Ibanez MT10 Mostortion

It's New Years Eve and time for the last layout of 2019 and I'm pretty sure it's the 800th on the blog! So here's the Mostortion. Why is it called that? The CA3260E opamp at it's core is MOSFET based. Unfortunately, this chip has been discontinued, so building a straight clone may be a little difficult, but a regular dual opamp like a JRC4558 or TL072 will work just fine as well. It's pretty similar to a TS10, just with a MOSFET chip and 3-band EQ, which is pretty handy. Schematic and more info here. Should be able to squeeze it into a 1590B.

Way Huge Conquistador

Happy Fuzz Friday, everyone! Last fuzz of 2019. Here's an interesting fuzz circuit from Way Huge based on the Tone Bender Mk. III. It uses PNP silicon transistors, but is a negative ground effect. Schematic available here.

Grind Customs FX De Profundis Delay

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope everyone gets ample time to get some soldering done over the holidays.

Grind Customs had a lot of really great projects, but their site hasn't been up in ages and it seems they're gone for good. Their De Profundis delay was very well regarded and they offered an add-on modulation board, the PLFO. Originals had the tone control as a trimmer, but lets go for broke and have it externally. The delay board will fit in a 1590B, but with the modulation add-on I'd recommend using a 125B. Here's the original De Profundis and PLFO build docs for reference.

VFE Distortion 3

Always a fan of the MXR Distortion+/DOD 250 as you all have probably figure out by now. Here's VFE's take on the classic circuit. Bunch of extra controls and mods including soft clipping, along with bass and tone controls. Schematic here for reference.

Seymour Duncan Dirty Deed

Here's a pretty interesting distortion from Seymour Duncan. 2N3906 transistors for hard clipping and a two band gyrator EQ section. Originals I assume are all SMD and use MC33178 ICs, which I believe are equivalent to the LM833, but other dual opamps should work fine. Schematic here. Should be able to squeeze it in a 1590B with small profile jacks.

Prescription Electronics Depth Charge

Here's a sweet bass fuzz based on the Univox Super Fuzz for Fuzz Friday. Original units used 2N3707 transistors with BCE pinout, which I'm guessing most people don't have in their parts stash. So I laid it out for CBE transistors (2N5088s or BC549Cs should work just fine) and it will fit nicely in a 125B with top mounted jacks and the pots in the same orientation/positioning as the original. Schematic available over on FSB.

Ibanez BS10 Bass Stack

Time for some bass distortion. This one's a RAT with an input buffer and soft clipping instead of hard. Apparently these were built on the same PCB as the Fat Cat and LA Metal. For a drilling template just use the Fat Cat one.

Discrete Distortion +

I've seen a few people playing around with discrete opamps in classic circuits, and thought I'd give it a go with one of my favorite circuits, the classic MXR Distortion + (or DOD 250, etc.). The typical 741 opamp has been replaced with Joe Davisson's Diode-Compression Opamp. The 6.8k resistor in the bottom left corner of the board may need to be adjusted till the collector of Q3 is around 4.5v. I haven't tested this, but it should work.

Vertex T-Drive

Here's Vertex's Trainwreck-style pedal. Essentially a modified Ibanez SD-9. BJT input buffer, opamp gain stage, followed by hard clipping, a fixed BMP-style tonestack, and JFET output stage. Schematic over on PedalPCB.

BoozeAround

Happy Black Fuzz Friday, everyone! Be sure to check out the store for a bunch of new boards and a 15% off Black Friday sale. Use coupon code "blackfuzzfriday" at checkout.

Here's a cool silicon Buzzaround variant I found browsing DIYSB. Any low hFE transistors should work ok. 2N2222A, 2N2369, MPSA42, etc. Should fit nicely in a 1590B.

Cornish SS-3 Soft Sustain

This just got traced by Aion and he was kind enough to share the schematic along with a cool tracing journal on his blog. As to what the SS-3 is, it's like a beefed up Cornish G-2, which is his take on the Distortion+. The original uses 2, single op amps, but for the sake of space and simplicity I've used a single dual op amp. It'll be tight, but it should fit in a 1590B. Like all Cornish pedals, it's designed with buffered bypass so the FSw labels on the layout refer to a DPDT footswitch. If wiring for true bypass, ignore those labels (and the 51k and 91Ω resistors at the bottom right corner of the board). But if you want to build it like the original, wire the in/out jacks to the in/out pads, one side of a DPDT footswitch to the FSw pads, and the other side for the on/off LED indicator.

