VooDoo Lab Superfuzz

It's Fuzz Friday once again, so here's the VooDoo Lab Superfuzz. Despite the name, it's not based on classic Univox fuzz circuit with the same name. Rather, it's a highly modified Jordan Bosstone with an added EQ section. One interesting thing about this one is the fact that Q2 (PNP) has the emitter going to ground, where every other version of the Bosstone has that transistor's collector going to ground. Maybe VooDoo Lab found some extra mojo by doing it that way? Schematic can be found on FSB. I've laid it out for board mounted pots and it will fit nicely in a 1590B.

CultureJam DuoVibe

Here's a cool vibrato effect designed by CultureJam and based on Tim Escobedo's Wobbletron. Here's what he had to say about it his original build doc.

The DuoVibe is a two-stage optical vibe circuit than can also cop subtle phaser tones. The LFO is modified from the Shoot the Moon tremolo (itself derivative of the Tremulus Lune) and is capable of triangle wave and near-square wave output. The pitch bend in Vibe mode is discernible but not capable of “seasick” wobble. With the depth cranked, you can think of it as a sort of “tremolo with funk going on” kind of thing. There is a Vibe/Phase Mode switch, the name of which indicates its function and purpose. This switch simply toggles a feedback filtering cap value, but is useful despite the simplicity.

Catalinbread Supercharged Overdrive

Here's one of the earliest Catalinbread designs, the Supercharged Overdrive. It's a pretty unique circuit with the Contour control adding in more distortion and saturation from the CD4007 stage. Laid out for board mounted pots and will fit quite nicely in a 1590B. Schematic here for reference.

Durham Crazy Horse

For Fuzz Friday here's an really interesting circuit from Durham that's both an overdrive and a fuzz. As the name implies helps you get some Neil Young tones, but does a lot more than that. The input stage features soft clipping in the feedback loop of an opamp,  much like a Tube Screamer. The 2nd half of the opamp acts like a buffer, pushing a Fuzz Face-style stage. This then pushes another Fuzz Face-style stage that feeds into a Big Muff tone stack. The addition of the Volts control to starve the opamp of voltage makes this a really versatile pedal. I've laid this out with on board pots that will ideally fit in a 125B with top mounted jacks. Here's the schematic for reference.

Equinox II Demo

Sorry this isn't a layout guys, but I made a quick little demo of the Equinox II reverb and wanted to share it with you all. Still really digging the sound of this thing and works really well with my smaller amps that don't have built in reverb.

A little info (maybe more than you asked for?) on the gear I used: the guitar I used started its life as a Gibson Melody Maker SG–one of those with the single bridge humbucker with the volume control and output jack on the pickguard. When I bought it the neck had a pretty substantial crack in it, so I picked it up pretty cheap. Fixed the crack and decided to turn it into a Junior with a P90 and more traditional control placement. It is very unnerving when you start routing on a USA Gibson, but it's turned into quite a player and I'm glad I took it under the knife.

Much less to say about the amp. It's a stock Vox AC4C1 in red. Got it at close out and it's a great little bedroom amp. A little boxy sounding on its own, but that's why I built this reverb!

The mic used was MXL 990 into a Zoom H4N recorder. Shot with a Canon T4i and I promise next time I do a demo I'll use better lighting!

Taptation

Want to add tap tempo to a PT2399 delay? Using this chip from DIYSB and the layout below, you can add tap to any single PT2399 delay (Deep Blue Delay, Rebote, Faux Analog Echo, etc). The Pin 6 pad connects to the 6th pin of the PT2399, and the LED flashes at the rate of the tap.

HAO Sole Pressure

Here's HAO's take on the Distortion +/250 Preamp circuit. It uses LED clipping and features a Brilliance switch for normal, bright, and warm settings. A TL072 dual opamp is used, but on the original, only one side is used and the other is left unconnected. In this layout, I used the unused opamp for the voltage divider to give more stability there.

