Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
Got a request for this one. The Zendrive is a low-to-medium gain overdrive, delivering blues to jazz tones. It has an interesting clipping section, using a combination of diodes and MOSFETs in an asymmetrical arrangement. I’ve drawn the layout to accommodate board mounted pots (from the solder-side) and it will fit easily in a 1590b.
Here’s a simple one for your Saturday. As the name implies, this is a simple buffer based around a JFET transistor. This layout follows the schematic from Jack Orman’s great article on Basic Buffers. Thought this would be useful if you want to add an input buffer to an existing pedal or to a project … Read more
The original DOD units had “balanced” XLR output as well as the normal 1/4″ jack and no footswitch. This has been adapted for stompbox use and could work well with acoustic guitar.
Here’s the original EHX Pulsar trem from the 70s (not to be confused with the modern Stereo Pulsar EHX manufactures today). It features Intensity and Speed controls as well as a switch to go between a hard and soft wavefrom. Original units often suffer from clock bleed from the LFO section. So I’ve drawn a … Read more
The Ross Distortion is very similar to two other famous distortion boxes of the late 70s (MXR Distortion +, DOD 250). However, it uses one side of a 4558 dual opamp instead of the single opamp (741) found in the the other two, and a few other tweaks in component values. There are two versions … Read more
Maxon released the OD808 in 1979 and it generates natural, mild overdrive tones and is similar to the TS808. Original units used MC1458P ICs, but I’ve listed JRC4558s as they’re likely to be on hand for many of you. Also the original diodes were Panasonic MA150. I’ve listed 1N4148s as a replacement, but socket and … Read more
Here’s an interesting LM386-based compressor designed by Brett Robinson (DIYSB member Toney). I found the schematic for this while searching for something else. Apparently there are various incarnations (and names too) of this circuit, but this seems to be the most popular version. Should fit easily in a 1590A, though, I’m not sure about board-mounting … Read more
The Sparkle Drive is a very versatile drive pedal, offering everything from clean boost to full on dirty Tube Screamer tones. The Clean blend allows you to layer both clean and dirty sounds (kind of like playing through two amps, one clean and the other dirty). One of these has lived on my pedal board … Read more
Often forgotten and overshadowed by one of it’s derivatives, the VooDoo Lab Overdrive is the basis of the famous Fulltone OCD. The main differences between the 2 circuits is the clipping (OCD uses 2 Mosfets) and the added tone control of the OCD. On an somewhat unrelated note, I’ve had a lot of people having … Read more
The Maxon Company is probably most famous for manufacturing the legendary Ibanez Tube Screamer pedals (among many other Ibanez offerings). Because of this (and especially in non-Asian markets) Maxon pedals were often overshadowed by their Ibanez-branded brothers. But throughout the company’s history, they have produced a great offering of effects. The Maxon OD880 Soft Distortion … Read more