Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
The LPB-1 was the first effect made by Mike Matthews and Electro Harmonix. Like many other effects at the time, it was housed in a small box that plugged directly into your guitar. It was designed to give you a volume boost and push the amp into overdriven territory. EHX still makes the LPB-1 (Linear … Read more
Here’s another “Brian May in a box” circuits, this time from Run Off Groove. The May Queen is a treble booster/overdrive that should get you pretty close to those classic Queen tones. The cap between 9v and the drain of Q3 in the layout below is optional. It’s a high end filter, so the larger … Read more
Here’s a great sounding one-knob fuzz from Creepy Fingers Effects for your FuzzFriday. It’s based on the fuzz section of the Colorsound Fuzz-Wah and follows the basic structure of the Fuzz Face, just with a fixed resistor in place of the fuzz control. Shouldn’t be hard at all to fit in a 1590a enclosure.
The Catalinbread Galileo emulates an Vox AC30 and a Rangemaster treble boost in one to give the user tones like Brian May of Queen. The Galileo Mk. II differs from the Mk. I with fewer controls and in a much more pedalboard-friendly enclosure. It’s a bit stripped down from the original, but sounds fantastic, and … Read more
Here’s a well designed buffer by Martin from SoulSonic FX. Use it as a stand alone buffer or as an output buffer in another pedal. Should fit easily in a 1590a enclosure.
The Sucker Punch uses the popular combination of a JFET and 386 op amp, much like the Lovepedal Black Magic/Purple Plexi, or DAM Sonic Titan. Nick Greer put his own spin on this and it sounds pretty good. The 100k trim pot is to bias the drain of the J201. Set to 4.5v and then … Read more
I guess I’m about 15 years late to bypassing effects using this method, but I thought I’d post it anyway. Like most builders, I generally use a 3PDT footswitch for most of my builds. However, I recently purchased some DPDT footswitches to use on a few effects that either use a weird way of switching … Read more
You might look at this and think, “Gee, it’s just another Fuzz Face,” when in actuality, this pedal pre-dates the famous Dallas Arbiter stombox. (This is different from the Sola Sound ToneBender Mk I, as the Sola Sound has 3 transistors.) It was made in Italy for Vox and sounds like a Rangemaster and Fuzz … Read more
The Folk Driver is a low-medium gain overdrive developed by SoulSonic FX after being challenged by Björn Juhl (of BJFE) to create a DIY project inspired by sound of the BJFE Honey Bee. Here’s what Martin (soulsonic) had to say about it after designing the circuit back in ’09: My goal was to keep the … Read more
This is a great sounding drive pedal from Mad Professor. Very dynamic and tube-like, the Sweet Honey is a medium gain overdrive that can produce a wide range of tones, from jazz to heavy rock. I’ve laid the board out for right angle PCB pots mounted from the solder-side of the board, and it should … Read more