Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
This one is kind of a take on a single opamp overdrive with hard clippers ala OD250/Dist+, but the gain control is placed on the feedback loop like in many standard overdrive designs. Nothing too speacial or different, but a nice addition to overdrive palette nevertheless. Snippet from the spiel:The BL-8 delivers a creamy yet … Read more
Traced by GratefulEight, this overdrive seems like a circuit worth to try out. From the source: The Earth Drive is the ultimate boost/overdrive pedal, designed to retain your instrument’s natural character while providing an organic, full-bodied, yet transparent sound. Use the Earth Drive as a clean boost to add warmth and smoothing, or turn up … Read more
There was a great post from Grey Bench on FSB, tracing this ten year old Stafford Maxon circuit that i found interesting back in a day, but couldn’t source a schematic back then. This is per original, using only a half of a dual opamp and utilizing a 12×21 board.
Recently traced at FSB by VitaliiBobrov, i find this very interesting. Discrete opamp overdrive, that leaves a lot of room for tweaking and modding. Sounds pretty great even as it is. There are never too many discrete opamp designs… /edit – There was an error on the gain pot label. That’s now fixed. Also, the … Read more
This should probably be up here as well.. Spiel: Simble Overdrive has a natural organic tone, unsurpassable touch sensitivity, sweet tube-like compression and built in inspiration. This natural sounding pedal works as a clean boost, ”on the edge” crunch, or a sweet singing overdrive, always retaining the tone of your prized guitar. The Simble pedal … Read more
Thought this one was interesting so I gave it a go. It’s a fairly typical Rockett overdrive (.45 Caliber, Animal, Blue Note, etc.) with a fairly typical MOSFET boost (AMZ Booster, EQD Black Eye, etc.). Fits in a 125B with dual footswitches. Schematic and discussion found here. Fabricated version available on the store.
Here’s an interesting take on the classic DOD 250/MXR Distortion + circuit. It’s pushed by a simple BJT boost and has an added presence control and tone switch. Schematic here. Easy to fit in a 1590B or 125B.
Almost didn’t draw this up since it’s just another Electra variant, but they almost always sound good, so why not? This one claims to emulate the sound of EL34 tubes, which sounds like marketing gibberish to me since it’s just a diode-less Electra. Originals are all hand wired, point to point, floating in the 1590BB … Read more
Cool JFET preamp circuit from Greer. Its supposed to sound like a Brownface-era Fender amp. I’d be curious what it sounds like without the transformer. Should fit just fine in a 125B with top mounted jacks. Schematic for reference.
Here’s EQD’s newest offering, the Special Cranker. Developed from the Speaker Cranker, this one is like two basic Electra’s with switchable hard clipping diodes in between (1N60Ps like the original Speaker Cranker or Soviet germanium D9Ks). Easy fit for a 1590B. Here’s the schematic for reference. Normally I throw a demo in, but just go … Read more