Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
Don’t know if you enjoy occasional story or not, but here one goes anyway. A friend at work was visiting his parents during easter holidays. His father is quite handy building stuff and while he had joined a local combo of fiddlers. He built himself a mandolin which was truly beautiful workmanship. Being handy as … Read more
Prepare for a bit of rambling: I was looking through the de-goup thread for the Cornish G2 over on Freestompboxes.org and was intrigued by the buffered bypass switching that’s used on that pedal. (Before people bombard me with requests for the G2, don’t worry it’s coming.) Original G2s have individual PCBs for the footswitch, the … Read more
Here’s a cool circuit for Fuzz Friday. It’s supposed used by Billy Gibbons from time to time and it’s a silicon Tone Bender of sorts. It uses 2SC1815Y transistors that have a gain range of 120-240 hfe. Other transistors can probably be used, but mind the BCE pinout.
Being primarily a bass player myself, I’ve wanted to build this one for a while, but didn’t really feel like messing with all the off board wiring of my first layout of this circuit. So I’ve drawn up a new layout with board mounted pots. I’ve also subbed a 2N5457 in place of the stock … Read more
Today’s layout is Brian’s take on the PT2399-based delay. It’s similar to many other PT delays, but is it’s own beast. It can do anything from simple slapback delay to up to around 500 milliseconds of delay. I’ve laid it out for board mounted pots and it would be a snug fit, but i’ll fit … Read more
For Fuzz Friday I give you a fun little circuit built in West Germany in the late 60s and early 70s–the Schaller Fuzz. It’s a silicon Fuzz Face variant and sounds rather good. Originals used BC109B and 239B transistors, but modern equivalents would be BC549B or 550B. It’s laid out for onboard pots, but if … Read more
Here’s a great sounding reverb designed by CultureJam, built around the typical Belton BTDR-2 reverb brick. I’ve laid it out for onboard pots and the BTDR-2 being mounted from the solder-side of the board.
Here’s one for my fellow bassists out there. It’s a transistor-ized version of the Fender Bassman preamp as modified by DeadAstronaut over on DIYSB. It’s laid out for board mounted pots and switch and will fit nicely in a 1590B.
A great simple reverb from Madbean. You can find his 1590G size boards and infos on his website. The way the layout has been drawn you should be able to solder the brick directly to the board and lay it under it.
Over a decade ago Robert Keeley was kind enough to share this design with the DIY community. It’s a fairly unique fuzz, with a germanium treble booster at the beginning, a differential amplifier in the middle, and a basic buffer at the output (this is so it will play nice with other effects). Robert’s full … Read more