Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
I just found an old, nearly finished layout for the Frantone Lo-Tone Classic Fuzz in my files, so I thought now is as good a time as any to finish it. After the D*A*M Sonic Titan, I thought I would see what else has an LM386, and this popped up. Kind of unusual with the incredibly low input impedance … Read more
This is as close as I could get to the original layout for the D*A*M Sonic Titan. It’s pretty much a JFET smashing the LM386 with level, but in the nicest possible way. I’ve read a 10k level pot can brighten things up a little. Apparently, this was on some of the earlier versions. There’s … Read more
SINGLE OPERATIONAL AMPLIFIERS PINOUTS LM386 TL061, TL071, LM741 DUAL OPERATIONAL AMPLIFIERS PINOUT TL072, 4558, 5532, LM358, LM833 QUAD OPERATIONAL AMPLIFIERS PINOUT TL074 DUAL OPERATIONAL TRANSCONDUCTANCE AMPLIFIERS PINOUT LM13700 SINGLE OPERATIONAL TRANSCONDUCTANCE AMPLIFIER CA3080 PINOUT note: out of production, LM13700 is the current equivalent CA3080 HEX INVERTING BUFFER PINOUT – CD4049UBE
Something of a classic and many other designs are based on the MXR Distortion + so no real need for an introduction. MXR DISTORTION PLUS – VERO LAYOUT DISTORTION PLUS ANALYSIS There’s an excellent analysis of the Distortion + here on Electrosmash including a schematic (be prepared for some maths) Note that I have used alternate pot … Read more
The Musitronics Mu-Tron Micro V is a cool old auto-wah / envelope filter from the seventies – I feel I need to be wearing a valour tracksuit, possibly with a half-unzipped jacket exposing generous chest hair with a gold dangler to really play this properly. Maybe a moustache too… I’ve used a LM13700 instead … Read more
The Durham Sex Drive. Named as such, as it was initially made for Charlie Sexton. This is actually one of the first builds I ever did with an IC using the layout from Guitar FX Layouts – it’s a nice easy one, and it sounds great too. Despite having a compression switch, it’s really … Read more
The Pete Cornish CC-1 is an interesting one – two stages of soft clipping and a three-band active tone stack. I initially built and tested the CC-1 using the larger of the two layouts below, and I can’t say that I immediately loved it at the time. Regarding others in the Cornish line-up, I preferred the … Read more
I probably said enough about the Crowther Hotcake (and New Zealanders) in the previous post – so I’ll stop now. Short story – it’s straight op amp clipping with some filtering. Although I should say that this has an unusual bypass system – it’s not true bypass, note the switching. I’ve included a modded layout … Read more
Invented in the late seventies by Paul Crowther, the drummer from Split Enz (yes, the drummer). As an Australian, I can only say that this was almost certainly invented by an Australian and then stolen by a crafty New Zealander – just like the Pavlova, ANZAC Biscuits, Lamingtons, the Flat White and Phar Lap. But … Read more
This is a simple little IC-based Fuzz from Maestro – it’s pretty raw. You can also find a layout of the BYOC Lil Black Keys here, which is a variation on this circuit. MAESTRO MFZ-1 FUZZ – VERO LAYOUT