Revv G4

This one was actually pretty easy to knock out after doing the G3. Slightly simpler and with less clipping than the G3, it's got loads of gain on tap. This also has the same pot layout as the the G3, so just use that drill template.

Revv G3

You guys super pestered me to do this one, so here it is. Now get off my back! 😄 Layout turned out fairly big, but not overly so. It should fit nicely in a 1590BB.

Dusky Electronics Hypatia

For Fuzz Friday this week I give you the Dusky Electronics Hypatia. It's based on the Bazz Fuss, but with a whole lot more control added gain stages and buffers. Should fit nicely in a 1590B. Here's the schematic for reference.

Morula Auto Wah

Here's a simple auto wah circuit with a pretty low parts count I thought was interesting. Not a lot out there on it, but it uses a single CD4049UBE to create an LFO and wah audio path. The depth of the effect is controlled by the LFO. Should fit nicely in a 1590B. Here's the schematic for reference.

Keeley Mag Echo

Here's Keeley's PT2399-based delay that aims to emulate old tape delays. I think it's the first delay on the blog with built in modulation. It's laid out with board mounted pots for a 125B enclosure with top mounted jacks. FYI, the trimmer controls the gain of the input stage.

HexeFX Night Train OD

Came across this circuit and thought it was interesting. It's similar to the Tube Sound OD with added input and output buffers, plus gain and tone controls. Info, schematic and sound clip available here.

Fulltone Mas Malo

For Fuzz Friday, here's Fulltone's take on the Big Muff. The main differences over a regular BMP is the input and output stages. The input stage has it's own gain control and the output stage is a JFET-based gain circuit. Also the volume control has been moved immediately after the tone stack, with the output stage after the volume pot. Schematic for reference.

Earthquaker Devices Tentacle

Had several requests for the Tentacle, but it's just more or less a Dan Armstrong Green Ringer clone. But I had the idea of making a Green Ringer layout with the bypass footswitch board-mounted so we'll just call this layout the Tentacle. Should fit easily in a 1590A. If you'd rather a fabricated PCB to build on, check out the Darkmantle on the store.

Budda Chakra Compressor

Here's an optical compressor I came across on FSB and hadn't seen a layout of it before. There's some question as to whether the schematic is accurate on FSB, so build with care. The original uses a rectifier array component, but I've broken that down into 4 discrete diodes (1N4148, 1N4001, etc.) since I figure more people will have those on hand than the rectifier component. Should fit nicely in a 1590B. Schematic and more info on FSB.

Jon Patton Cruz Drive

Here's an transistor-ization of the Butler Tube Driver by Jon Patton. Here's what he had to say about it:

I replaced the op amp buffer + inverting drive stage with a MOSFET booster, and replaced the tube stages with with FETs in the normal manner. Note that the design inverts phase, which the original did, too.

I moved the tone controls to put it before the last gain stage because otherwise it was just insanity on the gain levels. It's already pretty nuts even with all the cuts in front of each stage, but this gives a lot more control over the overall clipping.

The tone control and switch are really what make this cool... Really I'm just re-purposing once again the tone control from my Sakura amp, but everything worked out just right for me to get a third mode out of this one and to have a usable bass control.

1) The bass control just shaves off some low frequencies below about 400Hz. It's is a shelf filter, so the bass isn't gone, just de-emphasized, and at 5:00 the cutoff is at 18Hz.

2) Treble/Tone control: This is based on a version of the Big Muff tone control, with the resistor to ground for the lowpass removed. A lot can be done to radically alter the behavior of the tone control just by varying C9, so that's what the switch does. R8 is a small resistor (I picked 2.2K) to limit the ultimate range of the tone control so that it doesn't turn into a full low-pass filter, but it can be omitted for some very very dark settings in the scoop mode. I just don't like tone controls that bottom out.

