This is a library of perfboard and single-sided PCB effect layouts for guitar and bass. I'm not an electrical engineer by any stretch of the imagination, just a DIY'er who likes drawing layouts. It is meant for the hobbyist (so commercial use of any of these layout is not allowed without permission) and as a way to give back to the online DIY community.

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

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.


34 comments:

  1. I've done it on PCB and it works ! You can tag it verified...
    But when I add the LED it doesn't pulse (only a dimmed light) and there's no more effect. Any idea on how to add this nice feature ?
    Another question : the speed pot could have a wider range, from very slow to ultra-speedy. How can I achieve that ?

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  2. I forgot to mention that the depth pot is effective only on the first 1/4 of rotation.

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    1. Try increasing the value of the speed pot and lower the value depth pot. Not sure about the LED. Maybe check the Tagboard blog post with this same circuit.

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    2. You can increase the value of the 220nF cap to 1000nF, and dont ground the pin on the depth pot. Connect it to pin 2 instead.

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    3. you will get a small bit of noise from that adjustment, but it can be filtered with around a 47nF cap between output and ground

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    4. What pin do you mean? can be more specific?

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  3. Thanks for the tips. And for the layout of course !

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    1. Stumbled across some info on the LED. Just connect the + side of the LED to the collectors of Q2-3. The connect - side to the footswitch as you would normally. I'll update the layout with a pad for doing that shortly.

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    2. When I did this I noticed a change and drop in the tremolo effect and when the speed is maxed the effect goes away, any thoughts?

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  4. verified!! really nice, but I have the same problem with the LED as eve-the-frog!
    excellent website thanks for the projects

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  5. I've built this on pcb and on vero - all I get is clean output, no tremolo effect. The LED pulses just fine. I'm confused.

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  6. For anyone wondering about the LED (I got everything working and took some time to experiment). You have to add a resistance between the LED and ground. I got these results with a C100k speed pot:
    * Little to no resistance (~<1k) will ground the pulsating signal resulting in no effect.
    * Low resistance (3.3-5.7k) will result in a dead zone on the speed control.
    * Too much (>10k) and the led will be too dim.

    I got it working with ~7.6k (33k and 10k on parallel). But still, the Super Bright LED I put gets as dim as a regular one. So I'll modify it sometime. Maybe some transistor would be a better choice for powering the LED.

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    1. Update: I added another 2N5088 for the led to work. Base to the LED+ on the board, Emitter to the Anode of the LED and Collector to +9v. Works great. Also changed the 100k depth pot for a B25K for a way better working range.

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    2. need to add some resistance between the emitter and the ground?

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    3. I can verify this, thank you!! Worked like a charm! And yes add a resistor between the cathode of the LED and the footswitch lug, I used a 7k4 it was close to the mentioned 7k6 and works great!

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    4. I added bc547 instead of 2n5088 but didnt work if led works theres no effect

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    5. I add a 6k8 resistance in the base of transistor and a 1k resistance for the LED. Work well.

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  7. I could use a Darlington (MPSA13/TIP120) for Q2+Q3 right?

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    1. You could try it, but the typical HFE of an MPSA13 is 5000, while the combined HFE of 2, 2N5088s would be 160,000.

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  8. Hello everyone!!. I'm from Brazil and maybe my English is not very good.
    Well, I built this tremolo but all I got was a clean sound at the end, with no effect whatsoever. All values ​​and operation of components checked several times and pcb without possible short. Any bright ideas for me? Thank you.

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  9. Hi, can you make original circuit for ECB japanese transistors, I have few 2SC945, and also I don't have any EBC transistors anymore..or just tell me can I make this with C945 but only if I connect transistors lugs properly, base to base, em. to em., col. to col.?

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    1. Yeah, you can just twist the transistor legs around to fit in the right holes. Just be careful not to short any of the legs together.

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  10. olá ! Sou do Brasil, esse circuito realmente funciona ?

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  11. Hi! I'm from Brazil, does this circuit really work?

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  12. Good afternoon, I set up the circuit but only the sound comes out clean, without modulations.

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  13. Would 2n5457 or 2n3904 or or 2n3905 or 2n3906 work???

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  14. It worked but speed is fast its not slow on video. I did use 500klin though..

    Any suggestion? It is working but its not playing slow as in video

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  15. where can i get a schematic for this?

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