Tech 21 - American Woman

All about modern commercial stompbox circuits from Electro Harmonix over MXR, Boss and Ibanez into the nineties.
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puppiesonacid
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Post by puppiesonacid »

just heard this song at worked and thought of that old Tech 21 ad, wondering if anyone has pics or a schem/layout for it.

thanks,

puppiesonacid

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puppiesonacid
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Post by puppiesonacid »

bump :mrgreen:

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DougH
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Post by DougH »

Haven't seen the schem, but if you want the sound, do this:

a. use humbucker bridge pickup
b. turn guitar tone to "0"
c. plug into your favorite distortion/amp
"You have just tubescreamered or fuzzfaced yourself " -polarbearfx

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MoreCowbell
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Post by MoreCowbell »

Reportedly, one way to get that sound is the FETZOG.

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DougH
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Post by DougH »

Herzog/Fetzog... All that stuff is just another way of getting distortion.

Again, the main ingredient in the "American Woman" tone is using your bridge pup with the tone turned to 0.
"You have just tubescreamered or fuzzfaced yourself " -polarbearfx

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mojo4blues
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Post by mojo4blues »

sorry for the necromancy, but I think all info in one thread is better than having many.

I might be able to provide some gut photos of the "American Woman" pedal, the problem is getting to the populated site of the PCB.
The four pots are connected rigidly with long legs to the PCB, the pots are secured to the case with nuts and the nobs seem to be glued on (at least I could not pull them off with moderate force).
If you have some suggestions how to proceed, you can let me know.
tech21-amwom-1.png
tech21-amwom-2.png
tech21-amwom-2.png (76.22 KiB) Viewed 1944 times

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J0K3RX
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Post by J0K3RX »

Doubt they are glued on but stranger things have been known to happen... Use a flat head screwdriver and go around the knob until it starts to come loose.. use a business card against the enclosure under the screwdriver so you don't scratch the finish..

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FuzzMonkey
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Post by FuzzMonkey »

This method might work too.

http://www.ehx.com/forums/viewthread/1369/

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Post by mojo4blues »

the knobs are loose now (I used a big flat skrewdriver, as JOK3RX suggested, thanks), they were /really/ stuck.
It may take a couple of days till I take the pedal apart and post more photos, as I want to do some sound experiments now.

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Post by mojo4blues »

Sorry it took so long.
Sound-wise the American Woman is an overdrive (tube-ish sound) combined with a compressor (for the long sustain) and a gate. Depending on the settings, it can be used just as a (mild) overdrive, or for the full American Woman sound. If one increases the gain/level, the compressor becomes noticeable.

Here is a picture of the populated side of the PCB:
amwom-lower2.png
and the values/labels of some of the components (esp. the caps):
amwom-lower-label.png

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