have do discard some that are too noisy for a fuzz pedal. We made over 3,000 of these pedals with these original transistors. IN 2023 we started using newer transistors of the same type and shape, also with gold legs.


Many people have problems using a Fuzz Face type pedal, like our Sunface, live with a band. I had the same problem which is one reason we are making these pedals, it's something I need to get the sounds I want. I play Fender amps with a Les Paul, which is not too favorable to fuzz face pedals. But this pedal works great with that setup.

The sound is not as compressed as a Fuzz Face, not SUPER thick and saturated, something between a fuzz and distortion. It's fuzzier into a smaller amp (Fender Deluxe), and more of a BOOSTER into a large distorted amp (Marshall 1970s Super Lead). It can also be stacked with other pedals, for example running a fuzz face into it can get a sound like Spirit in the Sky, which buzzes and cuts out. Or run the Astro Tone into an OD pedal like a TS808 or KoT to make it fatter.

Features:

  1. True Bypass switching
  2. Super Bright LED for lower power use, buffed so as not to blind you!
  3. Uses less than 1 mA of power when off, only 3 when on, so an Alkaline bat tery will last a few hundred hours of normal playing time.
  4. Three simple knobs - Volume, Fuzz, and Tone.
  5. High quality, hand wired RE'AN input and output jacks.
  6. In and Out jacks on top for best pedalboard real estate management
  7. Normal Boss style power jack, on the right side, negative ground so no polarity problems
  8. Original type silicon transistors, not affected by heat like a Germanium fuzz.
  9. Sound is not as compressed as a fuzzface, not SUPER thick and saturated, something between a fuzz and distortion but closer to a fuzz.
  10. SIZE : 2 5/16" x 4 5/16", MXR size 1290 or 1590B enclosure.

Black version!

Some people on The Gear Page wanted a black version with gold graphics like the original, so we made a batch in late summer 2011. We have the black/gold available as an option.



Sound Clips

Elton's Saturday Night AnalogMike's 59 reissue Les Paul into Astrotone into ARDX20 delay into a Deluxe Reverb reissue. Fuzz is up about 3:00 and tone about 12:00.

Cinnamon Girl AnalogMike's 58 reissue Les Paul into Astrotone into ARDX20 delay into a Deluxe Reverb reissue. Fuzz is up about 4:00 and tone about 1:00.

AnalogMan Astro Tone Fuzz from Doppler Demos on Vimeo.

Here are the above video clips in a longer audio format from Doug Doppler which will be on his GET KILLER TONE dvd series. First is a Les Paul into our ASTRO TONE into our Boss DD3 mod, into a 1963 Fender Vibrasonic. The first one shows the cleanup of the pedal with your volume knob, Hendrix-esque Neck Position : Astroman.

Here is another one, same setup, Classic Rock Bridge Position... Astrorock.

Analog Man Astro Tone fuzz demo by Scott Metzger from mike piera on Vimeo.

Analog Man Astro Tone fuzz demo #2 by Scott Metzger from mike piera on Vimeo.

Here is a Premier Guitar magazine review

Gearmanndude!

My old friend Bobby D!

I brought one to Luther Dickinson when The Black Crowes were back in CT in fall 2010. He didn't seem too interested but when he plugged it in his eyes lit up and his tech put it right on his board. He used it on the first song for an awesome solo and it sounded amazing through his loud Fuchs amp. His smile and thumbs up made me very proud. After using it for a few weeks, Luther wrote :
The Astro Tone is the best, most usable Fuzz I have ever used and caused me to take the Sunface off my pedal board!
The KoT is still onboard for cleaner boosts, of course.
You are the best!
When I met up with him in 2017 he said he was still enjoying it on his board.

