Mānuka
JFET Booster/Sweetener
Good honest classic boost. Absolutely essential for Deadheads
The recommended starting point for this thing is with the gain at 0, and volume all the way up. Here, you’ll find a slight bump in signal, and a nice bit of extra top end. Increase the gain for a nice loud boost. Don’t like the extra treble? Set the toggle switch up for dark mode.
With the gain all the way up, you’ll find a nice light, natural, crunchy overdrive. Crank it, and set the volume to taste. For even more of a good time, set the toggle switch down to engage clipping mode, and enjoy an awesome crispy distortion.
Some uses -
Boost into your amp or dirt pedal to drive it more. Perfect for getting extra distortion, bringing yourself forward for a solo, or simply getting a more engaging response out of your gear.
Place it before other effects to act like a buffer. Even at just over unity volume, you can really feel it pushing your signal through the rest of your chain.
Liven up quiet pickups. I’ve found that it takes my dull, quiet Telecaster neck pickup and turns it into a more confident version of itself.
My favourite setting is Gain 0, Volume 10, switch in the middle. I find that everything becomes so much more lively and responsive. It’s awesome for getting a really snappy fingerstyle tone.
Your new favourite boost is named for the incredibly sweetly scented flowers of the beautiful Mānuka tree. Also I guess for the honey produced as a result of these flowers.
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JFET boost
9V centre negative (Boss style) power supply.
Volume and Gain controls.
Treble cut/Normal/Clipping mode switch.
Solid wood construction. Keep away from water to prevent damage to the finish.
It should go without saying, wooden enclosures aren’t as durable as standard aluminium ones. It’s strong, but you could break if you tried. Be kind.
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Long story short, Mānuka is a modded Alembic Stratoblaster.
When I started experimenting with pedals, I made half a dozen different simple boosts, and the Stratoblaster was my favourite by far. It wasn't the loudest, or most transparent, but it made everything come to life in the most wonderful way. My take on it is a little hotter and more capable of breakup, but still has the full range of clean boost available in the original circuit.
I'll add more history info as I find it, but the Stratoblaster story begins with Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia. Between 1971 and 1973, Jerry's Famous "Alligator" strat went under the knife of Rick Turner, who modded the thing half to death, and famously installed the Ron Wickersham designed Stratoblaster boost. I can't find consistent information on the exact duration it was in the guitar, or which recordings it was on, but it became iconic of the Grateful Dead sound. PRS even featured them in the "Dead Spec" Silver Sky, made for John Mayer's work with Dead & Company.
Another famous use of the circuit is in the hands of Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham. In the early 70s, Rick Turner showed up and gave Lindsey the Alligator treatment, which became a staple sound for the legendary "Rumours" album.
"Much of the Rumours album was Lindsey with a Strat into which I'd put an Alembic Stratoblaster cranked to full 12 dB boost. He was blowing up HiWatts with that. He had about 15 or 30 minutes of tone before the power supply transformer would start to smoke and blow up. As I recall, he had three of the amps, and two were always in the shop getting fixed."
"And the cocaine was just a Rumour...or Rumours was just coke...I forget..."And from Strattalk
“Evidently, the Hiwatts were set up so that the gain structure expected a normal electric guitar output from the guitar. When you jacked it up by 12 dB, the amp tried to suck more current through the power transformer and it just fried."