Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
This one’s for those of you trying to nail some Jimmy Page tones. The RAH emulates the HiWatt heads Jimmy used live in the early days of Zeppelin. It uses only 3 MOSFET transistors, and features a 3-band EQ section. I’m going to shut up now so you can hear Andy from PGS put this … Read more
I could have sworn I posted this back when I started this blog, but apparently not (hence the ‘old school’ pcb). It’s another of Nocentelli’s designs and somewhat similar to the Marvel Drive. Original schematic can be found on the FSB thread.
I really enjoyed making the Big Muff Project file a couple months ago and thought it would be fun to make a similar project based on the MXR Distortion +/DOD OD250 circuit (in an attempt to combine the 2 names I call this project the Drivestortion). This circuit was also cloned by other pedal manufacturers … Read more
And improvement over the original English Channel project, the Run Off Groove Britannia is an adaption of the classic Vox AC-30 amp into stompbox form. Couldn’t squeeze this one into a 1590B with onboard pots, but it’s laid out for a 125B enclosure. Pots are right angle PCB mount type, mounted from the solder-side of … Read more
The Amber Drive is a slightly tweaked Fire Red Fuzz. Not a whole lot of differences between the two other than some value changes, but it’s enough to make this not as fuzzy as the FRF apparently. Here’s the drilling template for this one. It should also work for the Fire Red Fuzz.
Info about the original: The Talons is an extremely versatile high gain overdrive that serves up the full range of gain from transparent boost to heavy saturation, and all points in between. Unlike all our other overdrives, the Talons was not designed to emulate any specific sound or era. The presence control gives you a … Read more
Here’s an original design by Himmelstrutz Elektro Art, the Fetto. It’s a heavy overdrive/distortion circuit using 3 JFETs (probably 2SK170GR, but the names were sanded off the original traced by SoulSonic). These have DGS pinouts, so they’re not J201, 2N5457, etc. One of the unique things about this circuit is the number of removable jumpers … Read more
Here’s Analogman’s original version of the King of Tone, a highly regarded overdrive with a few “unobtanium” diodes. It’s probably best to socket said diodes to play around with your favorite combinations. Switch A controls the 4-diode array in the feedback loop (much like a Tube Screamer), while Switch B controls shunted diodes (much like … Read more
Here is a layout for the Catalinbread Galileo MKII, the new, updated version of the well known Galileo. Info about the original: The Galileo is a custom-tuned Rangemaster booster combined with the pre-amp section of a Vox AC30 delivering the distinctive throaty mid-range and jangly crunch of Brian May. The Galileo has three controls tuned … Read more
Here’s another design by Martin from Soul Sonic FX. Here’s what he had to say about it over on FreeStompboxes: It’s a cool little hybrid combo of an opamp driving a MOSFET. It has a great range of drive, from light and crunchy to thick and heavy. At it’s highest settings, some people might consider … Read more