Colorsound Tremolo

Haven't done a tremolo in a while, so let's remedy that with the original 4-transistor Colorsound Tremolo (the re-issue is the 3-transistor version). Originals used 2SC945 transistors (BCE pinout), but I've laid this out for more common NPN transistors with CBE pinout. You might want to use a C100k pot for the Speed control. Here's the schematic for reference.

Friedman BE-OD

By popular demand, here's the BE-OD from Friedman, one of the best Plexi in a box pedals around. Well, not Plexi really. It's designed to emulate the Friedman Brown Eye tube amp head. Laid this one out for board mounted pots, and it will fit easily in a 1590BB. More info can be found on the FSB thread for this one.

Field Effects Acceleron Fuzz

Here's a pretty unique fuzz for Fuzz Friday–the Acceleron from Field Effects. It uses a mix of BJT and JFET transistors and offers a wide range of fuzz tones. I've laid it out for board mounted pots and you'll notice a big box film cap labeled ??? It's probably 2.2µF, but socket and experiment.

Throbak Overdrive Boost

Pretty much a Colorsound Overdriver clone. Laid this out for a 125B (because of the dual footswitches) with board mounted pots. The boost footswitch bypasses the PreGain pot and only uses one side of a DPDT. Use the other side for LED wiring. If the off board wiring is confusing, check out the thread with the schematic here on FSB. The diagram is for a vero layout but the wiring is the same.

JHS Charlie Brown V3

Unrelated to the Angry Charlie circuit, the Charlie Brown emulates the brown sound of a JTM45 amp and is a variation on the zVex Box of Rock without the boost section. The input stage is an AMZ Mosfet Booster (replacing the SHO input stage of the Box of Rock to avoid crackle in the gain pot), and the tone control has been modified to include the AMZ presence control.

Frantone The Sweet

Laying out Big Muff variations never gets old for me. This one uses germanium transistors in the two clipping stages (and predates the EQD Hoof which also uses germanium transistors) along with schottky diodes (1N6263s). Q4 is a FS25444, but the usual BMP transistor suspects will work as well (2N5088, MPSA18, BC549C, etc). Other than component values, the biggest difference between this and a typical Muff is the placement of the tone section. On a typical BMP the tone section is immediately following the 2nd clipping stage, followed by a gain recovery stage. Here, the gain recovery stage follows the 2nd clipping stage, pushing the tone stack. Schematic can be found over on FSB.

The bass version, the Bassweet, can also be built on this board with just a few value changes. The Gain and Tone pots are changed to A10k, and the rest of the value changes are illustrated below:

Simple CabSim

Came across this design in researching a different project and thought I'd draw it up. It uses 3 transistors and doesn't take up a lot of space, so you should be able to fit it in a 1590A or add it to another pedal. More info can be found here. Sounds like you can use pretty much any medium-high gain PNP/NPN pair for Q2-3 (2N5087/2N5088, BC560/BC550, etc).

Tortenmann TA-100

Came across the schematic for this and thought it would be a good addition. It's a unique germanium overdrive using PNP AC128s, though the effect is a negative ground effect (so it can be daisy chained with other pedals). The TA-100 has been used by Ryan Adams and sounds great through a Princeton Reverb. Schematic here on FSB.

Dunlop Band of Gypsys Fuzz Face

Here's the Band of Gypsys Fuzz Face from Dunlop for Fuzz Friday. Despite being called a Fuzz Face, the actual circuitry of the Band of Gypsys version isn't even close to the original Fuzz Face. It's pretty close to an Octavia without the transformer. Here's the schematic for reference.

MXR Custom Badass '78 Distortion

I've wanted to draw this one up for a while. It's a fantastic clone/variation of the  Boss DS-1 Distortion. I had one for a while and loved it, but ended up selling it to fund some other stuff. But I'm definitely adding this one to the pile. You can sub a TL072 or JRC4558 in place of the TLC2262 if you need to.

JHS Angry Charlie

I've gotten a few requests to redo the MI Audio Crunch Box with board mounted pots. How is that relevant to the Angry Charlie you ask? Well, it's the same circuit. JHS added a cap in parallel with the existing cap coming off the Presence control to ground which tames some of the highs. So if you want the Crunch Box, just leave that cap out.

Jon Patton's Mossy Sloth

Finishing out Jon Patton week with the Mossy Sloth Fuzz for Fuzz Friday. It's a pretty unique transistor-based fuzz and uses MOSFETs to create some asymmetrical clipping for some unusual fuzz and distortion sounds. Loads more info can be found here.

Jon Patton's Blue Warbler

Continuing Jon Patton Week with a vibe/tremolo effect called the Blue Warbler. It features envelop control over the LFO and can be built with one or two LDR stages (layout below reflects the 2 stage version). Jon explains it best, so be sure to check out his build doc and demo below. It'll be a little tight in a 1590B because of the way the pots are board mounted, but should be doable.