Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
I think you can see where I was going with this Fuzzrite layout – visually satisfying on top, quite the mess underneath, but who’s going to see it once it’s in a box? It is a good looking board when finished. MOSRITE FUZZRITE – TAG BOARD LAYOUT
There are more than a few versions of the germanium Mosrite Fuzzrite out there – seems like they went through a few different construction technics and capacitor combinations along the way. The details mostly seem to be lost to time (and rust). Here’s a bit of info that I’ve pulled together from various sources while … Read more
The Rosac Nu-Fuzz is an Ed Sanner design, of Mosrite Fuzzrite fame – the Nu-Fuzz is an evolution of the Fuzzrite. Key differences to a Fuzzrite: both sides of the tone (or depth on a fuzzrite) pot are taken from the same transistor, and are subsequently in phase, with the same amount of fuzz on each. A … Read more
Bit of a classic guitar effect – the MXR Phase 90. Electrosmash has an excellent reference that covers all things Phase 90, including the schematic https://www.electrosmash.com/mxr-phase90. JFETS can be pesky, so make sure you match them as best as possible and buy from reputable suppliers. The script switch is strictly optional. It’s one of those things that … Read more
The Gretsch Expandafuzz is a bit of an odd-ball guitar effect from the late sixties / early seventies. Not much out there on these in terms of information and video demos. First oddity: Apart from having a switch and a knob for almost everything, the one switch it doesn’t have is for bypassing the entire effect – it’s … Read more
I haven’t looked at an Ampeg Scrambler in a long time – in fact, my first attempt a few years ago went nowhere and ended up in the bin. It’s a pretty wild octave fuzz from the late sixties; not a huge number were produced so the originals are expensive now. Scramblers were designed … Read more
The Gretsch Controfuzz is yet another variation on the Distortion + the key point of difference this time is the clean blend, which makes this a little different than the rest. This layout does include a mod that increases the 10k distortion control to 100k, as 10k seems to be too small to be workable with … Read more
I thought I might finish off layouts for the rest of the Dan Armstrong series, as I’ve already done a few. Anyways, while I was looking at schematics of the Blue Clipper from all the usual sources online, I noticed that the opamp bias looked a bit odd. Then I noticed a few layouts used … Read more
A classic – the Dan Armstrong Orange Squeezer. It’s a very simple feedback-based compressor using JFETS as variable resistors, driven by a single diode acting as a half-wave rectifier. This makes it pretty snappy to play, unlike an optical compressor which is traditionally a bit slower and smoother – not that there’s anything wrong … Read more
A nice simple one – the DOD 250, which is a Distortion + variant. Or is it the other way around? Either way, it’s a classic. DOD 250 OVERDRIVE PREAMP – VERO LAYOUT DOD 250 OVERDRIVE PREAMP – SCHEMATIC DOD 250 OVERDRIVE PREAMP – VIDEO DEMO