This is a library of perfboard and single-sided PCB effect layouts for guitar and bass. I'm not an electrical engineer by any stretch of the imagination, just a DIY'er who likes drawing layouts. It is meant for the hobbyist (so commercial use of any of these layout is not allowed without permission) and as a way to give back to the online DIY community.

Monday, February 16, 2015

EarthQuaker Devices Monarch

This is a great sounding Orange amp emulator by EQD. The EQ controls allow you to boost those frequencies instead of just rolling them off. Lots of big burly Orange tone in this FET based circuit. I've laid it out so you can board-mount all 4 pots from the solder-side of the board using right angle PCB mount pots.


18 comments:

  1. hi, i didt today, works faim!i use 2n7000 intead the bs170, and the fets j201-mpf102-j201.the treble pot oscilate a little, so i put a 500kA.Chers from Argentina!Nice work!

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  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKC3hIU7C68

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    1. I try build this effect. Just clean sound when bypassed off mode. I use 2n5457 transistor

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  3. If you're not getting much distortion from this, try changing the resistor coming off the source of q4 to 1k. The 47k resistor next to it should also be 470k.

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  4. I've tried to build it, but it doesn't sound good. The EQ section is OK, except some squealing of treble pot. The pedal is fairly loud and could be used as a booster, but it lacks of gain and sustain. And the distortion itself is kinda gated/too compressed. So I'm disappointed. It was so promising build... Is there any way to make it sound better?
    Anyway, thank you for your job!

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  5. Built this pedal and it sounded great for about 15 minutes, then stopped working. Only makes sputtering sound when gain and volume are maxed and strings are hit hard. I saw some other posts about this happening on Guitar FX Layouts. Any ideas? I will look at it tonight to make sure no solder joints came lose when I boxed it up.

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    1. Seems to be working just fine now as long as the knobs aren't maxed out.

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  6. Built this one, and it was kinda disappointing. The layout is 100% correct with the schematic on FSB, but mine doesn't sound right. The EQ seems to work really well, but the distortion produces some kind of bad clipping and not enough gain. I've used a 2N7000 at Q1 and 2n5457s at Q2-4. Tried J201s at Q2-4 as well as replacing the 2n7000 to no effect on the clipping problem. Any ideas?

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    1. I have the same problema, do you find ant solution?

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  7. StewMac released a kit of this pedal. I went through the BOM and the differences seem to be that they are using a 10k current limiting resistor for the LED and that they are using a 100uF in place of the 47uF electrolytic capacitor. Haven't tried these changes yet, but check it out here if you are interested. http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/i-2203/i-2205_monarch.pdf

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    1. Only noticeable difference would be the brightness of the LED. The 47/100uF cap in question is the power filter cap. Either value is fine.

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    2. That is what I figured about the LED resistor, but wasn't sure about the 100uF. Thanks for responding!

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  8. Hello!
    I do not get any transistors, do you think I can use 3 - 2sk30a instead of 2n5457, and a 2n7000 for bs170?

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  9. I did build one using a vero layout. It works fine, but I did also had this problem with the maxed treble pot, and the pedal starting overloading and sounding like crap.
    To solve this I've simply added a 150k resistor between lug 3 of the Treble pot and the 1nF cap.Like this the pedal belicves the treble pot is never at Max and everything works fine :D

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  10. I built the PCB version of this and I am having issues where the pedal almost works (sometimes sputtery and have to max stuff out) but it also fades in and out. Very weird! Anyone got any ideas for me to try? I have no idea. I used everything the BOM said and my joints are clean.

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  11. Ahoy mateys! If you are having trouble getting this thing to start up I made what I believe to be a correct graphic of things to swap out. I didn't build the perf/self etch version but I believe the graphic is correct.
    Monarch fix graphic and here is where that info came from - Chuck D. Bones post with fixes and mods

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