Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
Here’s the original Dirty Little Secret from Catalinbread. It’s a great sounding overdrive that emulates the sound of a Marshall JTM45. The Rock/Rawk switch goes between two different gain settings, and this is a good candidate to be run at 18v for more headroom.
Here’s a little overdrive designed by Fred Briggs of the La Revolution Deux blog. Here’s what he had to say about it. Here’s another (nearly) new one from me. It’s a tricked out super mod of the old Electro Harmonix LPB-1 circuit that produces some lovely singing overdrive tones reminiscent of an old VOX from their 1960’s … Read more
The Formula No. 5 is a 5E3 Tweed Deluxe amp emulating overdrive pedal. It’s essentially 2 JFET stages (very similar to the AMZ Booster) with the Tweed Deluxe tone and volume (in this case gain) controls in between. A master volume pot is added at the output for more control. Here’s a great demo of … Read more
This one’s for those of you trying to nail some Jimmy Page tones. The RAH emulates the HiWatt heads Jimmy used live in the early days of Zeppelin. It uses only 3 MOSFET transistors, and features a 3-band EQ section. I’m going to shut up now so you can hear Andy from PGS put this … Read more
And improvement over the original English Channel project, the Run Off Groove Britannia is an adaption of the classic Vox AC-30 amp into stompbox form. Couldn’t squeeze this one into a 1590B with onboard pots, but it’s laid out for a 125B enclosure. Pots are right angle PCB mount type, mounted from the solder-side of … Read more
The ROG Eighteen is an overdrive/distortion circuit based on the classic 18watt Marshall amp of the late 60s. It uses JFETs in place of tubes, like many other ROG amp-based drive effects. J201s are specified, but socket and try some other JFETs (2N5457, MPF102, etc.) The Volume control will probably act more like a gain … Read more
Here’s a popular JHS pedal that emulates old Supro/Valco amps: the Superbolt. It has a remarkable similarity to the Run Off Groove Supreaux and Supreaux Deux. It seems to be a slightly modded Supreaux, with the high/low switch and 18 volt supply of the Supreaux Deux. A charge pump is also added so the pedal … Read more
The Umble is the result of Brian Tremblay’s (ROG) adaption the the mythical Dumble amplifier into a FET-based distortion box. I’ve drawn the layout for on board right angle PCB pots and added a 1N4001 diode for polarity protection. Should fit nicely in a 1590B. Check out the ROG article for more info.
Here’s another plexi-in-a-box pedal. Fairly simple in comparison to others. I’ve drawn 2 layouts for this one; one stock and one with an adjustable gain mod. The EQ switch is optional, as some who’ve built this circuit say it’s pretty lackluster. The original uses an MC4558CN, but just about any dual op-amp should suffice (try … Read more
Got a request for the S2, but have been unable to track down a schematic for it, so here’s the S1 in the meantime. It’s an emulator/preamp of a Soldano tube amp, and like most amp emulators it uses JFET transistors. The original uses mostly SMD components with the exception of some capacitors, which is … Read more