capable of producing precision instruments
would have no trouble producing simple
musical gadgets, and theory ended up being
100 percent correct. The Jordan team produced
a slew of guitar pedals, and every single one is
worth seeking out. Notable examples include
the ultra-rare Vico Vibe (which I’ve built in
these very pages, issue 120), the Creator (one
of many, many Big Muff clones of the era), the
Vibrasonic and a handful more. Though these
pedals are great (especially that Vico Vibe—
seriously, build it), the one everyone goes crazy
for is the original Boss Tone.
realized as a pro-grade tone tool, yet was still
polarizing due to its awkward enclosure. A
wave of clones soon followed, and to this day,
many pedals are based on the Boss Tone—
the Voodoo Lab Superfuzz, Electro-Harmonix
Satisfaction, Rockett WTF and many pedals
by Paul Trombetta, just to name a few. Players
the world over have tasted the Boss Tone, and
now, so will you.
This build represents an exciting time here
at Tone Report, because we are offering kits
for this project. Much of the kinks in the DIY
hose are creatted by the need to procure the
Build Your Own
modified jordan boss
words by Nicholas Kula
tone
Manufactured in a small plastic shell that was
originally meant to plug directly into the guitar,
the Boss Tone was about as inconvenient as
pedals get. Theoretically, these pedals were
absolutely manufactured by Geiger counter
engineers—there’s no way this design,
released as part of a line, was preconceived
with the idea that only one effect can be used
at a time. Perhaps this is testament to brand
loyalty coupled with the simplicity of the time
period—guitarists may have only needed one
effect at a time to find their sounds. Despite
this hang-up, the Boss Tone was quickly
parts for each build—components have many
more ratings than we need, and there are
informational pitfalls throughout. For example,
if you order 630-volt capacitors or two-watt
resistors, they’re going to be huge and won’t
fit the layout. The navigation is cloudy at
best, and so I have taken it upon myself to
personally assemble each kit for you, and the
build instructions provided herein are built
using the exact same kit available for sale—it’s
foolproof. But before we continue, let’s have a
look at the d