Montezuma Fuzz
Here’s another Dragonfly design. This one is basically two tweaked Electra Distortion circuits stacked back to back. Here’s a sound sample. Should fit pretty easily in a 1590a.
1590a
Dunlop Fuzz Face – Eric Johnson
Here’s a layout for the Eric Johnson Fuzz Face. Had someone ask if they could build it on the basic Fuzz Face layout from last year. Since there’s a few extra components in the EJ version, I thought I’d make a specific layout for it. Should still fit in a 1590a though. Q1 is a … Read more
Golden Dragon Overdrive
Here’s a simple overdrive circuit adapted from the National Semiconductor “Ultra High Gain Audio Amplifier” and Jack Orman’s “Minibooster” by Andrew Carrell (Dragonfly). It should easily fit in a 1590a.
Bearhug FET Compressor
Here’s a simple compressor design by Jon Patton (aka midwayfair) that’s good for guitar and bass. In Jon’s words: The Bearhug is a tonally transparent, ultra-quiet, tiny, and easy-to-build compressor. It occupies some middle ground between the ultra-subtle compressors like the Flatline/Afterlife and Orange Squeezer and the super squishy compressors like the Ross. For more … Read more
ColorSound Wah-Wah
Here’s the ColorSound Wah-Wah. I hadn’t laid out a wah before, probably because I haven’t built one myself before, and I don’t use one much when I play. Anyway, the ColorSound Wah-Wah is pretty simple and sounds very good. What makes it unique is that it doesn’t use an inductor like most wah circuits. This … Read more
Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster
The Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster offers 25 dB of clean boost with flat EQ (and it’s also a line driver). It uses a combination of two NPN and one PNP transistor. Originals use BC107s and BC177s, but other transistors should work fine as well. Check out the demo video below for more info.
Univox SquareWave
This is a pretty unique fuzz from the mid-70s by Univox. It was designed by Shin-Ei and like a few other Shin-Ei designs it can suffer from volume loss. To get it back up to unity or above, DIYSB forum member LucifersTrip made some mods to the circuit that keep the original sound, but improve … Read more
Electro Harmonix LPB-1 (and its siblings)
The LPB-1 was the first effect made by Mike Matthews and Electro Harmonix. Like many other effects at the time, it was housed in a small box that plugged directly into your guitar. It was designed to give you a volume boost and push the amp into overdriven territory. EHX still makes the LPB-1 (Linear … Read more
Run Off Groove May Queen
Here’s another “Brian May in a box” circuits, this time from Run Off Groove. The May Queen is a treble booster/overdrive that should get you pretty close to those classic Queen tones. The cap between 9v and the drain of Q3 in the layout below is optional. It’s a high end filter, so the larger … Read more
Creepy Fingers FuzzBud
Here’s a great sounding one-knob fuzz from Creepy Fingers Effects for your FuzzFriday. It’s based on the fuzz section of the Colorsound Fuzz-Wah and follows the basic structure of the Fuzz Face, just with a fixed resistor in place of the fuzz control. Shouldn’t be hard at all to fit in a 1590a enclosure.