Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
The Catalinbread Merkin Fuzz is their take on the classic Mosrite Fuzzrite, but with a few changes in values and a boost section at the end. Now I know a lot of guitar pedals have some odd names, but a Merkin Fuzz? Really??? Google it…. CATALINBREAD MERKIN FUZZ – POINT-TO-POINT LAYOUT
The Conquistador is Way Huge’s take on a Tone Bender MKIII, but with some twists. For one, it’s silicon, but it still uses PNP transistors. It also uses an odd power transistor for Q3, which might be hard to find by all accounts. Note the two options below for CBE and BCE pinouts. Word of warning: … Read more
This is the BYOC version of the Maestro MFZ-1 Fuzz, the Lil’ Black Keys. Named as such, as there are a few references to the Black Keys using the Maestro at some stage. It’s an easy build, and it sounds pretty good too. There are fairly minimal differences circuit-wise, between the original and the Lil’ Black … Read more
Well they don’t come much simpler than this – the Earthquaker Devices Arrows. It’s a booster – it has one knob – it makes things loud. EARTHQUAKER DEVICES ARROWS – POINT TO POINT LAYOUT
The Pellucid Compressor by Jonny Reckless on DIY Stompboxes RECKLESS PELLUCID COMPRESSOR – VERO LAYOUT note: if you see an older layout of this from me – don’t use it; I uploaded a working file with a mistake and now can’t edit the thread on DIY stompboxes. ON THE BENCH
This is the octave portion of the Sunn Life pedal by Earthquaker Devices, taken from the Pedal PCB schematic. It’s an EQD Tentacle (Dan Armstrong Green Ringer), with an input buffer and blend control. I made this as an add-on for other builds – or if you want to build a Life pedal, add … Read more
The Earthquaker Devices Plumes is their take on a Tube Screamer, and it’s quite a good one. It’s somewhat simpler than Palisades, which is probably about as far as anyone would want to take a Tube Screamer. I’m not one that really likes Tube Screamers a great deal, as I never got the mid-boost and … Read more
This is a JFET version of one of the Benson amps, which is I think why the pedal doesn’t really have a proper name. It’s hard to find a B2M pot for the bass control, but you can use a dual B1M pot and gang the two sides together to reach 2M. Check the Pedal … Read more
After the Thorpy Fallout Cloud, I thought I might do another bax Big Muff. The Catalinbread Manx Loaghtan pre-dates Thorpy’s by quite a few years. The same basic idea, take a Big Muff and swap out the single tone control for a baxandall tone stack. CATALINBREAD MANX LOAGHTAN – VERO LAYOUT EQ CURVES
The Thorpy FX Fallout Cloud AKA the Muffroom Cloud, is a Big Muff with a Baxandall tone stack. Here’s the thread on Freestompboxes. It’s a lower gain muff, probably more like a BMP from the former Soviet Union, as they also tend to have 47n caps on the diodes and large emitter resistors. THORPY FX FALLOUT … Read more