Baja Optical Limiter

Here's one of Bajaman's non-amp emulating circuits, the Optical Limiter. It's based on the Demeter Compulator, but is not a compressor but a limiter. What's the difference?

The ratio is the main difference between a compressor and a limiter. A compressor has a low ratio that turns down SOME of the volume when it goes above the threshold. A limiter has a huge ratio that turns down ALL of the volume that goes above the threshold. (from Musician on a Mission)

Here's the schematic for reference. It's designed as a buffered bypass pedal, with the input jack going to the In pad on the board, and a third of a a 3PDT footswitch selecting between the buffered out and effect out. The off board LED pulses with the signal but probably isn't going to be great as an on/off indicator. Just use another third of the 3PDT to make/break the connection between the LED- pad and the cathode of the LED. And then use the final third of the footswitch to wire an on/off indicator LED as you normally would. (At least I think that's what Bajaman had in mind...) Also, the LDR should have 5k light resistance, 500k dark resistance (a GL5516 should work). Oh, and I added an extra pad so GSD pinout JFETs (J201, 2N5457, etc.) can be used in place of the 2SK117.

Wampler Pantheon

The Pantheon is Brian Wampler's take on the classic Bluesbreaker circuit. It adds some of the mods from the King of Tone as well as a Baxendall tone stack for the Bass control (the would be treble control of the Baxendall is fixed) and a gain switch to set different min/max settings of the Drive pot. Fits in a 125B like the original. If you're not feeling like etching or grabbing the perfboard, there are boards available on the store.

Human Gear Animato

Got a request for this one, and it's an interesting Big Muff variant. If you're a fan of Muse you're probably already familiar with this one. There's a germanium input stage followed by a fairly standard Big Muff circuit. Here's the schematic for reference. It would be a tight squeeze in a 1590B even if you wired the pots off board, but probably doable. Otherwise it should fit nicely in a 125B with top mounted jacks.

Noise Gate

Here's an interesting and fairly simple noise gate circuit sent to me by Stanik Nupel from a Polish electronics book. Schematic and Stanik's original layout can be found here. The switch isn't in his original layout, so it may not be all that necessary. It'll be a tight squeeze in a 1590B, but should fit especially if you're using low profile jacks. Otherwise it'll fit nicely in a 125B with top mounted jacks.

BearFoot FX Honey Beest

This one just got traced over on FSB. Apparently the heaviest of Bjorn's Honey designs. Here's the schematic for reference. Note: In the schematic the source and drain on Q1-2 are reversed from the way they are normally oriented, but I recently learned JFETs are generally symmetrical and will work either way. The original is built on a PCB that several of Bjorn's circuits can be built with and is laid out for TO-18 package JFETs with a different pinout than the TO-92 packaged 2N5952. I'm wondering/guessing it was easier to swap the drain and source legs when fitting the transistor to the PCB, but perhaps other/earlier versions of the circuit used TO-18 JFETs and had the drain and source oriented the "normal" way. That's my reasoning and as a result I've reversed them to the "standard" orientation in this layout. Also I altered the polarity protection method to fit on the board better. I'll shut up now.

GoosoniqueWorx Seventh Heaven

Got a request for this one. It's apparently a modified Bogner Ecstasy Red, which is a JFET adaption of the Red channel on the Bogner Ecstasy amp. Since it uses 2 footswitches, I went ahead and designed the board for a 1590BB with all 6 pots board mounted. The boost switch uses one side of a DPDT footswitch (with the other side being used for LED indication). As usual, set the trimmers to half the supply voltage and then adjust by ear. This would be a good candidate to run off 18v as well. Here's the schematic for reference.

Buttercup Fuzz

Stumbled across this one on FSB and thought it looked cool. It was designed by JD Barbato and is kind of a mashup between a Tone Bender MkII and a MkIII, with a BMP-style tonestack, with a switch changing the cap values in said tonestack. You can build it with all germanium transistors or use a combination of silicon and germanium:

I am currently using AC187 germaniums for Q1 and Q2 and a 2N5088 for Q3. Using the silicon 2N5088 removes some noise from the pedal, and adds a distinct, razory, compression to the sound which I prefer in my pedals. This combo also gives a nice ToneBender MKI type sound (ala Ziggy Stardust) when you invert the tone stack and roll back on the gain and butter a little.

The pedal also sounds good with the 2N5088's in Q2 and Q3, but is very hard edged. I have tried the 2N5088's in every position and in all combinations. The pedal doesn't work if all three are silicon. 

With a 2N5088 in just the Q1 position the pedal sounds pretty much the same as if all three were germanium. 

Demedash Effects Incandenza Bypass

The Incandenza Bypass is a simple, low parts count, relay-based  true bypass circuit designed by Steve Demedash. It uses a normally open momentary SPST footswitch triggering a simple 555-based flip flop circuit, triggering a non-latching DPDT footswitch. The layout below reflects the pinout of the either the Takamisawa NA5W-K or Omron G6S-2 relays. These are 2 relays I had in my parts stash that worked with the circuit when I breadboarded it and are both rated at 5v. Other non-latching relays can be used, but double check the pinouts and compare datasheets. Schematic can be found here.

Note: Send goes to the effect input, Return goes to the effect output, In goes to the input jack, and Out goes to the output jack.

Run Off Groove Tri-Vibe

This is (or was now I guess) one of the few Run Off Groove designs I haven't laid out. It's not a small circuit and I ended up laying it out for a 1590BB so the pots can be board mounted (but it will fit in a smaller enclosure if wire them off board). I also did this in Eagle, as it's a bit more complicated circuit and the schematic reference feature in Eagle makes for fewer mistakes. No worries though, there's a perf version too. More info on the ROG site.

Here's the BOM, and the schematic for reference: