Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
Haven’t done a tremolo in a while, so let’s remedy that with the original 4-transistor Colorsound Tremolo (the re-issue is the 3-transistor version). Originals used 2SC945 transistors (BCE pinout), but I’ve laid this out for more common NPN transistors with CBE pinout. You might want to use a C100k pot for the Speed control. Here’s … Read more
By popular demand, here’s the BE-OD from Friedman, one of the best Plexi in a box pedals around. Well, not Plexi really. It’s designed to emulate the Friedman Brown Eye tube amp head. Laid this one out for board mounted pots, and it will fit easily in a 1590BB. More info can be found on … Read more
Here’s a pretty unique fuzz for Fuzz Friday–the Acceleron from Field Effects. It uses a mix of BJT and JFET transistors and offers a wide range of fuzz tones. I’ve laid it out for board mounted pots and you’ll notice a big box film cap labeled ??? It’s probably 2.2µF, but socket and experiment.
Pretty much a Colorsound Overdriver clone. Laid this out for a 125B (because of the dual footswitches) with board mounted pots. The boost footswitch bypasses the PreGain pot and only uses one side of a DPDT. Use the other side for LED wiring. If the off board wiring is confusing, check out the thread with … Read more
Unrelated to the Angry Charlie circuit, the Charlie Brown emulates the brown sound of a JTM45 amp and is a variation on the zVex Box of Rock without the boost section. The input stage is an AMZ Mosfet Booster (replacing the SHO input stage of the Box of Rock to avoid crackle in the gain … Read more
Laying out Big Muff variations never gets old for me. This one uses germanium transistors in the two clipping stages (and predates the EQD Hoof which also uses germanium transistors) along with schottky diodes (1N6263s). Q4 is a FS25444, but the usual BMP transistor suspects will work as well (2N5088, MPSA18, BC549C, etc). Other than … Read more
Came across this design in researching a different project and thought I’d draw it up. It uses 3 transistors and doesn’t take up a lot of space, so you should be able to fit it in a 1590A or add it to another pedal. More info can be found here. Sounds like you can use … Read more
Came across the schematic for this and thought it would be a good addition. It’s a unique germanium overdrive using PNP AC128s, though the effect is a negative ground effect (so it can be daisy chained with other pedals). The TA-100 has been used by Ryan Adams and sounds great through a Princeton Reverb. Schematic … Read more
Here’s the Band of Gypsys Fuzz Face from Dunlop for Fuzz Friday. Despite being called a Fuzz Face, the actual circuitry of the Band of Gypsys version isn’t even close to the original Fuzz Face. It’s pretty close to an Octavia without the transformer. Here’s the schematic for reference.
I’ve wanted to draw this one up for a while. It’s a fantastic clone/variation of the Boss DS-1 Distortion. I had one for a while and loved it, but ended up selling it to fund some other stuff. But I’m definitely adding this one to the pile. You can sub a TL072 or JRC4558 in … Read more