Sunn Buzz SB-1G

Saw this one over on the Tagboard blog and thought I'd give it a go for Fuzz Friday. It's a silicon variation of the Maestro FZ-1. Originals use a single AA battery (1.5v), so I've included 2 voltage diving resistors to drop the the normal 9v supply down to 1.5v. (The yellow trace in the PCB side indicates the 1.5v rail.) Originals used 2N2923 transistors, but I would imagine other low gain transistors will work (hFE range on the 2923 is 90-180). Just mind the BCE pinout. Here's the schematic for reference.

Lovepedal Hi Volt

Today we've got the Lovepedal Hi Volt. A wide variety of tones on tap with this one. It's a cascaded JFET gain stage into an active EQ section, all powered by a 16v charge pump. Laid this out with on board pots and will fit in a 125B with top mounted jacks. Here's the schematic for reference.

Hjärt Müller Bass Drive

Here's an overdrive for my fellow bass thumpers. Fairly simple opamp-based drive section with soft clipping pushing a Big Muff tone stack. Should be an easy fit for a 1590B with board mounted pots. Here's the schematic for reference.

Way Huge Swollen Pickle Mk 2

For Fuzz Friday here's the newer and highly tweak-able Swollen Pickle from Way Huge. Like the Mk 1, originals use a MPQ3904 transistor array instead of individual transistors. Couldn't make that work this time around, so just stick with individual 2N3904s. Originals also have 2 of the controls internally, but what's the fun in that? All 7 pots are for external mounting and the whole thing will fit in a 1590BB with top mounted jacks fairly easily. Here's the schematic for reference. You'll notice a few values are a 10th of typical values found in a Big Muff (indicated by an * in the layout below). Not sure if it's a typo on the schematic or just the way Way Huge did it this time around. YMMV

Lovepedal Champ

Been a while since I've laid out an Electra and I came across the Champ schematic on FSB, so here you go. Should fit with a board mounted pot in a 1590A.

Barber Direct Drive

You asked for it, so here it is: the Barber Direct Drive. This layout follows the new compact version with 2 toggles–one for harmonics, the other for gain. The circuit itself is very similar to the original Tone Pump circuit with a few modifications. Should fit nicely in a 1590B.

CultureJam NoMoJo Fuzz

This was a originally an SMD 2-in-1 board CultureJam put out. On one side was a Fuzz Face and the other this Tone Bender. So I figured they'd be good Fuzz Friday layouts. They're not on the same board, but either one should fit in a 1590A.

Boss OD-1 Overdrive

Here's the Boss OD-1–the first of the tube screamer-type overdrives (yes, the first TS wasn't an Ibanez). It features asymmetrical clipping diodes (where a stock TS has symmetrical clipping) which gives it a thicker, more edgy sound. Initial versions of the circuit used a quad opamp, using 2 of the opamps as in the input/output buffers, but this was later replaced by the more common transistor buffers and a dual opamp to save cost and use more readily available parts back in the late 70s/early 80s.

Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret Mk. III (ish)

I've gotten a few requests for the Mk. III and found several good stock layouts on FSB, so I thought I'd go with a slightly modified version of the DLS Mk. III. This has an added presence control, as well as an onboard charge pump. It's designed for use in a 125B with top mounted jacks, and the pots are all board mounted. Here's the schematic the layout is based on for reference.

DeadAstronaut Space Patrol Fuzz

For Fuzz Friday here's DeadAstronaut's take on the good ol' Big Muff. It features a toggle switch (Fat/Thin) that changes the output capacitor from the first stage, and a rotary switch (mode) that changes the sound type. In the designer's own words:

It's basically a classic big muff with fat/thin switching, plus 3 other modes for synthy, buzzy, octavey, duck and swell type sounds...by switching diodes and collector resistors. Rather  like a bias control on a fuzz face...but for both collectors.

Here's the schematic for reference.

Carl Martin Plexi-Tone

This is probably the biggest Marshall-in-a-box pedal out there (footprint-wise anyway). Originals use a +/- 12v supply with a transformer internally. I modified the power section with a +/-18v charge pump and will run off a normal +9v power supply. This saves room so you can use a smaller enclosure and gives more headroom to the effect. It is a buffered effect, so the In/Out pads go directly to the jacks. All switches marked in the layout are the footswitches. It should fit fine in a 1590BB with top mounted jacks.

Edit March 9:

Had some question about how to wire the footswitches. Here's how I'd wire them:

The LED for the channel switch doesn't have to be bi-color, but in my mind it seems like a good thing utilize instead of have a normal LED being on for one channel and off for the other.

Edit Nov. 28, 2018:
Had 2 pads for the Drive footswitch mislabeled. Fixed now and good to go. Schematic for reference (note the pot lug numbering in the schematic does not follow the normal numbering convention used on this site).

Death by Audio Echo Dream 2

Gotten a lot of requests for this one. I've put it off because the schematic that's out there isn't exactly straight forward, not to mention it's 7 pots, 2 switches, 3 ICs... You get the idea. Anyway, I wanted to keep this 1590BB friendly, so all the pots are board mounted... except one (Blend). Six out of seven isn't bad, I reckon. haha

FuzzHugger FX Doom Bloom

Fuzz Friday! Do you want a fuzz with a bunch of knobs, versatile tones, and works on guitar and bass? Good. Here's the Doom Bloom from FuzzHugger. Think of it as an Electra distortion pushing a Bazz Fuss with a handful on pots thrown in for a bunch of tweak-ability. It'll be a tight squeeze in a 1590B, but it should fit.

Test Rig

Here's a couple test rigs you can use to test effects before boxing them up. They use the same board mounted jacks I used on the "board mounted everything" layouts I did at the beginning of the year. The first one is fairly simple, using a DPDT toggle to switch between the effect and bypass.

The second one is pretty much the same idea, but with a simple audio probe for debugging included. (Props to my buddy Cody for the idea) You can switch between test mode and debug mode with a SPDT on/on toggle.

Use sockets on the 5 pads in the middle so you can easily plug in wires from the effect you want to test. You can directly solder a wire to the Probe pad.