Way Huge Swollen Pickle Mk I

For Fuzz Friday we have the original Swollen Pickle from Way Huge Electronics. One of the unique things about this Muff clone is the use of a quad transistor array instead of 4 individual transistors. This makes for a quieter pedal and more consistency in transistor matching. However if you don't feel like tracking down an MPQ3904 or NTE2321, you can use 4 individual transistors. Just note the pinout in the layout below.

Jen Harmon Booster

Here's a really unique overdrive from the Italian manufacturer Jen from the late 70s. Think Tube Screamer meets Big Muff. It sort of reminds me of a DBA design (only more stable and not as over the top) with a whole mess of transistor stages pushing a BMP style tone stack. Originals used BC318c transistors, but others in the 400-500 hfe range can be used. Here's the schematic for reference.

Suhr Riot

Gotten a few requests for this one. The Riot distortion from Suhr is built around 2, dual opamps (4580 in originals, but others can be used) with several clipping options for a great high gain experience. You can pretty much use whatever diodes you want, but it's laid out for 2 LEDs always clipping, with the option of adding either 3, 1N4148s in asymmetrical orientation or 4, 1N34s in series. You can also try replacing D4 with a 1N4148 (I've included pads for that on the PCB), or changing the color of the LEDs. Really, just experiment with what you have on hand and chose what sounds best to you.

Gretsch ControFuzz

For Fuzz Friday I give you the ControFuzz from Gretsch. Originals are pretty rare and it's an fairly unique design based around a single 4558 chip. I found a build report from LucifersTrip over on DIYSB, and he suggested a slight mod to the Distortion control that improves the circuit, so the layout below is based on that.

CultureJam Triton Delay

Here's nice delay from CultureJam. It's based on the Rebote 2.5 delay and has a lot in common with many other PT2399 delays. However...

The Triton, diverges from the base concept by adding a second Delay Time potentiometer and a unique (in the DIY world) modulation effect. The Delay pots are selectable via footswitch (latching), and when switching from one time setting to the other, the delay time change happens slowly, just as if you were manually turning the delay time pot on a standard delay pedal. This causes a gradual pitch bend that slowly resolves to unison if a note or chord is struck and held when toggling between Delay pots. To control the speed of the pitch bend/resolve, there is a pot labelled “Slow”. Making the transition speed slower also makes overall delay time longer.

This is version 3.1 of the Triton, and includes all controls externally (the original PCB by Pickdropper had the Tone pot as a trimmer). Here's the schematic for reference, and the demo below is of an older version, but you get the idea.

In case it's not clear in the layout, the Time Switch is the 2nd footswitch.

Rockett Flex Drive

Here's another interesting take on the Tube Screamer circuit from Rockett Pedals. The input and output buffers are removed and there's an added JFET gain stage following the IC. There are also switches to select different clipping diodes and treble response.

Apocalypse Audio Thundertone

Fuzz Friday! Here's a cool fuzz based on the old Supro Thunderbolt amp using NPN germanium transistors by RnFR from the Apocalypse Audio blog. Here's what he had to say about it:

I have been thinking about modeling the Supro Thunderbolt with FETs, but then thought- I just got in these cool new Tesla GE's, why not use those? So that's what it is, the preamp section of the legendary amp used by Page and supposedly Hendrix, done up NPN germanium style. I had to eliminate a few resistors towards the end to bring up the volume and lowered the value of an emitter resistor to up the gain a bit. Also, I made the resistor on the input variable so you can adjust the input impedance for guitars with different pickups.

The real gem of this circuit is the tone pot- totally counter-clockwise you get a nice full range tone with plenty of mids. As you go clockwise it goes to a very muffled tone, and as you go even further, it goes to a very thin, cutting tone. There are some very cool sweet spots, and a lot of versatility. I like it better than a regular muff style control, but it does cut plenty of signal- hence the two gain stages after it.

It's a cool sounding circuit. Nicely voiced and does a good overdrive type sound. If you don't have the trannys, you could change out the 33K Rc's to trimmers and adjust to taste. The Tesla trannies are extremely consistent, so no trimmers needed.


Here's the schematic for reference.