Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
Don’t ask me why, but I randomly thought of doing a quick post on custom pot tapers. Maybe it’s because occasionally I have a gain or fuzz pot that isn’t behaving how I would like it to, and I find this very annoying. I’m sure it’s happened to everyone at some stage. However, adding an extra resistor to a linear pot, this can sometimes … Read more
While I was looking at a few Boss circuits recently, I was reminded of some of the DC filtering they use. I thought I might try it in LTspice for a look, as my oscilloscope is pretty basic, so I can’t test it properly on the bench. So if you are ever having trouble with … Read more
THE PROBLEM WITH VERO / STRIPBOARD LAYOUTS As much as I like a bit of vero (clearly), vero is not meant for commercial-scale production, at least in the modern sense. Unlike PCBs, where pots and switches can all be mounted on the board, thus providing a convenient way to hold the board in the enclosure, vero … Read more
REDUCING NOISE ON DC POWER FOR FX PEDALS When looking at a guitar pedal schematic, you’re really looking at two circuits that overlay each other, sharing resources, and working together. There’s one for the AC signal and one for DC power. We use capacitors to block DC, and let AC signals pass – this is … Read more
POLARITY PROTECTION FOR GUITAR EFFECTS PEDALS Guitar pedals are full of components, some of which are so sensitive to voltages of the wrong polarity that they will explode – electrolytic capacitors in particular. Exploding caps is not good. And to really start at the beginning, the wrong polarity means V+ and ground (or V-) have … Read more
Capacitors can be pretty complex things, given that they are passive components. There are plenty of in-depth discussions and explanations out there, but this is not one of them. This is intended as a primer for anyone just starting out building, who wants to know a little more about capacitors, but doesn’t like looking at equations … Read more
Everything listed below is about guitar pedal builds and is not intended cover all possible uses of resistors. It’s an incomplete and general reference intended for someone just starting out building pedals. So if I have missed particular properties or information, it’s because I either don’t understand them or it’s irrelevant for this purpose. … Read more
I’m sure others have done it; however, this is commonly known as the Voodoo Labs bypass. It’s an interesting way of bypassing a pedal using a DPDT switch while including an LED indicator. Before 3PDT switches became available, designers had to choose between not true bypass with a LED or true-bypass without an LED (until the millennium bypass appeared, … Read more
After a couple of posts about workbench tools etc, I thought perhaps it’s time for a guide on where to start, as the internet is a big place full of opinions (now including mine). Sometimes it’s hard to work out what one actually needs and why they are needed. The idea of saving money by … Read more
Just a little reference to Soviet-era transistor pinouts. SOVIET TRANSISTOR PINOUTS note: in addition to potentially different pinouts, some Soviet-era transistors can have the case connected to the base – which is not good if it touches anything else. The dot on the case usually marks the emitter, not the collector as often found on European … Read more