Time-O-Lite Fuzz | R2R Electric | Telecaster Tones with a Vintage Fender Princeton Reverb!

A solid brass topped T-style. NOS OC44 black glass germanium. An all-tube univibe. And a vintage blackface Princeton Reverb. Welcome back to Edge of Breakup.

In this episode, the R2R Electric x Waterslide Guitars Time-O-Lite Fuzz takes center stage — piloted by my Gronlund Guitars T-Style with solid brass top, loaded with McNelly A5 Tele pickups and Emerson Custom treble bleed, into a vintage 1966 Fender Princeton Reverb. Guest starring the Effectrode Tube Vibe.

The Time-O-Lite is a long-time collaboration between R2R Electric founder Chris Vincent and Waterslide Guitars — over two years in development. The enclosures are genuine Time-O-Lite industrial darkroom timers, converted by hand into fuzz pedals with painstaking care for the original hardware. The concentric potentiometer configuration repurposes original controls: the lower larger pointer for Volume, the upper small red pointer for Fuzz — period-correct CTS units, a 1966 CTS 500k and a 1983 CTS 1k. NOS Allen-Bradley carbon comp resistors, NOS capacitors, a 1979 ITT .01uf chicklet-style cap, and true bypass throughout. Every pedal ages uniquely — each tells its own story before you've played it.

This unit features hand-selected NOS OC44 black glass germanium transistors — a low-noise, high-gain device with warm, musical compression sitting beautifully in a Fuzz Face-style two-transistor circuit. R2R also builds the Time-O-Lite with OC42 and AC107 germanium transistors, each with its own distinct character. The range spans from gated and spitty at low bias to large, open, blooming fuzz at full bias. No buffers upstream — this must sit first in your signal chain.

The Gronlund Guitars T-Style is the work of James Greene, building handcrafted guitars one at a time in Maine, USA. The brass top is the defining feature — a solid brushed brass sheet that fundamentally changes the resonant character of the instrument, adding density, sustain, and a harmonic complexity that a traditional wood-topped guitar simply doesn't produce. The McNelly A5 Tele pickups are Alnico 5, higher output than traditional vintage styles — tight bass, present mids, and a conveniently subdued treble that gives the player full control. Hand-made in Canada, they are exactly what McNelly's own builder says he would have made in 1950 if he were Leo Fender. The Emerson Custom treble bleed keeps top-end detail alive through the volume control — essential in any fuzz rig where cleanup off the guitar knob is part of the performance.

Into a 12-watt blackface Princeton Reverb — single 6V6, AA1164 circuit, tube rectifier — the brass-topped T-style and the OC44 germanium fuzz find a warm, intimate platform that rewards every nuance of pick attack. The Effectrode Tube Vibe adds its all-tube photocell-and-bulb univibe voice — triode tubes running at real amp plate voltages, with Classic swampy throb, Smooth ethereal chorus, and Chorus/Vibrato switching for Hendrix-style vibe or pure pitch-shifting vibrato.

Brass. Germanium. Blackface. Tube vibe. This is the session.

Be sure to join the @r2relectric email list so you know when his ultra limited hand-built NOS fuzzes, boosts and wahs hit Reverb to purchase! They DO NOT hang around long!

https://www.r2relectric.com/how-to-order

Subscribe for more boutique tone explorations.

🎸 Gronlund Guitars T-Style | Solid Brass Top | McNelly A5 Tele Pickups | Emerson Custom Treble Bleed

🎛️ R2R Electric x Waterslide Guitars Time-O-Lite Fuzz | NOS OC44 Black Glass Germanium Transistors

🎛️ Effectrode Tube Vibe

🔊 1966 Fender Princeton Reverb