Designed to combine in the best way modulation and distortion, the BÊTE NOIRE © recreates plexi tube amp natural distortion with a complete array of controls, and features an inboard vintage analog Phasing effect ideally mixable or used separately.

A newly engineered circuit tailors The BÊTE NOIRE © amp-like distortion, giving phasing modulation perfect room size to breathe.

– European quality construction
– New plexi distortion circuit
– « Brown » switch mode
– « Variac » gain control
– Built-in analog phasing
– Effects can be used separately or mixed to perfection
– New « Chomp » bass attack control
– Acclaimed Silent True Bypass switch
– 9v standard operation

Plexi distortion, Variac gain and Brown tone

Arguably, the best distortion tone ever achieved for an electric guitar is a cranked-up plexi Marshall amp. The magic that occurs when all UK Mullard EL34 tubes and Partridge transformers go into distortion realm is hard to replicate, even for Marshall themselves.

Being a vintage amp collector, I have carefully listen to these marvelous amps, from original JTM45 to its majesty plexi JMP 100w for all details and responses to guitar playing, leading me to the BETE NOIRE circuit which, to my point of earing, nails this tone and most importantly, mimes the response to your playing an original plexi will have.

I have also carefully read and try what famous owners of these amps have done, and retained the best three features:

1-VARIAC : this control not only rise the gain but at the same time provides the current sag preventing the distortion high spikes for a smoother tone

2-BROWN : Still , most high gain tones need more EQ smoothing to reproduce the famous organic feel of a raging yet controled vintage plexi amp. The BROWN switch was painstakingly taylored to obtain the whole subtleties of this legendary sound.

3-CHOMP : Part of this legendary tone is of course the original 1960 cabinet with greenback Celestion speakers. Therefore the bass managing was a constant research for this pedal, leading us to this built-from-scratch tone control which allows a perfect tuning of the low band frequencies.

Lush analog phasing

There again , my nasty collector’s habits served my purpose. As one of my fave effects since the ’70s, I have collected and played every single vintage phase effects of the classic era. But not all these mesmerizing units would complement well a plexi distortion. The best marriage advice was a battered script logo MXR phase 90 so we built our phasing circuit around this tone, beautiful when used alone and perfectly matching our plexi distortion.

Silent True Bypass

Of course the BETE NOIRE features our acclaimed silent true bypass switching system based of Hall effect , in order to get the best of both stombox systems.

Appendix

The Beast of Gévaudan
Terrorizing Kingdom of France in the 18th century

In 1765, King Louis XV sent two professional wolf-hunters, Jean Charles Marc Antoine Vaumesle d’Enneval and his son Jean-François as well as First captain Duhamel of the Clermont-Ferrand Dragoons and his troops in Le Gévaudan to catch or kill a calf-size beast with monster teeth and tail that alledgedly committed 210 attacks on human beings, killing 113 and injuring 98, most of them with their throats torn out.
On September 20th, 1765, Antoine eventually killed a large wolf identified as the culprit by attack survivors who recognised the scars on its body. The animal was stuffed and sent to Versailles but it did not stop the attacks.
In 1767, a local huntsman, Jean Chastel, shot another beast with a large caliber bullet and chevrotines combination, self-made with silver and eventually marked the end of the attacks.
Of this scary beast story we kept the expression « Bête Noire » and even exported it.

The post Bête Noire appeared first on Jacques Stompboxes.

1 – Three Fuse Blowers in 1 compact pedal

Further than its distinctive own growl, The FUSE BLOWER II ‘s three distortion engines allow any classic vintage distortion tones as well as modern « shredding » solo sounds.  Versatility and personality can at least live in peace in a compact pedal. Each EQ knob is a FUSEBLOWER voiced differently:

This 3 different distortions can be set independently one from each other, thus allowing any tailored combination. Yes, you will spend more time finding your own signature tone but now with the fb2 will eventually let you perform distortion sculpting as an art form as opposed to factory presets. Be unique.

2 – Dynamics and reactivity

A distortion pedal must follow the guitar signal , in order to react to the guitarist playing shades. A simple test is to lower the guitar volume and observe if the distortion amount decrease accordingly. The FUSE BLOWER II excels in preserving the original tone of the guitar pick-ups as well as the sound of the amplifier it is plugged in, unlike many effects which  give the same tone on any gear.

3 – Analog technology and noise ratio

Using old time analog technology ,The FUSE BLOWER II insures nevertheless a noise ratio compatible with modern digital recording, giving electric guitar takes the authenticity they badly need.

