Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
Not sure I missed doing this one ages ago, but better late than never. The Bassballs is a classic envelope filter that’s been a staple of Electro Harmonix’s line up for a long time. Designed for bass, but works great on guitar as well. Trimmers are very dynamic and might be fun as external pots. … Read more
Here’s a fun noisemaker for Fuzz Friday. It’s an oscillating fuzz built around a CD4049UBE hex inverter and has good range of noisy fuzz tones on tap. Schematic in here. Read that a B100k works better for the Frequency pot and an A20k works better for the Starve pot. YMMV
The JHS Haunting Mids is an EQ circuit that controls the mid frequencies along with giving a 10dB clean boost. From the JHS site: The Mids and Sweep controls work very closely together so you can find the perfect frequencies to boost or scoop mid frequencies. When the Mids knob is at 12 o’clock, no frequencies … Read more
Here’s the Tube Zone distortion from MI Audio. Original has 6 knobs with the Presence pot internally as a trimmer, but I know how you guys like to fiddle with knobs, and the layout was turning into a 1590BB size anyway, so I made it external. Schematic available on FSB.
Take a Blues Breaker and mash it between two Katana boosts and you have the 1962. Couple minor differences from a typical Blues Breaker beyond that. Trace over on FSB. There are two versions of this circuit, the 1962 and the 1962x. As far as I can tell, the only difference between the two is … Read more
Happy Fuzz Friday, everyone. Here’s a modded Fuzz Face from Skreddy Pedals. Early versions are all germanium and later versions are a hybrid germanium/silicon setup. Since it’s so similar to a Fuzz Face, there’s a lot of room for experimentation. Here’s the schematic for reference.
Got a request for this one. Another AC30/Rangemaster emulator to try and get Brian May’s tone. Here’s the schematic for reference. It calls for “BC245/256” JFETs for Q3-4, but I think that’s a typo and should have the BF prefix. Should work with other JFETs as well. So socket and experiment with the usuals—J201, 2N5457, … Read more
This is currently on hold till I figure out the tone control issue or someone can shed more light on this circuit. Build at your own risk. I stumbled across the schematic for this effect and thought it was another variation of the Marshall Bluesbreaker circuit. But realized it actually predates the Marshall circuit by several … Read more
Here’s a really cool and versatile dirt pedal design by Pink Jimi Photon. He’s made a lot of contributions to the DIY community and whips up some cool stuff. Check this thread on FSB for the schematic and Jimi’s description of the circuit.
Happy Fuzz Friday! As requested, here’s Bjorn’s Bone Bender. Lots of great info and schematic in this doc. Should fit nicely in a 1590B.