Great thanks, I saved them to the cloud with a clear label - let’s see if I can find them again in another 10 years.

The amp hum isn’t terrible - I was recording a lead guitar track still, but I think its probably just time for the local guy to service it.

Balls BF-2R. I've made one of these before, and this one is the same but in blonde tolex. Take an AB165 Bassman, add reverb, add bias-wiggle tremolo, and reconfigure the back end for ECL84/6DX8 power tubes for ~2 watts of lil' push-pull action. Pair with a great 8" speaker (Jupiter 8SC) to top it off.

Success, finally.

More like the blue balls thread. Demo?

Frankie99 wrote: Thu Jan 15, 2026 11:46 am More like the blue balls thread. Demo?

I dont know if its that cool, tbh. maybe it is? It sounds, fittingly, like a fucked up practice amp. There's some harsh overtone thing happening which I think is from the twin T notch filter. Its a specific sound and probably kind of a one trick pony. Shitty phone demo with bad playing here.

That metallic-y thing sounds pretty great and there's also a little "spitty" thing happening. Neither of those qualities are annoyingly over the top, I dig it.

I kind of hate ‘crazy’ pedals but would totally rock that. Not sure how the input/output scheme works but that seems like it sounds way better than my actual Freedom amp.

Speaking of, I do need to put mine on a variac and see if it sounds better than I remember. I don’t remember it sounding like that.

It just now occurs to me that I bought my Freedom amp from Austin Vintage and was literally trying it out side by side against this holy grail dearmond amp. Some guy walked up to me after hearing me play
like, which amp was I plugged into and did I know what that other amp was.

So I had a little meet cute with it but as soon as I took it home I basically never used it again, but I had a practice space where I could crank Super Reverbs and Balls AC30s and Selmers, so I wasn’t real worried about it. I always did like Traynor TS-series practice amps though.

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Thu Jan 15, 2026 6:35 pm Not sure how the input/output scheme works but that seems like it sounds way better than my actual Freedom amp.

On the amp, the "Volume" knob is just a potentiometer on the input to attenuate signal. Its functionally the same as rolling back the volume knob on your guitar to send less signal into the circuit. That's what's labeled Input. The control labeled Output is the same thing on the output, like a Master Volume control. So you can turn up the Input to get your desired level of distortion, and then turn down the Output to your desired volume level. I labeled em like this on the prototype but on a production unit they could be something more intuitive.

Its possible that you just never turned your actual Freedom amp up enough to get it to distort because the volume level was more than you wanted. I'm also playing into a whole other amp/speakers that's gonna color the signal in some way.

Anyway....if anyone digs what the pedal became i'll do a small run of these at a discounted PRF price. Just lemme know.

Dr Tony Balls wrote: Fri Jan 16, 2026 9:18 am Its possible that you just never turned your actual Freedom amp up enough to get it to distort because the volume level was more than you wanted. I'm also playing into a whole other amp/speakers that's gonna color the signal in some way.

Haha. Yeah, I can tell you 100% I don’t plug into solid state practice amps when conditions allow me to turn up in the house. I’m going to have to give it a go now

Count me in. I've been dicking around using the memory man as just a preamp and tiny slap into a super reverb, and I'd be interested how this sounds. Id rather use the DMM as a fun delay.