Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
Here are two layouts for a classic Ring Modulator. The first one is for a vintage version (schematic available here). The DIP version of 1496 had a different pinout. The second one is for the modern vesion and it could potentially fit in a 125B size box (there is no schematic but a PCB layout here). … Read more
Here is a serie of tube effect pedals by the German Tube-Town which were requested a while back. There aren’t videos available but you can find all infos, schematics and pcbs on their website here. (The Pepper Shredder has been discontinued but it’s supposed to be a tube distortion based on the Twin Valvecaster)
The BYOC Confidence Booster is just a simple linear boost and buffer. The only change i made was moving the trimmer offboard to make a pot. Figured this would be a nice easy project for those that want to get started building pedals.
Here is a simple distortion pedal by Carl Martin. Original FSB thread and schematic available here.
If you feel like getting into a bit of programing with your pedal building, this is probably a good place to start. The legwork was done and graciously shared by Coda Effects. It uses a PIC micro-controller to trigger a relay and LED indicator. To learn how to program the PIC12F675 read the original blog … Read more
Here’s the MXR Distortion III. It’s pretty similar to the MXR ZW-44, which itself is a Boss SD-2 clone. The main difference is hard clipping in the Distortion III instead of soft clipping in the ZW-44/SD-2. Originals use an MC33178P dual opamp, but try a JRC4558 or TL072.
For Fuzz Friday, here’s another one from CultureJam. The Stein Fuzz is a lightly modified version of the Roger Mayer Stone Fuzz* pedal (which is itself a lightly modified Fuzz Face). The main difference is more standardized part values (the pots mainly). It’s meant to be a positive ground circuit (center positive, so not daisy … Read more
Got a request for this one. It’s very similar to Bjorn’s Pale Green Compressor in his BearFoot Fx line, but with an extra stage for the Sustain mode. Here’s the schematic for reference. From the product description: FOREST GREEN COMPRESSOR (FGC) is designed to meet the highest standards of guitar and bass compression. There is … Read more
Here is a layout for the older version of EH Black Finger. You can find the original FSB thread here. I’ve used Pedalgrinder slightly modified schematic on page 3. Some suggested high gain, some low gain transistors. Should test them both. … and the LM13700’s version:
Here’s one of the earliest Catalinbread designs, the Supercharged Overdrive. It’s a pretty unique circuit with the Contour control adding in more distortion and saturation from the CD4007 stage. Laid out for board mounted pots and will fit quite nicely in a 1590B. Schematic here for reference.