PIC Relay Bypass

If you feel like getting into a bit of programing with your pedal building, this is probably a good place to start. The legwork was done and graciously shared by Coda Effects. It uses a PIC micro-controller to trigger a relay and LED indicator. To learn how to program the PIC12F675 read the original blog post on Coda Effects. Benoit has since updated the schematic, adding a photoFET to get rid of a pop that happened when triggered. So you'll need to read and use the code from this post as well. Thanks again to Benoit for sharing his code and all his hard work!

Update March 2, 2017: Benoit updated his schematic and code recently, so I've updated the layout to reflect that, as well as the hyperlinks above to the correct code.

MXR Distortion III

Here's the MXR Distortion III. It's pretty similar to the MXR ZW-44, which itself is a Boss SD-2 clone. The main difference is hard clipping in the Distortion III instead of soft clipping in the ZW-44/SD-2. Originals use an MC33178P dual opamp, but try a JRC4558 or TL072.

CultureJam Stein Fuzz

For Fuzz Friday, here's another one from CultureJam.

The Stein Fuzz is a lightly modified version of the Roger Mayer Stone Fuzz* pedal (which is itself a lightly modified Fuzz Face). The main difference is more standardized part values (the pots mainly). 

It's meant to be a positive ground circuit (center positive, so not daisy chain-able with standard center negative/negative ground effects), but looks like a good candidate to convert to negative ground. The perf side of the layout below reflects the positive ground orientation of parts, and the PCB side reflects negative ground.

Demeter Tremulator

Here's a great sounding tremolo circuit from Demeter–the Tremulator. It's an optical trem, using a VTL5C1. That part can be replaced with an LED and a LDR (600Ω on/50M off) combo. Also, the diodes used in the originals are 1N5229 4.3v zenners, though you can use other zenners up to 5.1v. Here's the schematic for reference.

zVex Super Duper 2-in-1

This is a pretty handy expansion of the zVex SHO booster. It stacks two SHOs together and adds a master volume control. This is laid out so the board is vertical in a 1590B oriented like the original.

BearFoot FX Candy Apple Fuzz

For Fuzz Friday, here's the BearFoot FX Candy Apple Fuzz. It's a unique silicon/germanium hybrid designed by Bjorn and it rips. Originals use 2N1308 NPN germanium transistors, but others can be used. Pots are all board mounted and it will fit nicely in a 1590B. Here's the schematic for reference.

Ibanez ST9 Super Tube Screamer

Here's the Super Tube Screamer from Ibanez. It differs from a normal TS9 with the input buffer and the added Mids control. I've laid this out for board mounted pots with a 125B enclosure with top mounted jacks in mind.  Here's the schematic for reference.

Black Arts Toneworks Quantum Mystic

The Quantum Mystic is probably the most tricked out DOD250 around. It was developed with Mike Scheidt from the band Yob and based on his Grey Spec 250. It features an active 3-band EQ section and can create tones ranging from boost, to classic distortion, to modern doom metal tones.

Wattson EFY-6

For Fuzz Friday, here's the Wattson EFY-6. This is Wattson Classic Electronics take on the classic Shin-Ei FY-6 (also known as the Univox Super Fuzz) and stays fairly faithful to the original circuit, but with a few straight forward and useful mods. The schematic and a full explanation of the circuit was posted on FSB by amp_surgeon (the guy behind Wattson). The originals have the Balance pot as a trimmer, but I've included pads for either a trimmer or external pot. I've laid it out for board mounted pots to fit in a 125B with top mounted jacks.

Mad Professor Forest Green Compressor

Got a request for this one. It's very similar to Bjorn's Pale Green Compressor in his BearFoot Fx line, but with an extra stage for the Sustain mode. Here's the schematic for reference. From the product description:

FOREST GREEN COMPRESSOR (FGC) is designed to meet the highest standards of guitar and bass compression.  There is extremely low noise throughout the range and a high overload margin, which allows also a wide dynamic input range at minimum distortion and noise.  FGC is equipped with a special tone control to fine-tune the compressed sound for most transparent tone and effect.  The pedal has a switchable compressor and sustainer mode.  In Sustain mode you can get a very dynamic, touch sensitive tone with a long sustain. Here the attack is not lost, making the pedal suit-able even for blues players and works great with slide playing.

I've made 2 versions of the layout, one with SGD pinout for the 2SK170, and another with the more common GSD pinout for other JFETs (J201, 2N5457, etc)

Parasit Studio Stepping Stone Overdrive

Here's an early design from Freppo from Parasit Studio. It's a punky overdrive/distortion transistor-based circuit. Here's the schematic for reference.

This was my first attempt at making my own overdrive from what I had learnt by building and modding other circuits. I had done a few heavily modded ones before, but nothing really original. I spent countless hours trying out different ideas on the breadboard before I was satisfied with the result. However, going back listening to this one now I find it alittle too thin/midrangy sounding, so I will probably revisit the circuit and improve it some time in the future.

Earthquaker Devices Tone Reaper

Happy Fuzz Friday, everyone! This week I give you the Earthquaker Devices Tone Reaper. This got traced over the Tagboard Effects forum, so thanks to Galapagos for doing the leg work. It's based on the 3-knob Tone Bender, with the darlington pair of germanium transistors simplified into a single high gain silicon transistor. In some respects it's similar to the D*A*M GB-83 Greasebox in that respect. An AC176 is used in the originals but others may work. Socket and experiment as usual. The tone control has also been changed to a BMP tone stack. I redrew the schematic for reference:

All-Star Reverb

Found this one over on FSB. It was designed by Induction and takes elements from the GGG D-Verb, BYOC 2-Knob, and CultureJam's Box of Hall. Like those designs it uses a Belton BTDR-2 reverb brick, which can be mounted directly to the board from the solder-side. If you want a wetter sound, replace the marked resistors with the values listed in the layout below. You may be able to fit it in a 1590B, but I'd go with a 125B. Here's the thread of FSB for reference.