Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
The Gretsch Controfuzz is yet another variation on the Distortion + the key point of difference this time is the clean blend, which makes this a little different than the rest. This layout does include a mod that increases the 10k distortion control to 100k, as 10k seems to be too small to be workable with … Read more
I thought I might finish off layouts for the rest of the Dan Armstrong series, as I’ve already done a few. Anyways, while I was looking at schematics of the Blue Clipper from all the usual sources online, I noticed that the opamp bias looked a bit odd. Then I noticed a few layouts used … Read more
A classic – the Dan Armstrong Orange Squeezer. It’s a very simple feedback-based compressor using JFETS as variable resistors, driven by a single diode acting as a half-wave rectifier. This makes it pretty snappy to play, unlike an optical compressor which is traditionally a bit slower and smoother – not that there’s anything wrong … Read more
A nice booster from Thorpy, most likely Dan Coggins design. The build notes from PedalPCB suggest germanium diodes across the opamp for a dirty boost. Schematic can be found here THORPY HEAVY WATER BOOSTER – VERO LAYOUT This puts out a lot of level, and the low cut can put it in treble boost territory on … Read more
A nice simple one – the DOD 250, which is a Distortion + variant. Or is it the other way around? Either way, it’s a classic. DOD 250 OVERDRIVE PREAMP – VERO LAYOUT DOD 250 OVERDRIVE PREAMP – SCHEMATIC DOD 250 OVERDRIVE PREAMP – VIDEO DEMO
Greer Amps have taken the Lightspeed overdrive and have made a few mods to give us the Southland Harmonic Overdrive. added a set of hard clippers after the first gain stage boosted the gain of the output to make up for the BAT41 hard clippers increase the drive pot value Could try germanium diodes instead … Read more
This is a simple one from Greer Amps – the Tomahawk Deluxe Drive. It has some distinct similarities to a Rat or Distortion +, in that there’s opamp clipping, driving hard clipping diodes, and a tone control. Schematic from PedalPCB. I added a buffer on vref, as half the opamp wasn’t being used, so why not. GREER … Read more
GREER AMPS LIGHTSPEED OVERDRIVE – VERO LAYOUT note: a standard TL072 can be used, the OPA is a “premium” dual op-amp. GREER AMPS LIGHTSPEED OVERDRIVE – VIDEO DEMO
Another CMOS based distortion, this time from Mad Professor – the Stone Grey Distortion. Details available on Aion FX, including schematic. Not that the original uses JFETS acting as diodes for clipping, which means very little if any difference when compared to a regular diode. If you want to use JFETS, details are in the Aion build … Read more
This is the CMOS version of the Electro-Harmonix Hot Tubes from the late seventies. I used the Aion FX schematic, which has some minor differences to the original. Smaller Drive pot, as it’s difficult to source pots over 1meg, and some improved power protection and filtering. ELECTRO-HARMONIX HOT TUBES – VERO LAYOUT HOT TUBES VIDEO DEMO