J.Mascis about the FB2 :
‘Hi Jacques I have been using the fuseblower in front of my early 70’s big muff when I want to punch things into total fuzz.
I have all knobs all the way up and use it while the big muff is also on.  It cuts through so I can play solos with maximum fuzz.
Nice work J’

4 – Road test

Before public marketing, the FUSE BLOWER II has been tested on tour by European professional guitarists, already users of JACQUES STOMPBOXES hand-made FUSE BLOWER, under special no-mercy stage abuses. The optimal results allow a 3 year no-questions-asked  10 days replacement warranty .
Stay tuned and thanks again to all of you who have made all this possible.

5 – Audio demo
Here are the settings used in the soundclips page :

Phone BBC to know if they still broadcast live shows featuring rockstars on exotic drugs. Buy your sidemen oversized afro wigs. During the show, never close your mouth and do not open your eyes unless there is danger of physical damage to the audience.For  hero status, thumb your low E string and tooth your B string.

Well, it is always useful to get this boogie tone in case too many empty beer bottles are flying by your nose. Maybe your rendition of  beautiful Chopin preludes was not what these overweight cowboys had in mind after a hard day at work. Do not be stubborn and start « Sweet home Chicago » right away.

A border-sexed wriggling lippy singer is trying to steal your thunder? No sweat. Dial in this classic tone and hit five strings major power chords boldly. Focus on the drunk groupies waiting in your private jet for better angst.

It is time or never to free all these tapping chops you have been hiding in your closet for years. This wailing sustain gives you the gut to affront the guitar intelligentsia mockery with foolish pride. Anyway,when you are at the restaurant with your favorite guitar hero, choose tofu steak over fatty burgers to maximize your credibility.

Search your friends’ attics for non-working tranny amps and rotten Korean axes in order to perform economic amp bashing . Buy blank score sheets to make believe you are writing a rock opera. Try to find a healthy enough singer to last until he can get casted in a wacky sci-fi TV show. Contract tinitus in the process.

6 – Video demo

The post Fuseblower appeared first on Jacques Stompboxes.

Introduction
There is a big difference between classical and rock music. I once asked a pro classical pianist friend of mine, Helene, to play the 19th Goldberg variatio for me. She never played it before, and could not remember it. So, she just grabbed the score, put in on her piano, and within 3 minutes, she could play it in a wonderful way for my greatest pleasure.
What if I have asked for « Foxy Lady » ?.
When it comes to modern music, no matter how good you are at reading scores,
you’ll go nowhere without a complete knowledge in tone.
You can play Bach on any instrument but in case of rock music, tone is part of the music itself.

The MERCER BOX 2 contains all my knowledge in distortion tone and will transmit it via its outstanding controls.
Featuring the widest distortion tonal range ever achieved, from CLEAN to the HIGHEST GAIN, and performing the BEST CLEAN-UP of all time, the MB2 will change your perception of guitar tone forever.

1 – The tone of distortion
I handcraft distortions, and have been doing this very peculiar electronic experimentation since 1973.
When I came to mass production, my idea was to benefit from the comfort of high-tech manufacturing while keeping the handcraft tone.
In the case of the Mercer Box 2, never before has a stompbox benefited from the best of both worlds.
Using discrete components for tone and hightech components for non-tone, we merged my best handmade designs into a coherent electronic device.
Its tone is based on my best handmade Mercer Box which emulates the heavenly union between perfect fuzz pedals and raging plexi 100watters.
The resulting complex interaction, known as the best guitar tones ever heard by human ears is now available in a modern compact stompbox.
If you think this is exaggerated, you should have seen the look in Steve Morse’s eyes when he played it… and Steve even asked me to autograph the MercerBox2 #1 for him.

2 – Controls
You could expect an unusual concept like the Mercer Box to act differently.
Of course, every Mercer Box potentiometer has its own tropism, a goal where it aims.
HATE introduces an immense low rage, while lack of LOVE takes off the harmonics and gain.
BLOOD brings intense life and FUZZ brings in distortion with no limits.

LOVE & FUZZ , The two gain controls of the Mercer Box work as pushing on the brakes and the gas at the same time : that ‘heel toe’ method transfers the distortion weight for different tones.

But none of these parameters act alone : they all depend one from the others.

« I am not a number..I’m a free man ! »

4 – The Mercer Clean Tone
The Mercer Box is one of the rare high-gain distortion pedal to offer a clean tone, not to say the only one.
Directly inherited from my handmade Mercer, it is a stronger, warmer, yet clear tone,
when compared to by-passed tone.
Very reminiscent of the best tube amps and so addictive, you could let the Mercer on all the time.
Or buy a second Mercer Box for distortion.

The eyes of vision : PHILIP K.DICK (1928-1982)

• *It is worth noting that the Mercer Box first appeared in Philip K.Dick 1964 short story ‘The little black box’.

The post Mercer Box appeared first on Jacques Stompboxes.