Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
Here’s another BJF designed circuit: the Sky Blue Overdrive. There are 4 controls: Z adjusts input impedance, Distort. controls gain, Texture adjusts the hard clipping, and finally the Volume. It uses 3mm LEDs in the feedback loop of the opamp, and then JFETs for hard clipping.
Info about the original: The Keeley Oxblood Overdrive is our response to everyone kloning pedals. We wanted to build a new circuit that let players blend from perfectly clean to amp-crushing roar. We wanted that impossibly huge and focused midrange that makes any guitar… Strat, Paul, Tele, sound incredible. We knew we could do it our … Read more
Here’s the Lovepedal Englishman. It’s claimed to sound like a cranked Vox (either AC15 or AC30 depending on which clipping diodes are selected). Like many of Lovepedal’s offerings, this circuit is built around a single transistor. Unlike many of Lovepedal’s offerings, it’s not based off the Electra Distortion. Instead, it draws from the EHX LPB-1 … Read more
Here’s a cool EQ/booster from Bjorn Juhl. If pushed hard, it will break up much like a tube EQ would, and adds warmth and clarity to your tone. It uses 2 JFETs and a James style tone stack.
Here’s a cool overdrive circuit designed by Martin from SoulSonic FX. It’s said to be a “Klon Killer,” so if you’ve been disappointed by that circuit, give this one a go. Signal goes through a buffer then is split between clean out put and the rest of the effect. So not a true-bypass effect, but … Read more
Here’s a unique little circuit from Devi. Plenty of gain on tap to go from just a boost, to an overdrive, to fuzzy the more your turn up the volume control. The Pregain control acts more like a tone control, panning between 2 capacitors. The first transistor stage is kind of like an Electra Distortion, … Read more
Here’s an overdrive I stumbled across while browsing the Free Information Society site. It was designed by Jake Nagy and was quite popular in the DIY world at while back. Here’s what he had to say about it: Blue Magic is a very low to medium grit, tube-like, overdrive pedal that is based on a … Read more
The ROG Eighteen is an overdrive/distortion circuit based on the classic 18watt Marshall amp of the late 60s. It uses JFETs in place of tubes, like many other ROG amp-based drive effects. J201s are specified, but socket and try some other JFETs (2N5457, MPF102, etc.) The Volume control will probably act more like a gain … Read more
The ReezaFRATzitz is a high gain overdrive/distortion circuit based around a CMOS chip, most likely a CD4069N or 74HCU04. This layout reflects a modded version by FreeStompboxes member thn.technik with added Bass and Mids controls. Here’s a link to his schematic and build pics. You might be able to squeeze it into 1590B, but you’d … Read more
Here’s a light-medium gain overdrive designed by RNFR from the Apocalypse Audio blog. Here’s what he had to say about it: I thought I would build something that would turn on the guys that were into the lighter side of things- something different than my usual wall of fuzz tones. With the MLOD, you can … Read more