Marlboro QSB-II

[Travis]

My buddy sent me this funky old thing for repair. It was made in the US in the 60s by "Marlboro", no idea if there's any affiliation with the cigarette brand.

This unit has a spring reverb, tremolo, vibrato, and "echo". The echo is not like a delay, it actually just puts a deep square wave trem on the spring reverb signal to simulate an echo

The tremolo, vibrato, and echo modes are all kinda not something I'd really ever use, but the reverb actually sounds really cool. It's not like a great Fender spring verb, but it's WEIRD. Would be really cool for recording

Anyway now it's fixed and ready to go back, figured I'd share before it goes back since this is a pretty unique little thing

[zombie_rock123]

I've got a Marlboro Standard Fuzz - exactly the same box and circuit as the Ibanez Standard. The only difference is the price!

Did you get any shots of the circuit board or note any parts to see how the vibrato was done? Guessing if the speed is wired to all effects they were all part of the same circuit and just parts being subbed in and out.

Looks cool as hell!

Edit: I figured this was an amplifier with analogue onboard effects not a dedicated unit! Christ that thing must have looked like a Ludwig Phaser on the inside!

[Travis]

Nice dude! I love the Standard Fuzz and Superfuzz type pedals. This is an earlier unit and is actually made in the USA

I don't have a gutshot but I will have this thing until Saturday so I'll open it back up for a pic. I replaced all of the electros so none of those will be original in the pic.

The circuit is apparently a pretty economical design. It's all transistor based and not too complicated. The vibrato and tremolo are not that useful to my ears. The reverb is actually really cool, but not if you're expecting Fender spring reverb. It's a weird but cool reverb. I found that if I turn this unit on it's side, the reverb will feedback forever. It has kindof a weird sound not really sure how to describe it but the reverb would be a fun thing to have in the studio IMO