Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
Recently traced at FSB by VitaliiBobrov, i find this very interesting. Discrete opamp overdrive, that leaves a lot of room for tweaking and modding. Sounds pretty great even as it is. There are never too many discrete opamp designs… /edit – There was an error on the gain pot label. That’s now fixed. Also, the … Read more
This should probably be up here as well.. Spiel: Simble Overdrive has a natural organic tone, unsurpassable touch sensitivity, sweet tube-like compression and built in inspiration. This natural sounding pedal works as a clean boost, ”on the edge” crunch, or a sweet singing overdrive, always retaining the tone of your prized guitar. The Simble pedal … Read more
Here’s a very cool Rat variant now out of production. Fairly straight forward Rat with a variation of the Ruetz Mod, LEDs for clipping and a switch to toggle a feedback loop. On the original this is a toggle (SPST), but would be fun to put on a momentary footswitch. Couldn’t confirm the IC in … Read more
The Slow Gear emulates a guitarist riding the volume pot or a volume pedal, creating a swell effect. This will fit comfortably in a 1590B or 125B, though with the 1590B you’ll probably want to wire the pots off board or use long-leg right angle pots mounted on the component side. Here’s the schematic for reference.
Thought this one was interesting so I gave it a go. It’s a fairly typical Rockett overdrive (.45 Caliber, Animal, Blue Note, etc.) with a fairly typical MOSFET boost (AMZ Booster, EQD Black Eye, etc.). Fits in a 125B with dual footswitches. Schematic and discussion found here. Fabricated version available on the store.
Happy Fuzz Friday, all! Here’s a cool silicon Tone Bender style fuzz from Solid Gold Fx. Aside from using silicon transistors, the first stage is a JFET. When the switch is closed it adds in a 4.7uF input cap in parallel with the 330pF input cap. You could replace the switch with a B100k pot … Read more
The blog needs more modulation, so here’s the classic EHX Small Clone chorus. Made famous by Kurt Cobain, the Small Clone has a wide range of chorus tones. I’ve laid it out two ways, one stock, and one with the Depth switch replaced with a pot. You can probably squeeze this into a 1590B, but … Read more
Here’s an interesting take on the classic DOD 250/MXR Distortion + circuit. It’s pushed by a simple BJT boost and has an added presence control and tone switch. Schematic here. Easy to fit in a 1590B or 125B.
Happy Fuzz Friday, everyone! Here’s a very cool Big Muff variation designed by Zzoyd. Zzoyd lives in Kyiv and named the circuit after the famed fighter pilot defending the Ukrainian skies from Russian aggression. It reminds a bit of the Musket but with a 2-band EQ and a germanium pre section. Should fit nicely in … Read more
Almost didn’t draw this up since it’s just another Electra variant, but they almost always sound good, so why not? This one claims to emulate the sound of EL34 tubes, which sounds like marketing gibberish to me since it’s just a diode-less Electra. Originals are all hand wired, point to point, floating in the 1590BB … Read more