Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
Here’s an interesting LM386-based compressor designed by Brett Robinson (DIYSB member Toney). I found the schematic for this while searching for something else. Apparently there are various incarnations (and names too) of this circuit, but this seems to be the most popular version. Should fit easily in a 1590A, though, I’m not sure about board-mounting … Read more
The Sparkle Drive is a very versatile drive pedal, offering everything from clean boost to full on dirty Tube Screamer tones. The Clean blend allows you to layer both clean and dirty sounds (kind of like playing through two amps, one clean and the other dirty). One of these has lived on my pedal board … Read more
Often forgotten and overshadowed by one of it’s derivatives, the VooDoo Lab Overdrive is the basis of the famous Fulltone OCD. The main differences between the 2 circuits is the clipping (OCD uses 2 Mosfets) and the added tone control of the OCD. On an somewhat unrelated note, I’ve had a lot of people having … Read more
The Maxon Company is probably most famous for manufacturing the legendary Ibanez Tube Screamer pedals (among many other Ibanez offerings). Because of this (and especially in non-Asian markets) Maxon pedals were often overshadowed by their Ibanez-branded brothers. But throughout the company’s history, they have produced a great offering of effects. The Maxon OD880 Soft Distortion … Read more
The Walrus Audio Deep Six is a versatile compressor that gives studio level compression in stompbox form (that’s what their website says, anyway). It’s very similar to the BYOC 5-knob compressor, with the only difference being a few component changes in the blend and output stages. I set out to try and make a layout … Read more
A lot of awesome things came out in 1977: the op amp version of the Big Muff, the grey box DOD250, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, the Sex Pistol’s Never Mind the Bullocks, and STAR WARS (May the 4th be with you). The Crowther Audio Hot Cake also made it’s debut in 1977, and you could say … Read more
I’ve been wanting to do a Fuzz Face with on-board pots for a while, and when I stumbled across a schematic of Jack Deville’s (Mr. Black) take on the classic circuit, things just fell into place. This uses NPN germanium transistors (though you could use silicons if you must), and I tried to leave plenty … Read more
Here’s another great overdrive from Wampler, with a wide range of tones to choose from. It has a simple 2-band EQ and a DPDT (on-off-on) switch to go between smooth clipping, no clipping, and hard clipping.
Here’s another Dan Armstrong effect. It’s part ring modulator (when playing chords) and part octave (when playing on the neck pickup, high on the fretboard with the guitar tone control down). For the clearest octave effect, match the diodes as closely as possible for forward voltage. It might also be worth matching the 47nF caps … 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.