Castledine Electronics The Wizard

Here's another take on the cascaded JFET overdrive design. This has a similar goal to the Catalinbread Sabbra Cadabra in trying to sound like Tony Iommi with a treble booster feeding a tube emulator. The Wizard is...

A new distortion pedal, inspired by Tony Iommi's guitar sound on the early Black Sabbath albums. It is well known that he used a modified Rangemaster to drive his amps, so the same principle was used for The Wizard. The first gain stage is essentially a Rangemaster, using a germanium transistor, but tweaked for a full range boost. That drives a distortion circuit which has been designed to give something of the tone and feel of a Laney Supergroup amp. Obviously, there is no substitute for a full stack at volume, but The Wizard has a similar distortion character and responds well to picking dynamics. 

I've laid this out specifically for a 125B enclosure with top mounted jacks.

Catalinbread Sagrado Poblano Picoso/AMZ MOSFET Booster

The Catalinbread Sagrado Poblano Picoso is a bass version of Jack Orman's (AMZ) MOSFET Booster. Really the only difference between the two are a couple cap values. So if you want to build the AMZ version, sub the 470µF cap with a 100µF and the 220nF with a 100nF. Should be a pretty easy fit in a 1590A.

MMR Fuzz

Here's another great design by Nocentelli for Fuzz Friday. It's a fairly simple 2-transistor design with a wide range of tones on tap. Pots are all board mounted and should fit in a 1590B just fine.

MXR Distortion II

This one was kind of a sleeper. No where near as popular as MXR's Distortion +,  the Distortion II was quite a bit more complicated and ran off a 15v supply, complete with a built power cord . This layout is a bit modified from the original, and can be run off a normal pedal power supply (+9/18v). Originals also tend to be very bass heavy, so I've included a few mods to tame the low end. You might be able to fit in a 1590B, but a 125B will have a bit more room.

Little Angel V4

Had a request for this one and ended up drawing it up in Eagle. Rick Holt (frequencycentral) over on DIYSB designed this chorus and this is the latest version. It differs from earlier version with 2 toggle switches: One changes the effect from chorus to more of a vibe, and the other changes the sound (Space/Warble). I've also uploaded this to OSHPark if anyone is want's a fabricated board of this one. Best fit will probably be in a 125B.

4ms Noise Swash

Figured with all the big layouts this week, I'd better finish it off with another big one for Fuzz Friday. This one's great if you like flipping switches, playing with knobs and making a ton of noise. Not all that complicated really, just a lot of controls for tweak-ability. The original 4ms design says to use a switched pot for the Self Oscillation control, but you can use a regular pot and a separate SPST switch instead if you want. Here's the schematic for reference.

Diamond Compressor

Gotten several requests for this one and for good reason. It's probably the best optical compressor design out there. This one's not for the feint of heart, and will take up most of a 1590BB enclosure. 3 jumpers, but the pots are board mounted. The on/off indicator LED in the original is a bi-color LED that pulsates with the signal. The switches in the original are internal, but can be mounted externally for more control. Be sure to jump lugs 3 and 5 on the EQ switch. Here's the schematic for reference.