Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
Here’s another one I was surprised I hadn’t drawn up before. Like the Custom Badass ’78 Distortion, it’s also based on an old Boss pedal—the SD-1. (Or I guess you could say it’s a modified version of the Zakk Wylde Overdrive, but that’s based on the SD-1… Either way, it’s definitely been modified with the … Read more
Someone requested the Openhaus which, to be honest upon pulling up the schematic, made my eyes glaze over. It’s big. But I came across a stripped down version on Sabrotone and it felt much more doable. So here you go! It’ll fit in a 125B with top mounted jacks and both footswitches. I’ll leave the … Read more
Not a lot out there on this one, but stumbled across the schematic over on FSB. Apparently it’s another Marshall-in-a-box type. Sounds pretty good. Should fit nicely in a 1590B. The 1uF and 2.2uF caps are tantalum in the original but eletrolytics could be used as well. Original 1S1588 clipping diodes could easily be replaced … Read more
Stumbled across this Big Muff variation designed by Anders over on the Tagboard forum. Seemed like a cool design for Fuzz Friday. Here’s what he had to say about it: Inspired by Skreddy Top Fuel and a DIY muff project One Knob Gilmour I have been tinkering with a big muff circuit using mosfet transistors … Read more
To say Craig Anderton’s body of work is vast is probably an understatement. But within that body are several DIY classics, and this tremolo is no exception. This is a modified/updated version, specifically in the power section with a +/- 9v charge pump. The vactrol in the original is VTL5C1, but some combination of home … Read more
Wondered about this one for a while (but always suspected it was YATS). The best way to describe the Lightspeed (that I can think of anyway) is it’s kind of like a Timmy with the bass and treble controls fixed and a simple treble cut tone control added just before the volume pot. The most … Read more
Not sure I missed doing this one ages ago, but better late than never. The Bassballs is a classic envelope filter that’s been a staple of Electro Harmonix’s line up for a long time. Designed for bass, but works great on guitar as well. Trimmers are very dynamic and might be fun as external pots. … Read more
Here’s a fun noisemaker for Fuzz Friday. It’s an oscillating fuzz built around a CD4049UBE hex inverter and has good range of noisy fuzz tones on tap. Schematic in here. Read that a B100k works better for the Frequency pot and an A20k works better for the Starve pot. YMMV
The JHS Haunting Mids is an EQ circuit that controls the mid frequencies along with giving a 10dB clean boost. From the JHS site: The Mids and Sweep controls work very closely together so you can find the perfect frequencies to boost or scoop mid frequencies. When the Mids knob is at 12 o’clock, no frequencies … Read more