Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
By popular demand, here’s the PAL 800, a well regarded Marshall-in-a-box circuit. Should fit nicely in a 125B. Schematic here. All the trimmers except the one just below the Volume control are for biasing the JFETs. Start at 4.5v on the drain of each JFET and adjust by ear from there. The other trimer is … Read more
Here is a an old, rare and weird one traced by Deadend Fx. It is a feedback looper that includes both modulation and an active filter sections. If you you don’t like the hassle with the offboard wiring this layout requires, Deadend Fx has nifty PCBs for sale. Schematic and more info HERE.
Saw this on the Aion FX tracing journal today – what a monster. The original designer of the Nobels ODR released this through his own company, Nordland. It’s an updated ODR with bells and whistles. The ODR Special is one of my favourite overdrives; I’ve just never done a layout for it. Check out the … Read more
REDUCING NOISE ON DC POWER FOR FX PEDALS When looking at a guitar pedal schematic, you’re really looking at two circuits that overlay each other, sharing resources, and working together. There’s one for the AC signal and one for DC power. We use capacitors to block DC, and let AC signals pass – this is … Read more
Guyatone realeased some very interesting, innovative and good sounding circuits in the 80s. Since they are sadly overlooked and quite rare, Deadend Fx decided to trace and release PCBs for some of these gems. PS024 Distortion H shares some similarities with Boss HM2 but it still differs enough to not qualify as a clone. The … Read more
POLARITY PROTECTION FOR GUITAR EFFECTS PEDALS Guitar pedals are full of components, some of which are so sensitive to voltages of the wrong polarity that they will explode – electrolytic capacitors in particular. Exploding caps is not good. And to really start at the beginning, the wrong polarity means V+ and ground (or V-) have … Read more
This is a Pete Cornish SS-2 using Joe Davisson’s diode-compression op amp. It sounds pretty good – a lot like the regular SS-2, but without any distortion artifacts on sustained notes as it fades outs. It’s also quieter in terms of noise. This one is getting boxed up, and now I want to try a SS-3 … Read more
After the previous post for the Dan Armstrong Red Ranger, I thought I might do layouts for the rest of the series, starting with the Blue Clipper – I then got sidetracked, and now I’m looking at a Blue Clipper using Joe Davisson’s diode-compression opamp. I had to change the bias from the original … Read more
