Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
Here are two great sounding, yet simple circuits from Run Off Groove. The Big Daddy uses a JFET gain stage to push a 386 chip, while the Grace uses a JFET buffer in front of the 386 for added sparkle. Schematics, sound clips, and more info can be found on the ROG site.
The Katana is a highly regarded clean boost pedal that can give a nice clean boost or push your tube amp into breakup. The circuit itself is fairly simple, but achieves extra headroom thanks to the internal voltage doubler. For this you can use a ICL7660 or MAX1044. You may want to socket the two … 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
Got a request for the Pete Cornish Buffer in dual form like the one I did with the Klon Buffer. So here’s both a single and a dual Cornish Buffer. The original uses a 1N5401 for polarity protection, but a 4001 or similar will work too. And you can probably get away with a small … Read more
It’s Fuzz Friday! Here’s a cool doom-style fuzz from DeadAstronaut over on the DIYSB forum. Pretty simple and should fit in a 1590a. Schematic and a ton of discussion can be found here.
In an effort to make my own personal pedal board better, I’m building buffers at the input and output of my signal chain. As space and DC jacks are always a premium, I thought to build a dual buffer in a 1590A enclosure. The Klon Buffer is great and since it only uses half of … Read more
Happy Fuzz Friday, everybody. Ranjam over on FSB traced an early DBA Soundwave Breakdown (serial number 4) which it’s different than the current model. The unit he traced didn’t have the trimmers later units did. Don’t know the original value of those trimmers, but 50-100k is a good starting point. Those trimmers control the input … Read more
Happy #FuzzFriday! Got a request for this one. It’s the classic silicon Fuzz Face circuit with a few added components.
Happy #FuzzFriday everybody! Here’s a circuit I found while browsing around the Free Information Society that’s ripe for modification–the NN Classic Fuzz. I think I laid this out while I was on paternity leave a while back, but I just now got around to finalizing the layout. Anyway, I can’t find any info on the … Read more
Here’s a simple buffer from JHS. It really only uses one side of the opamp (why not just use a TL071?) and the extra resistors on the other side are just to meet the manufacture’s specs for an unused side. I couldn’t find a schematic for this one, but drew one up from lvlark’s vero … Read more