Frantone Electronics

The story: folding and the Kickstarter return

Frantone has been delivering pedals since 1994, and its website has been online since 1995, an early presence for a small builder¹. By the time of the Cream Puff reissue campaign, Frantone was described as a now semi-defunct pedal maker, and the Kickstarter campaign was started to help bring the Cream Puff back after the company folded².

The comeback came through Kickstarter. Fran of the now semi-defunct Frantone Pedals started a Kickstarter campaign to help reissue the Cream Puff fuzz after the company folded²³. Frantone pedals were always famous for the Peach Fuzz and the Cream Puff, which made the fuzz the pedal to bring back².

Known for the Peachfuzz and Cream Puff fuzzes

The Peach Fuzz and the Cream Puff are the two pedals Frantone was always famous for². The Cream Puff is a fuzz pedal built with Switchcraft jacks⁵. One reviewer who owned a Cream Puff for a few years called it a nice fuzz pedal, though found it a little too bass heavy in a band scenario².

The Cream Puff is Frantone's other signature fuzz, built with Switchcraft jacks and what the maker calls "really cute clear feet"⁵. The Cream Puff Plus is a combo pedal with two Frantone effects in one, custom made to order in the USA⁶.

Beyond fuzz, the range covers other effect types:

The Cream Puff drew a mixed verdict from one owner: a reviewer who owned one for a few years called it a nice fuzz pedal, although a little too bass heavy in a band scenario².

Every circuit board made by hand

Frantone's build process is unusual even among small builders. Every printed circuit board that went into a Frantone product after 1999 was hand made by Fran in house⁹. She prototyped designs on perf breadboard and rendered schematics and circuit layout in Protel, with all trace routing done manually⁹.

Fran's etching setup was equally manual: an aquarium pump and submerged heater circulated a solution of sodium persulphate heated to 120°F, and she could etch up to five 4x6" FR4 plates at a time. A typical manufacturing run of 10 to 20 plates yielded between 40 and 100 individual effect PCBs⁹. Drilling used hand-made aluminum drill dies with registration pins, with boards stacked up to 7 high under a brass drill guide plate, on a press accurized to within 2mil (.002") of center deviation using 30mil tungsten carbide bits⁹. Completed PCBs were conformal coated in the paint room to insulate them and prevent oxidation⁹.

On the assembly side, everything is done by hand, including the painting, silk screening, wiring and assembly, and every Frantone pedal is thoroughly tested and tone checked before being packaged¹.

Fran, founder and designer

Fran does all the hard work herself: the circuit designs, PCB layout, the logos and artwork, and everything in between¹. Her design credits reach beyond Frantone; she designed many fuzztones, including the 2000 New York City Big Muff for Electro-Harmonix¹⁰. She also developed the Frantone Fretboard, a special recessed flat contour fretboard with a new scalloping technique, built for one of her own guitars⁹, and a proprietary precision optocoupler manufactured in house, used on the Sandwich PCB behind the LED⁹.

Custom Shop pedals

The Frantone Custom Shop is where Fran makes unique, limited-run and one-of-a-kind Frantone effects available directly to the public¹¹. Custom Shop builds share a common parts list:

• Premium finish and custom colors
• Steel LED bezel
• Cool retro knobs
• Hard mounted PCB
• Switchcraft jacks
• External power jack
• Really cute clear feet⁵

One Custom Shop example is a Peachfuzz iFuzz built by Fran with a crystal white LED, white Bakelite knobs, gray graphics and a gloss white finish¹¹. The Cream Puff Plus is also custom made to order⁶.

Support and contact

Frantone's support contact is info@frantone.com⁴. The company's site notes that no content may be published or distributed without prior written permission from Frantone Electronics¹².

The range (11)

Questions