Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
This is a very unusual one – the Earth Sound Research Graphic Fuzz. Why is it so unusual – have a look at the schematic. It has no input or output caps, and the IC runs at +/- 4.5V. Practically half the parts on the board are for the split rail power supply. Be careful … Read more
This is the Ghost Effects take on the WEM Project V – the Warmjet V. The name is a combination of the original WEM Project V, and the Brian Eno album, Here Comes the Warm Jets, which the pedal was allegedly used on and supposedly remains a favourite of Brian Eno (according to the internet, so it must be … Read more
The Lovepedal Fuzz Master is a silicon Fuzz Face with a blend control on the input shifting between two capacitors to increase/decrease the frequency range at the input stage. It uses silicon PNP 2N3906 transistors with a standard power supply – so if the layout looks a little odd, that’s what’s happening. V+ goes to the … Read more
The DeArmond Square Wave – it’s pretty much an MXR Distortion + with a couple of minor values changed. It does come in a cooler-looking box… There’s a great analysis of the Distortion Plus on Electrosmash, which will apply equally to the DeArmond Square Wave. DEARMOND SQUARE WAVE – VERO LAYOUT MODS The most obvious place to … 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
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
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