Jon Patton's Clipper Ship

Jon has contributed a lot to the DIY pedal building community and I always learn something new when I layout one of his circuits. So I think we'll have a Jon Patton week, starting with the Clipper Ship. There's a good bit of flexibility with this one. Q1 can be pretty much any low gain transistor, germanium or silicon. If you're using a germanium transistor, use a germanium diode for D2 (if you're using a silicon transistor, omit D2). For D3-4 use anything with a low clipping threshold–1N60, 1N34, BAT41, etc. Q2-3 form a cascaded JFET stage (much like the AMZ Mini-Booster and a ton of other designs). Way more info on the circuit can be found here, including the schematic. I've laid it out for a typical 1590B with board mounted pots.

Oh, and D1 is a 1N5817 or similar for power protection. 

Keeler Kick

For Fuzz Friday we have another Keeler design. Nothing too complicated about it (and in my experience with fuzz simpler is better)–basically an Electra running into a Big Muff tone stack, into some germanium clipping, into a Fuzz Face. Schematic from FSB.

DeadAstronaut Chasm Reverb

Been a while since I did a reverb layout and this DeadAstronaut design does not disappoint. It's not a true-bypass effect, but uses some JFET switching so that tails are present when you turn the effect off. Coda Effects actually has a really good write up on the design. Ended up doing this one in Eagle and was able to squeeze it into a 125B. If you want a fabricated board, you can order some off OshPark.

Here's the build doc with the BOM, schematic, and drill template.

JHS Twin Twelve V1

Here's the original Twin Twelve from JHS. It's an emulator of the old Silvertone 1484 amp. Like a lot of amp emulators (including their Superbolt) it uses JFETs and an 18v charge pump. The schematic can be found here, and I added the charge pump from JHS's Superbolt. Set the trimmers to around 9v and the adjust as need be. Pots are board mounted as usual and it should fit in a 125B with top mounted jacks nicely.

Greaser Fuzz

Here's a cool little fuzz designed by Nocentelli over of FSB. It's based on the D*A*M GB-83, which is a silicon adaptation of the Tone Bender Mk. III (sans the tone control). Definitely worth building up. Here's the schematic for reference (you'll have to login to FSB to access).

Earthquaker Devices Chrysalis

Another oldie but goodie from EQD. The Chrysalis (now discontinued) is essentially a Speaker Cranker (with a pre-gain control instead of its normal gain control) into a Rat-style tone control, followed by a LPB-1 for gain recovery. Schematic can be found on FSB.

Lovepedal Dover Drive

Here's a pretty interesting overdrive from Lovepedal (Hermida). The signal goes through a dual PNP silicon transistor stage (don't worry, it's still a negative ground effect), then into a op amp gain stage with soft clipping in the feedback loop, with a Rat-style tone control, followed by an output buffer. Schematic can be found on FSB for reference.

Parasit Studios Eagle Claw

Fuzz Friday! Freppo over at Parasit Studios makes some insanely cool stuff. Here's his Eagle Claw octave fuzz. You can probably squeeze it into a 1590a if you're feeling adventurous. In his own words:

The Eagle Claw is simple yet brutal, noisy and glitchy sounding CMOS-based fuzz with a full wave rectifier to produce a strong octave up. This circuit works best with high output pickups. It is a gated circuit by nature of the CMOS logic. If you are using single coils and need more sustain, try a boost or compressor in front. To bring out the strongest octave up, use the neck pickup on your guitar with the tone rolled down. The octave is most intense around the 10th fret and higher.

iRig Preamp

Got several requests for this one. Basically, it's small preamp to plug into a mobile device for use with apps like iRig. Pretty simple circuit. Shouldn't be hard to fit in a 1590a or even smaller since you don't need to include a footswitch.

AMZ Son of Screamer

Where would DIY pedal building be without Jack Orman? Got a request for his Son of Screamer, which is a pretty standard Tube Screamer but with the input and output buffers removed. Pots are board mounted and I added a extra diode in the feedback loop for asymmetrical clipping if you want to go that route. Original schematic and article can be found here.

If you want to have symmetrical clipping, populate the diodes like this:

Höfner Buzz Tone

Pretty unique fuzz box from Höfner for Fuzz Friday. Pretty straight forward 3-transistor design that should make for a pretty easy build. Board mounted pots for less off-board wiring and if you want a bit more gain, replace the 47uF input cap on the left side of the board with a 22uF cap. Here's the schematic for reference.

Zombie Chorus

Got a request for this one. This was originally designed by John Hollis and has since been modified by various folks in the DIY community. Like the latest version of the Little Angel chorus, it has a switch to do either vibrato or chorus tones. And the Mode switch allows for different speeds (Leslie, Normal, and Clone). Here's the schematic for reference.

Keeler Push

Here's a recent trace from over on FSB. It reminds me of a Timmy with a fixed bass control and modified second op amp stage. Nice alternative to a Tube Screamer.