Dirt Master

 Here's a little something I whipped up the other night on a whim. Actually built it on the fly before I even drew up a layout. I was trying to build something with some old mojo caps I found on my bench, and it initially started as a treble booster, but I ended up wanting more gain. Initially it was based on the EQD Arrows, but added an extra cap off the emitter (ala the Rangemaster) for more gain and snarl. I used a germanium transistor with an hFE of around 230. Worked well with a silicon transistor as well. Room for experimenting with the input and output caps. Should fit easily in a 1590B. 

Mid-Fi Electronics Random Number Generator

 Happy Fuzz Friday, all! Here's a fun noise maker that should go together pretty easily. Schematic for reference.

Grind Customs FX Tenebrion

 The Tenebrion was designed by CultureJam and is the further development of the Box of Hall reverb. It uses the Belton BTDR-2 reverb brick, which I've designed to fit on the solder-side of the circuit board. You should be able to squeeze it into a 1590B.

The EAGLE Tutorial Continues

Thanks to everyone who bought boards over the weekend! Today starts the next chapter in the Eagle Tutorial series on YouTube: PCB creation. Go check it out!

EAGLE Tutorial

 Finally gotten around to creating this tutorial! There's a lot, so it will be released in several videos over the next couple weeks, but the first two are live on YouTube now. So if you're interested in learning Eagle CAD to layout your own PCBs, either for etching, milling or fabrication, go check it out!

Spaceman Atlas III

Hope everyone's staying safe and healthy. Today's layout is a unique preamp booster from Spaceman Effects, the Atlas III. It uses some FETs I'd never heard of in conjunction with a couple low gain silicon BJTs (use something in the 175-225 hFE range). The switch controls the phase of your signal (it's internal in the original). Schematic can be found here for reference.

Also, I updated the Make a Difference page on the website to include a few funds working to help in the aftermath of the Beruit explosion. It's killed well over 150 people, injured 6000 and left over 300,000 people homeless. If you can, do some good, offer some home and help out some people who are really hurting.

Mad Professor Simble

This is been traced for a few weeks now over on FSB and I've meant to lay it out since then, but just now getting around to it. If you don't know, it's an amp-in-a-box type trying to emulate a Dumble amp. Apparently it sounds very good with smaller amps. Should fit nicely in a 1590B with board mounted pots as per usual.

Caline Purple Smoke

Got a little booster circuit that should go together pretty easily. It's pretty much an Electra without clipping diodes and a large value resistor between base and collector (similar to the EQD Arrows). Easy fit in a 1590B or even a 1590G (probably). Schematic on FSB.

AMZ Mini Booster SMD

What's everyone think of SMD? It seems more and more boutique builds are going that route, and with more parts only be available in SMD form, I wonder how long before it'll be hard to get quality parts in through-hole packages. All that to say, here's a simple etch-able SMD layout of the AMZ Mini Booster. I've left the power polarity diode and power filter cap (folded onto its side) as through-hole as getting the right packages can sometimes be a royal PITA. All the caps and resistors are 0805 size and note that C3 is a non-polarized cap. Should fit easily into a 1590A.

Make a difference

SoloDallas Storm

Had a couple requests for this one. Very cool design and story behind this circuit. Note, the 120pF cap right below the Boost pot, and the 10uF cap just above the LED are present in the original design, but not connected. Check out Aion's trace blog for more info and schematic. Also, use the 1981 DRV drill template for this one.

German Tooth Fuzz

If you've got a bunch of NPN germanium transistors kicking around, this Fuzz Friday's for you. Here's Zzoyd's adaption of the Basic Audio Spooky Tooth for use with germanium transistors. The first 2 stages each use 2 germaniums in a Darlington pair, with the 3rd stage using either a 2N7000 MOSFET or an NPN silicon transistor (pinout is CBE on Q5 if using a BJT in place of the MOSFET). Trimmers are for biasing the Darlington pairs, so adjust till it sound right to you.

Frantone Lo-Tone Classic Fuzz

Here's an interesting one from Frantone for Fuzz Friday. Think the first half of a Big Muff into an LM386. Schematic over on FSB here.

Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz

Happy Fuzz Friday everyone! The Hyper Fuzz is Boss's take on the Univox Super Fuzz with a load of modifications. Schematic for reference here. Fits nicely in a 1590BB.

Death by Audio Sound Saw

Not quite a Fuzz Friday, but a Filter Friday I guess. Goes hand in hand with some fuzz though. The Sound Saw has two different passive filters selected by the Channel footswitch. The filters then share a 2-transistor gain recovery stage. Here's the schematic for reference. You can use a common cathode LED for the Channel switch or 2 individual LEDs if you prefer. See wiring diagram below. Laid this out for a 125B, but should be easy enough to adapt for 1590BB if you prefer. Will probably be doing a fabricated version of this in the near future as well.

Sound sample:

Hyper Fuzz regular and then the Sound Saw comes on

Clean guitar into Sound Saw changing tones

Bass Guitar into Suppa Tone Bender into Sound Saw

Bass Guitar into Big Muff then Sound Saw

Fortin 33

This one's a monster of a boost. Runs off ~36 volts, which is converted internally from a 9v supply (don't try and run it off a 12 or 18v supply or things will fry). Also make sure your electrolytic caps are rated at 50v for this one. Schematic found here. Forgot to put it in the notes, but the Out is from Volume 2.

Double Llama

Had a request for 2 Red Llamas on a single board, and my initial reaction was, "Just build two," but since there are 4 unused hex inverters that could easily be used for a second Llama, my reaction changed to, "Why not?" lol Designed to fit in a 1590BB, but might fit vertically and sideways in a 125B.

JSA MUR Fuzz

This week for Fuzz Friday here's another design from JSA. It's a Fuzz Face variant, with additional controls and an additional gain stage at the end. Should squeeze into a 1590B.

Marshall Guv'nor

Here's another layout that needed a refresh/correction. Old layout was pretty trash and had a few errors which have all be resolved. Similar to the Blues Breaker (at least in circuit topography), but with a 3-band EQ and hard clipping. Bit more gain and distortion on tap. Here's the schematic for reference. Should fit nicely in a 1590B.

EQD The Warden

This one was due for a revision/redo. Optical compression with all the knobs from our favorite pedal slingers in Akron. Will fit nicely in a 125B with top mounted jacks.

Quarantine Update

Made a video. Watch it here:

EQD Black Ash

Hope everyone's having a safe and healthy Fuzz Friday. Found out the Black Ash had been traced and figured I'd draw up a layout. I figured it was a pretty straight Tone Bender Mk II clone, and it is with a simple tone control tacked on just before the volume pot. Was slightly surprised that it uses all silicon transistors. The resistors in the originals are old school carbon comps for the mojo. Here's the schematic for reference. You can probably get away with 4.7k and 47k resistors instead of the 4.6k and 46k resistors listed. Also alternatives to the 2N3903 would be 2N2222a, 2N2369, etc. Shoot for 100-150 hFE.

If you want a fabricated PCB to build on, check out the Earthbender in the store.

JSA Ampldrive

Like many, I find myself working from home for the foreseeable future due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of my time so far has been trying to accomplish my day job in sweatpants and help my wife do hers (aka, kid wrangling), and I haven't had much time to build anything. But yesterday I did carve some time out to create today's layout. Shout out and thanks to Simon from JSA Effect Pedals for sharing some of his creations with me. Check him out on Instagram for build notes on this particular circuit. It's a pretty simple drive and should go together pretty quickly if you have all the parts on hand. And if you don't, he's got some notes on alternatives. Enjoy and stay well folks. Thinking of you all.

BearFoot Fx Pink Purple Fuzz

Sneaky Fuzz Friday you probably didn't see coming! And on Valentine's Day too boot. See? I still love you guys. Here's Bjorn's Pink Purple Fuzz, a hybrid JFET, silicon, and germanium transistor fuzz. Schematic and discussion on FSB here. And don't forget about the sale going on over on the store. "Val20" at checkout gets you 20% off your whole order!

Note: I'm a bit rusty. I laid the whole circuit out before realizing the Nature pot wasn't centered, and still isn't on the perf side. So if you're building on perf, and board mounting that pot, you'll just need to angle it a little to fit to the drill template.

2020 Update

Update time! Check out the video: