I got my Bronto back with the ToneDog mod. I am using it with no resistor just the jumper and the cap that Joe put in it which I haven't checked to see what the value is yet. I like the Tone trimmer a lot as I turned down the highs quite a bit.

So far I like it best into an already driven amp. It adds a nice smooth gain boost with quite a bit of compression which sounds good.

I haven't been able to get a sound I am happy with into a clean amp yet but I haven't had a lot of time with it so far. It doesn't seem to have a ton of gain unless you turn the tone knob far to the left which gets a little too fat and fuzzy sounding for me anyway. The amp ready to blow up sound. It seems to work better at the lower gain type sound.

I will post more as I learn more about the Bronto. It is not a plug and play type pedal it does take a little time to get used to the many features that this baby packs.

I've found just the opposite to be true.
I'm getting the best tones through a cleanish amp. I also have had no trouble finding many tones that I'm very happy with.

This just shows how different we all are because my Bronto has the original circuit(pre-Tone Dog era ) and I wouldn't change a thing.

Glad you're diggin it

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Lawrence D.

I'm wating for my Bronto Jr. to come back myself. Got the new board coming and it needed repaired unfortunately. For the short time I did have it prior I thought it excelled at lower gain sounds into a clean amp and really look forward to the return of it to further try it out.

I am not used to using Fuzz or Sili or Germ circuits. I have to get my ears adjusted to a different style of OD. Change is good though.

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Originally posted by dosmun:
I am not used to using Fuzz or Sili or Germ circuits. I have to get my ears adjusted to a different style of OD. Change is good though.

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You probally already know this...My secret to getting great sounds with fuzz types is useing a marshall style amp and the controls on my guitar.Now a silicon fuzz sounds good threw a fender to me.But I never cared for germainum threw fenders.You can find alot of sounds in there.

I'm The Original Heavily Littered Pedalboard Man..

I never liked fuzz before the Bronto.

As for the overdrive textures, at lower gain serttings it does sound a little different than other overdrive circuits - but not much. If it sounded too different (i/.e., more "fuzz-like"), I wouldn't like it.

The Tone control is very much a gain/texture control as it morphs the pedal from overdrive (5:00) to fuzz (7:00) as you sweep it. I found that the Bronto has plenty enough gain for overdriven (not fuzz) lead tones with the Tone control around 12:00 and the Gain 2 (germanium) between 2:00-5:00.

Just how much gain are you looking for, Dosmun? Frankly, I was a little surprised to hear you say that you thought it was not particulalrly "gainy" at the overdr9ive settings. It sounds like you want an overdrive that gets super saturated - but most overdrives do not get that sort of sound. You need either a distortion or fuzz for those sounds but you should be able to find soimething close to that in the Bronto - I sure have!

If the Tone at 7:00 is too much (it is for me), then back it around to 9:00-10:00. This will give you a hybrid sort of OD/Fuzz sound. Thicker and gainier than an overdrive but not as thick and splatty sounding as a gained out fuzz. Everybody is different, but even for more rock type applications, this pedal has way more gain than I would need.

For the record, I have a 100K resistor in the PCB socket as this gave me the flattest tone next to my amp's natural tone. Also, I rarely add Gain stage 1 (silicon) to the mix so I get pretty much all of my tones from the Bronto using just the germanium gain stage (Gain 2).

"Muddy Waters INVENTED electricity!" -Willie Brown, Crossroads

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Just how much gain are you looking for, Dosmun?

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I am not really looking for that much gain in an OD. I had just thought I had heard someone mention that it could get into Distortion territory. I am still experimenting and starting to find those cool semi clean tones everyone has been talking about. At least with my Strat.

I first tried it with my Les Paul which seems to make the Bronto a little harsh into a clean amp but into a dirty amp humbuckers sound pretty good with the Bronto. I am trying to find a happy medium that works well with both single coils and Humbuckers.

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Originally posted by dosmun:

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Just how much gain are you looking for, Dosmun?

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I am not really looking for that much gain in an OD. I had just thought I had heard someone mention that it could get into Distortion territory. I am still experimenting and starting to find those cool semi clean tones everyone has been talking about. At least with my Strat.

I first tried it with my Les Paul which seems to make the Bronto a little harsh into a clean amp but into a dirty amp humbuckers sound pretty good with the Bronto. I am trying to find a happy medium that works well with both single coils and Humbuckers.

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Cool.

Well, you do have to play around with it, but I would definitely suggest replacing the jumper on the PCB with some value of resistor. As I said above, I settled on a 100K resistor and that was the single most imfluential tone tweak I made. The cap and treble trimpot helped dial it in, but the resistor was the biggest factor by far. I found that with nothing in the slot it was too dark and with the jumper it had too much bite and treble. But that 100K resistor balanced everything out quite well. It also gets more bite when you run both gain stages together. I find that the silicon (stage 1) is brighter sounding but balances out the darker neck position pickup quite nicely. But generally speaking, I don't use the silicon stage at all and do everything with the germanium Gain stage (2).

I would encourage you to experiment with the components though even if you think you have something that sounds pretty good just so you can hear what it sounds like with some different settings. I also think that may help you find that middle ground you are searching for. As I've said a dozen times here, this pedal is more tweakable than any other I've played. That is partially a result of my namesake mod, but that is also a huge function of the controls and architecture of this pedal.

I think that the most "distortion:" sort of tones lie between 11:00-9:00 on the Tone control, depending upon the type of signal you are feeding into it (humbucker, single coil, etc). Past 11:00 and it's more overdrive and below 9:00 and it's more fuzz. Let me know if I can be of any help to you!

"Muddy Waters INVENTED electricity!" -Willie Brown, Crossroads

I will try the different components. So far I like the tone at around 12 oclock and set the gains around 3-4 oclock I have tried both 1 and 2 stage both seem pretty cool.

Thanks for the tips. I will have to go back through the old posts for some more info too.

Cool, Dosmun. What I do with mine may not work for you, but just to hear some of the other tones you can get out of this thing, I think it's worth the time and effort to do some experimenting. You may stumble upon something you really like. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help you out.

"Muddy Waters INVENTED electricity!" -Willie Brown, Crossroads