Tone Report bollocks

robinbowes

Why do people write bollocks about things they don't understand? [1]

Copyrighted in 2001, the AMZ MOSFET Booster beats the pants off almost any booster on the market with minimal parts. Unlike most pedals of its time, it uses a Zener diode, which isn’t found in almost any other pedal even to this day. Whether or not that diode contains all the proverbial magic isn’t exactly the point, but rather that innovation led to the MOSFET booster, and the result is a low-parts-count monster of a boost.

The zener is only used as protection for the MOSFET.  Jack Orman even tells you this in his article [2]:

A zener diode is connected from the transistor's gate to source in order to protect it from static charges or over-voltage inputs. If the transistor chosen has an internal zener protection, D1 could be deleted.

This is the sort of crap that gets passed on and spread around by people who read things like Tone Report and lap up everything they say.

Bloody ridiculous.

R.

[1] http://tonereport.com/blogs/do-it-yourself/a-boost-you-cant-refuse-build-your-own-jack-orman-mosfet-booster
[2] http://www.muzique.com/schem/mosfet.htm

bbill335

Wisdom for the tone debunker!

Sassafras

I thought we all took it for granted that all those tone report things were full of bollocks and marketing hype.

robinbowes

Sassafras said:

I thought we all took it for granted that all those tone report things were full of bollocks and marketing hype.

Yeah, but I generally avoid it and had forgotten what a load of tosh it is.

R.

ThorpyFX

I think that falls under the category "alternative facts"

ElectroDan

I've got loads of Zener diodes if he want to buy them at boutique prices. 

jonnygreentrees

I think I've used a Zener diode in nearly every pedal I've built. I must be a pioneer!

steer

Zener Diodes. Amazing.
You will be telling me that they use resisters in their pedals next - now that would give your setup some mojo!

Dave_Mc

I've lost count of the amount of crap posted in the tone report (or in those info blog posts on pro guitar shop's site).

That'd be bad enough but (especially in the case of the pro guitar shop ones) they normally claim there's a lot of BS posted about this type of stuff and they're trying to bust the myths.

lasermonkey

Am I right in thinking that some early Suhr Riots used Zeners as clipping diodes? I'm sure I read that somewhere.......

57Deluxe

if you followed their lead and bought every pedal they exclaimed you'd be bankrupt...

Sassafras

And what was all that Octoskull bollocks about?