Here's a transistor based overdrive I came across on FSB. Demos sound interesting, so give it ago. Easy fit in a 1590B.
Lounsberry Nigel
Grind Customs FX Ultra '78
Greer Amps Southland
Turns out the Southland is pretty much the same circuit as the Lightspeed, but with some hard clipping diodes thrown in the middle (and a couple value tweaks). Figured I'd make a new layout with space for the diodes. This layout uses the same drill template as the Lightspeed.
Labor Day Sale
- King of the Morning—dual Bluesbreaker style overdrive, one half from the King of Tone, the other from the Morning Glory.
- Loyalist—distortion/overdrive 2-in-1, one half Morning Glory, the other a Rat.
- Bootlegger—simple but versatile fuzz based on the Walrus Audio Contraband.
- Heartbreaker II—Red Llama + Screamer-style ODs using a single CD4049, inspired by the Way Huge Camel Toe.
- Menhir—doom machine to move mountains, based on the Mountainking Megalith.
Double Llama
Stompbox Converter
Had a couple questions about stompbox use with line level, so I drew up this. This allows you to drop the line level signal down to instrument level, send it out to whichever stompboxes you want to use, then back and amplified back up to line level. Schematic and discussion here. Made two versions, one that could be run off typical +9v pedal power, and another for bi-polar 12v supply used in Eurorack synths, so you can build it either in pedal form or Eurorack module form.
PedalPalFX PAL 800
By popular demand, here's the PAL 800, a well regarded Marshall-in-a-box circuit. Should fit nicely in a 125B. Schematic here. All the trimmers except the one just below the Volume control are for biasing the JFETs. Start at 4.5v on the drain of each JFET and adjust by ear from there. The other trimer is for smoothing out the output signal.
MI Audio Blues Boy Deluxe
Stumbled across the schematic for this one over on FSB and it seemed interesting enough. Should be able to squeeze it into a 1590B.
Devi Ever Hounds Tooth
Fulltone 2B
Happy 2022, everyone! Here's a buffer/booster from Fulltone. Engaged it's a booster with an interesting controllable germanium soft clipping setup, and when bypassed the diodes and gain control are shorted, creating a buffer. If you're just after the boost and want to skip the buffered bypass, just ignore the two Bypass pads and wire it normally. The original uses a 3PDT still for bypass, but you should be able to get away with a DPDT (just wire the bypass pads to lugs 1 and 2 of a DPDT, LED- to lug 4 and lug 5 to ground). Discussion and schematic over on FSB.
Not A Muff
Happy Fuzz Friday, all! Recently I got a request for the new EQD Hizumitas. Found a schematic for it over on FSB and it's just a BMP. The values are tweaked, but the topology is the exact same as a standard Muff. If you've hung around here for really any length of time you know how many times I've laid out the BMP. There are so many clones out there dating back to the early 70s, most of which I haven't really explored here on the blog. So using Kit Rae's fantastic Big Muff site, I put together a BOM of 6 versions of non-muffs, including the Hizumitas and the Elk Sustainar the Hizumitas is derived from. So for your building and experimenting pleasure, here's the Not A Muff. (BOM, schematic and drilling templates linked below)
Darkglass Duality Fuzz
Happy Fuzz Friday! Here's a big one that hopefully makes up for my absence lately. Sounds great on bass and guitar. From Darkglass:
The Duality is a unique fuzz pedal that contains two discrete fuzz circuits—a gated saw-tooth wave and a raunchy high-gain sound—which can be mixed together to yield a vast selection of distinct sonic textures.
Earthquaker Devices Special Cranker
Greer Amps Soma 63 Preamp
Rift Amplification EL34
Almost didn't draw this up since it's just another Electra variant, but they almost always sound good, so why not? This one claims to emulate the sound of EL34 tubes, which sounds like marketing gibberish to me since it's just a diode-less Electra. Originals are all hand wired, point to point, floating in the 1590BB enclosure. Super cool looking, but a major labor of love to produce, hence its hefty price tag. This will fit in a 1590B, but has 2 footswitches, so the drill template reflects a zVex-style of layout. Schematic and cool teardown vid on FSB here.
Ghost of Kyiv
Happy Fuzz Friday, everyone! Here's a very cool Big Muff variation designed by Zzoyd. Zzoyd lives in Kyiv and named the circuit after the famed fighter pilot defending the Ukrainian skies from Russian aggression. It reminds a bit of the Musket but with a 2-band EQ and a germanium pre section. Should fit nicely in a 125B.
Solid Gold FX Super Drive
Here's an interesting take on the classic DOD 250/MXR Distortion + circuit. It's pushed by a simple BJT boost and has an added presence control and tone switch. Schematic here. Easy to fit in a 1590B or 125B.
EHX Small Clone
The blog needs more modulation, so here's the classic EHX Small Clone chorus. Made famous by Kurt Cobain, the Small Clone has a wide range of chorus tones. I've laid it out two ways, one stock, and one with the Depth switch replaced with a pot. You can probably squeeze this into a 1590B, but I'd stick with a 125B if you want the board mounted to the pot(s). Schematic for reference.
Solid Gold FX Rosie
Happy Fuzz Friday, all! Here's a cool silicon Tone Bender style fuzz from Solid Gold Fx. Aside from using silicon transistors, the first stage is a JFET. When the switch is closed it adds in a 4.7uF input cap in parallel with the 330pF input cap. You could replace the switch with a B100k pot (lug 1 to Sw1 pad, lugs 2-3 to Sw2 pad) to blend the two values. Set the trimmer to 4.5v for the JFET and adjust by ear as needed.
J. Rockett Tim Pierce Overdrive
Thought this one was interesting so I gave it a go. It's a fairly typical Rockett overdrive (.45 Caliber, Animal, Blue Note, etc.) with a fairly typical MOSFET boost (AMZ Booster, EQD Black Eye, etc.). Fits in a 125B with dual footswitches. Schematic and discussion found here.