In June, 2012 I finally got to hear Gary Clark Jr when he came to Connecticut. Gary has been using our ARDX20 for quite some time, and our Astro Tone and KOT pedals also. Gary is a FUZZ MEISTER and one of the hottest guitarists to come out in years!!! He used the Astro Tone for his basic fuzz sound, often in combination with the KOT, and sounded AMAZING. Here's his simple yet effective pedalboard:

In 2019, Connor Kennedy joined Steely Dan and brought his BIG-T equipped Tele out with our Juicer and Astro Tone. Here's a clip of him playing this setup in Las Vegas, showing the cleaner side of the Astro Tone:


Electronic Break-in

This pedal seems to need some time to really sound best. Many people have reported that their pedal was a bit weak when they got it, but after using it for a while it got stronger with better tone. So feel free to leave it hooked up to a 9V power supply overnight to form the capacitors and blow the cobwebs out of the 40 year old silicon in the transistors.

Tone Quest Report Magazine article

Here is an article on the Astro Tone Fuzz from Tone Quest Report.
Page1 and Page2.

Review: Analogman Astro Tone Fuzz www.delicious-audio.com


Average Customer Review: Average Customer Review: 5 of 5 5 of 5 Total Reviews: 33 Write a review.

  0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 
5 of 5 Astro Tone Fuzz October 15, 2023
Reviewer: Ron Rumsey from Tallahassee, FL  
I've had this pedal for a bit now. I've played it in band situations, recorded with it, and played with it at home (bedroom levels). This thing rocks! Whether stand alone or stacked with other pedals (currently a Wampler Claymore), the Astro Tone Fuzz does exactly what I want it to do... put some hair on a lightly overdriven guitar. It will do more fuzz but not the spitty highly compressed buzz saw type of fuzz.. It will do less fuzz, cleans up very nicely with your guitar's volume rolled down. It's all good! I love it!

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  1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 
5 of 5 Very Versatile Fuzz June 13, 2023
Reviewer: Scott Curry from Massachusetts  
I’ve had this pedal for over a year and finally decided to write a review. This pedal is different than a Sun Face or other Fuzz pedals set up like a Fuzz Face. It doesn’t have the thick, saturated fuzz of those pedals. But what it does do extremely well is a sound on the edge of fuzz.

Full up, the pedal can give you a sound like Elton John’s Love Lies Bleeding. Roll the volume back to 9 and it cleans up fairly quickly. But where this pedal excels is on lower settings. Fuzz at 3 o’clock and you get a great chunky overdrive will a bit more grit than most OD.

It also stacks well with other pedals like the Sun Face, Bad Bob Boost, Juicer, Tube Screamers and Prince of Tone. What I really love about Analog Man pedals are the quality and low noise. They are really well built and Mike will answer any questions you have. I’ve got a bunch of Mike’s pedal and they are the only ones I won’t sell.

Scott

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  2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 
5 of 5 Fantastic OD/distortion/fuzz December 5, 2022
Reviewer: Chris M from Edmonton, AB Canada  
I play a Strat into a wet (Princeton)/dry (Vox AC15) rig. This pedal sounds great at every level of gain, from low gain OD on the one side of the knob, all the way up to a very tasty fuzz/distortion.

It stacks well with my other pedals. It sounds fantastic after a Sun Face (RCA) and Sun Bender 1.5. It sounds great before my other boosts and overdrives as well (Hudson Broadcast, Kinglsey Page, Tumnus), and thickens up the sound without getting muddy. It even cleans up decently with the volume knob on the guitar.

The Analog Man team are fantastic and quick to respond to questions and requests. Thanks!

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  2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 
5 of 5 Smooth and Chunky September 11, 2021
Reviewer: Brett Huhn from Columbia MD  
This fuzz works with all my axes.
Astrotone and Sunface!! Awesome!!
Astrotone into Beano Boost!! Clean to mean
Astrotone, w/modern Ibanez S! Yeah DO it This pedal is ‘The UN of Fuzz’
Tone rolled up is old school fun also

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  1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 
5 of 5 AstroTone delicious fuzz tones August 28, 2021
Reviewer: Lew Welch from Australia  
What a gorgeous fuzz pedal, especially with the fuzz all the way up and the volume all the way down. With the Price of Tone (boost) going into it, it’s just heavenly. Thanks Mike and team!

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