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.

Tuesday, July 31, 2018

MI Audio Blues Pro

Here's a nice little overdrive circuit from MI Audio. This reflects the 2nd version of the Blues Pro, but if you want to make version 1, just jump pads 1 and 2 of each switch respectively. Should fit nicely in a 1590B.



Friday, July 27, 2018

Soil Slinger and NEWS!

It's a special Fuzz Friday! My fabricated boards came in for the Dirt Transmitter, and I finally got the chance to verify them. So I made a video of the whole build process!




Also, what's more exciting than the build video is the launch of the new Effects Layouts store! It's kind of a soft launch for now, as there aren't a whole ton of boards up yet. But more are coming! Also, aside from a few boards, stock is rather low on the boards as they're left over prototypes. But I will be ordering more soon. Don't worry, perf and etch layouts aren't stopping anytime soon. Thanks to everyone for their support over the years and for helping to create a really great international community around this great hobby.




Thursday, July 26, 2018

Way Huge Drive/Geisha Drive

The Geisha Drive (or just called Drive sometimes) was a limited run overdrive from Way Huge and is a great sounding circuit. It uses a quad opamp to form an input buffer stage, gain stage, followed by some hard clipping and a modified BMP tone stack, into the volume pot, followed by a gain recovery stage. Should fit nicely in a 1590B with the pots board mounted.


Tuesday, July 24, 2018

BearFoot FX Emerald Green Distortion Machine

Unique little distortion box from Bjorn. The original uses 1A1200 diodes (which are pretty big), but other (and smaller) silicon diodes can be used. Should fit nicely in a 1590B.



Friday, July 20, 2018

Run Off Groove Whisker Biscuit

For Fuzz Friday here's the Run Off Groove Whisker Biscuit–Big Muff meets Bazz Fuss. From the ROG site:

The Whisker Biscuit is a hybrid of the Bazz Fuss and the Big Muff Pi. A single Bazz Fuss stage replaces the two clipping stages of the BMP. Smooth, super-long sustain, and good clean-up with the guitar volume knob make this circuit an interesting alternative to the standard BMP.

I've included the optional 47pF caps as well as the tone control mod. Omit the 47pF caps if you want more treble, and if you prefer a more standard tone stack, replace the 22k resistors with jumpers and use a B100k pot.



Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Sentinel

The Sentinel is a PT2399-based pitch modulator, delay, reverb and drone verb designed by Arnoud Philip (~arph) as part of the DIYSB 10th Anniversary design contest. It's based on the Sewer Pipes ring-verb and the Noise Ensemble. Original thread here, schematic here. Should be able to squeeze it into a 1590B. 

Note: LED2 in the layout is a bi-color LED that could be used externally as a rate indicator or even the on/off indicator. For the later, use the footswitch to break/connect the connection between the common cathode (middle lead) and the 1k resistor going to ground at the top of the board. Also, the 25k trimmer is a fine tune control for the Drone pot.



Thursday, July 12, 2018

Ashbory Bass Preamp

The Ashbory bass was first introduced in 1986 and is/was a half scale (18") fretless travel bass with a piezo pickup and built in preamp. That preamp is essentially a Baxendall tone stack feeding into the volume control, into an op amp based gain stage. I stumbled across the schematic and thought it would be a good addition to the library. Should fit nicely in a 1590B, or you could wire it into a bass.


Tuesday, July 10, 2018

DeadAstronaut Black Triangle

Got another take on the bufferless Tube Screamer. DeadAstronaut has added some extra tone shaping options for tone, gain, and clipping. Pretty versatile tones on tap from light drive into heavier territory. He's also got a PCB with board mounted pots and switches for sale on his site here if you don't feel like wiring all those toggle switches.


Friday, July 6, 2018

Parasit Studio 8-Bitar

For Fuzz Friday, here's a really cool design from Parasit Studio:

The 8-Bitar is a minimalistic octave down pedal with a 8-bit sound (glitchy and gated square wave fuzz). It's small enough to fit inside a 1590A without any special parts.

The design goal with this pedal was to achieve the core octave tone from the Arcadiator, but with as few components as possible. I'm happy with the result since it only uses one chip (a CD4069).

Usual caveats apply for getting the best tracking - humbuckers, neck pickup and tone rolled off.




Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Pigtronix Fat Drive

Here's an interesting one from Pigtronix. It uses a TL072 to push a CD4049, which is followed by another TL072 pushing a Rat-esque tone control. All the gain stages make for natural compression and tube-like tone without using clipping diodes. Schematic for reference on FSB here (note, I've linked the inputs of the unused stages of the CD4049 to +9v to avoid any unwanted noise). Runs great on 9 or 18 volts and will fit in a 1590B with board mounted pots.