2025 Summer Cyan

Another year brings us back to a new Summer Cyan build.  This year is a combination of a little old and a little new.  I am still using BC108's, but this build I'm using a whole slew of them.  BC108B in Q1, and BC108C's in Q2-Q4, and an MPSA12 in Q5 to get above unity.  Since I am using mostly BC108's this is a little lower gain than last year, chunkier, more fuzzstortiony.  Also on board with the Texture Toggle I've added the 80n in position 1, blower (straight transistors) in position 2, and a single NOS Fairchild diode to create asymmetrical clipping.  The difference between 1&2 is pretty dramatic, but in contrast #3 is more subtle.  You'll hear a slight change in the attack.

Also this year I am "fire-brushing" which yields all kinds of textures and patterns in the metal, and after hand powder-coating there are additional texture and waves.  Since this is all done by hand, there are variations and flaws.  Please embrace these signs of a hand made process.  Laser etching through the cyan powder-coat gives us our silver graphics, and all the colors are designed to evoke a summer day.  Sonically, it is firmly in the vintage camp.  Think of the Summer Cyan as an idealized and more flexible Fuzz Face.  Great clean-up, lots of interesting in-between tones, everything controlled and toneful.

• BC108B in Q1

• BC108C in Q2-Q4

• MPSA12 in Q5

Texture Toggle:

1. 80n
2. Blower 
3. Asymmetrical Fairchild Diode

All the tones in the demo below are done either by rolling back the guitar volume, or changing the Texture Toggle, or both.  If you aren't a volume knob player, you can get similar tones by using all the gain ranges on the pedal itself.