Ibanez MT10 Mostortion

It's New Years Eve and time for the last layout of 2019 and I'm pretty sure it's the 800th on the blog! So here's the Mostortion. Why is it called that? The CA3260E opamp at it's core is MOSFET based. Unfortunately, this chip has been discontinued, so building a straight clone may be a little difficult, but a regular dual opamp like a JRC4558 or TL072 will work just fine as well. It's pretty similar to a TS10, just with a MOSFET chip and 3-band EQ, which is pretty handy. Schematic and more info here. Should be able to squeeze it into a 1590B.

Way Huge Conquistador

Happy Fuzz Friday, everyone! Last fuzz of 2019. Here's an interesting fuzz circuit from Way Huge based on the Tone Bender Mk. III. It uses PNP silicon transistors, but is a negative ground effect. Schematic available here.

Grind Customs FX De Profundis Delay

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope everyone gets ample time to get some soldering done over the holidays.

Grind Customs had a lot of really great projects, but their site hasn't been up in ages and it seems they're gone for good. Their De Profundis delay was very well regarded and they offered an add-on modulation board, the PLFO. Originals had the tone control as a trimmer, but lets go for broke and have it externally. The delay board will fit in a 1590B, but with the modulation add-on I'd recommend using a 125B. Here's the original De Profundis and PLFO build docs for reference.

VFE Distortion 3

Always a fan of the MXR Distortion+/DOD 250 as you all have probably figure out by now. Here's VFE's take on the classic circuit. Bunch of extra controls and mods including soft clipping, along with bass and tone controls. Schematic here for reference.

Seymour Duncan Dirty Deed

Here's a pretty interesting distortion from Seymour Duncan. 2N3906 transistors for hard clipping and a two band gyrator EQ section. Originals I assume are all SMD and use MC33178 ICs, which I believe are equivalent to the LM833, but other dual opamps should work fine. Schematic here. Should be able to squeeze it in a 1590B with small profile jacks.

Prescription Electronics Depth Charge

Here's a sweet bass fuzz based on the Univox Super Fuzz for Fuzz Friday. Original units used 2N3707 transistors with BCE pinout, which I'm guessing most people don't have in their parts stash. So I laid it out for CBE transistors (2N5088s or BC549Cs should work just fine) and it will fit nicely in a 125B with top mounted jacks and the pots in the same orientation/positioning as the original. Schematic available over on FSB.

Ibanez BS10 Bass Stack

Time for some bass distortion. This one's a RAT with an input buffer and soft clipping instead of hard. Apparently these were built on the same PCB as the Fat Cat and LA Metal. For a drilling template just use the Fat Cat one.

Discrete Distortion +

I've seen a few people playing around with discrete opamps in classic circuits, and thought I'd give it a go with one of my favorite circuits, the classic MXR Distortion + (or DOD 250, etc.). The typical 741 opamp has been replaced with Joe Davisson's Diode-Compression Opamp. The 6.8k resistor in the bottom left corner of the board may need to be adjusted till the collector of Q3 is around 4.5v. I haven't tested this, but it should work.

Vertex T-Drive

Here's Vertex's Trainwreck-style pedal. Essentially a modified Ibanez SD-9. BJT input buffer, opamp gain stage, followed by hard clipping, a fixed BMP-style tonestack, and JFET output stage. Schematic over on PedalPCB.