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 30, 2019

Boss OD-1

This is the precursor to the SD-1 and the TS808. The OD-1 was built by Boss from 1977-1985 and made in 2 versions. Both version are very similar in circuit topology—buffer > gain/soft clipping stage > gain stage > buffer—but the early version used a quad opamp, while the later version used a dual opamp and transistors for the buffer stages. I laid out the later version a while back (and didn't know the quad version even existed at the time), but I wanted to lay the quad version out as most agree this version sounds better. Fits nicely in a 1590B. Schematic for reference.




Friday, July 26, 2019

Foxx Select-A-Fuzz

Happy Fuzz Friday, everybody! The Select-A-Fuzz is a pretty interesting fuzz box from Foxx. It has a rotary switch to select the input cap (the larger the cap the fuzzier the effect), followed by a Fuzz Face-esque stage and an extra gain stage. Here's the schematic for reference with some good notes on alternative transistors and voltages. D1 is silicon in the original unit, but a germanium diode will take the edge off a bit.



Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Hermida/Lovepedal Mosferatu (3-knob)

Came across the schematic (here on FSB) for this and thought I'd lay it out. Essentially a Son of Screamer but with MOSFETs and germanium diodes for clippers, a modified gain control and a few value tweaks. FYI, the transfer pdf is in the Lovepedal folder, and use the AMZ Son of Screamer drill template.


Thursday, July 18, 2019

Fulltone OCD V2

The latest iteration of the OCD has quite a few differences from the earlier models. There's an added transistor stage at the output after the volume control, and a JFET buffer that can be toggled for buffered or true bypass. I've laid it out so it will still fit in a 1590B with board mounted pots.






The off-board wiring's not the most intuitive, so here's a diagram for wiring up the buffer switch and 3PDT bypass footswitch.

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Music Man Sabre II Guitar Preamp

Apparently the guitar players were feeling left out with the all the old Music Man bass preamps, cuz I got a ton of requests for the Sabre II Guitar pre. So here you go! Nice and small like the others with active bass and treble controls.

Friday, July 12, 2019

Fuzzrocious Ram the Manparts

Happy Fuzz Friday! Here's the now discontinued Ram the Manparts from Fuzzrocious. It's a 386-based fuzz/distortion with a voltage starve control, gain toggle, and volume control and sounds pretty killer on guitar and bass. Should be a quick build and a nice fit in a 1590B.







Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Music Man Sabre II Bass Preamp

Lot of requests for this one after I posted the Stingray pre a few weeks ago, so here's the Sabre II. Pretty similar the the Stingray but with a few value differences and extra resistor in the feedback loop, and the added bright switch.

Thursday, July 4, 2019

Diezel VH4

Gotten a lot of requests for this one and I finally bit the bullet and laid it out. It's the pedal version of the 3rd channel on Diezel's VH4 amplifier with loads of tonal control and tons of gain on tap. Originals are buffered effects, with the input jack wired to the In pad, and a DPDT footswitch selecting between the Out and Buffer Out pads (footswitch wiring diagram below). You can also wire it for true bypass if you prefer and just ignore the Buffer Out pad. The pedal can also be used as a standalone preamp with the Power Out going to the input of a power amplifier (the return jack of an amp's effects loop). It's designed to run off a 12 or 18 volt supply, but it will apparently work just fine of a 9 volt supply (and if planning on going that route, I'd omit the regulator and jump its in and out pads). Also, the indicator LED can be hard mounted to the board, and the whole layout will fit nicely in a 1590BB. Schematic and discussion on FSB here.







Tuesday, July 2, 2019

Nocenteli Magnalous Lunevibe

Stumbled across this design by Nocenteli on FSB and thought it was cool, so here you go. Mashup of the Tremulous Lune LFO and the audio path from the Magnavibe with a toggle to switch between tremolo and vibrato mode. I ended up putting the Fine control internally as a trimmer for 2 reasons: 1) In my experience with this kind of LFO it's not all that necessary, and 2) I miscounted the number of pots in this when I started layout it out and was too far in to start over. 😂 You can always wire it off-board if you prefer. Should fit nicely in a 1590B.