Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
Here’s a simplified Tube Screamer circuit from Run Off Groove, the Tube Reamer. Basically, it’s a buffer-less TS without the tone control. The IC can be just about any dual op-amp. JRC4558 or TL072 are good places to start. Should be a great candidate for a 1590a build. For more info, schematic, and demo see … Read more
Yesterday, Ronaldo commented on the Power Brick post pleading for a voltage doubler using the 555 chip. Well, since it sounded like it was an emergency, here you go. 😉 D1-2 should be barrier Schottky diodes and don’t forget the jumper under the IC.
Here’s a little utility board that could come in handy. It uses a MAX1044 or ICL7660 to convert +9v to both +18v and -9v. It’s essentially the charge pump from the Klon Centaur. I’ve added a 10v zenner (1N4740) diode to protect the IC, but that’s optional.
Here’s a fun distortion from EarthQuaker. Tonally, it’s based on a cranked Sunn Model T amp and uses 2, 386 chips. It cleans up nicely with the guitar’s volume, so a good mod would be adding a pot before the input. John K did this and used a reverse log 1M pot.
The Phantom Octave is an octave/ring mod type fuzz that’s very interactive with guitar pickup selection and volume/tone controls. The LED pads are for the one that’s under the knob in the video below. You could use it as the on/off indicator, but it might be hard to tell if it’s on when signal isn’t … Read more
Got a request for more blend effects, so let’s start with a simple one. You can use this as a daughter board to add a blend control to an existing pedal (or incorporate it into something else you’re building), or use it as a stand alone blending pedal. 2N5457 should work just fine for both … Read more
Here’s a simple one-knob drive that’s ripe for modification. It uses an interesting combination of one NPN and one PNP silicon transistor stacked together. There are a few different values you can tweak to taste. Here’s a schematic for reference: The input capacitor (C1) could be increased for more bass. C2 could be increased to … Read more
I was trolling Google Images the other night looking for schematics and I stumbled across this. I think the only thing this reissue has in common with an original is the enclosure and graphics. It uses a single opamp with soft clipping and a Big Muff-style tone stack. If you use 9mm pots you could … Read more
Here’s a simple clean boost circuit built by JHS. It’s really just the Tim Escobedo Duente JFET boost with a fixed resistor instead of a trimmer. Because of that you probably want to socket that resistor (5.1k) and adjust to the J201 you use. Or you can just squeeze a 25k trimmer on there like … Read more
Here’s a quicky designed by Tim Escobedo. It’s an inductor-less wah, and you can use either a pot or an LDR to control the effect. It’s small enough to fit in a 1590a if you want a fixed wah in a small package. Resonance switch is a SPST.