Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
Here’s a light-medium gain overdrive designed by RNFR from the Apocalypse Audio blog. Here’s what he had to say about it: I thought I would build something that would turn on the guys that were into the lighter side of things- something different than my usual wall of fuzz tones. With the MLOD, you can … Read more
Here’s a really simple “transparent overdrive” circuit that was a must have a couple years ago. People compared it to the Klon and Timmy drives. Originals use paper in oil caps, which some claim sound better than modern film or ceramic caps. That’s a debate for another time though. I’ve drawn it up so you … Read more
Here’s an op-amp based boost circuit from Jack Deville (Mr. Black Effects). He was kind enough to share his schematic a couple years ago on FSB. I stumbled upon it and thought it would be a good addition here. It should easily fit in a 1590a, and you can probably board mount the pot too.
The Triple Wreck is a high gain distortion that some say sounds like a 5150 amp. It has a 3-band EQ and a switch to select between “Vintage” and “Modern” tones. There’s also a built in boost section to take things over the top. I’ve laid out the distortion section and the boost section as … Read more
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.
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
The Folk Driver is a low-medium gain overdrive developed by SoulSonic FX after being challenged by Björn Juhl (of BJFE) to create a DIY project inspired by sound of the BJFE Honey Bee. Here’s what Martin (soulsonic) had to say about it after designing the circuit back in ’09: My goal was to keep the … Read more
Here’s another circuit from Xotic. Simple JFET boost with an output buffer borrowed from the Tube Screamer. Originals have 2SP1815 transistors with BCE pinout, but I’ve laid this out for the more common 2N5088 with CBE pinout. The originals also have the Bright and Fat switches internally as DIP switches. Having these externally should be … Read more
Got a request for the RC. The AC is just a few value changes, so I drew them up to be built on the same board. Seems like a Tube Screamer with a 2-band EQ section to me.
The Vox Treble Booster was a simple silicon treble boost effect that plugged straight into an amp’s input jack. It allowed the user a boost in high frequencies for lead work. I laid this one out to use as a built in effect on a guitar (hence the lack of a power filtering cap and … Read more