Three modes:

a) Mode 1 flipped to one side: Flat treble at ~3:00 on the knob, at 5:00 a VERY tiny boost in the treble above 700Hz, and CCW cuts the treble at that same frequency, like a see-saw. With both tone controls down, it'll form a mid hump right around the middle of a Fender amp. (If I were to leave off the switch, this is what I would use as the stock mode.)

b) Mode 2 in the center: At ~3:00, the mids are boosted by about 3dB centered ~1KHz (bass and treble are flat). There's again a slight treble boost at full. CCW, the treble gets cut at 2KHz, so it's milder than mode 1, for just shaving off the harsher harmonics created by the distortion. This mode was a freebee on the layout by adding one capacitor, so I saw no reason to omit it. It's not as dramatic as the other modes, but it will usually sound flatter when there's a lot of distortion present.

c) Mode 3 (flipped the other way) has a mid scoop at ~250Hz for added clarity (this is the "mud" frequency for guitars, so it's a good frequency to cut). CCW, the treble is cut very deeply, which allows for bass boost with the bass at full and the tone turned down, or a treble boost with the tone up and the bass down. But with the treble and bass at about 9:00, it's back to a nearly flat response but with the gain cut a lot, for some "mostly clean" boost settings.

Jon used an on board LT1054 charge pump to run the circuit on +18v, but I'll leave the method/chip selection of doubling voltage up to you. The 2k and 10k trimmers are for biasing the JFETs, and the 100k trimmer is for biasing the MOSFET. Here's the schematic for reference.

VFE Fuzz Duo

Happy Fuzz Friday! Here's a pretty cool Fuzz Face variant from an equally cool builder, VFE. Both transistors are switchable between silicon and germanium, and it's got a few other cool tweaks too. Schematic here for reference.

Ibanez NB-10 Noise Buster

Had a recent request for this one and thought it'd be a nice break from overdrives. Part of the Ibanez 10-series, it's a noise gate that utilizes the LM1894 noise control chip. You can still get the chip off eBay and the SMD version is available from Arrow, Mouser, etc. You can wire it for true bypass or if you want buffered bypass that option is available as well. Should work in either a 1590B or 125B. Schematic for reference.

DOD 210 FET Preamp

Got a little simple boost/preamp for your Thursday. Should be a pretty easy fit in a 1590A. J113 alternatives would be J201, 2N5457, and probably a couple other JFETs that are obsolete. 😑

Apocalypse Audio Four Horsemen

Stumbled across this circuit a little while back and thought it would be a nice change from most of the opamp-based overdrives out there. Should fit nicely in a 1590B.

EarthQuaker Devices Life Pedal

For Fuzz Friday here's the coolest Green Ringer + Rat pedal around! (To be fair, it's an awesome combo) The Green Ringer is on a JFET blend and the Rat section is pretty standard. There's also a fairly generic MOSFET boost on board as well, similar to a SHO or Black Eye. This should all fit nicely in a 1590BB with board mounted pots.

As requested, here's the schematic:

EarthQuaker Devices Plumes

Today's layout is the EQD Plumes. It's based on the Tube Screamer but with a load of tweaks, including the usual BJT buffers replaced with op amp buffers, selectable clipping, and a charge pump to provide a bipolar supply. Should fit nicely in a 1590B.

Here's the schematic as requested:

Clark Gainster

Here's a pretty simple drive that everyone says sounds amazing. Original units had mojo parts and point to point wiring. Should fit nicely in a 1590B.

Brunetti Taxi Drive

Here's a pretty interesting lower gain overdrive. There's a an opamp gain stage with soft clipping going into a JFET stage that pushes a modified BMP tone stack, followed by a BJT output buffer. One of the diodes in the opamp stage is unknown, so socket and experiment. I also took a few liberties from the original using a TL072 instead of a TL071 for layout purposes and using the second opamp to buffer the voltage reference. Should fit nicely in a 1590B. Schematic available on FSB.

Hornby Skewes Shatterbox

Got a request for this one for Fuzz Friday. Fairly simple fuzz + boost box. Originals used PNP silicon transistors, but you can use NPNs just as well. The perf side below reflects the original's positive ground and the etch side shows daisy-chain-able negative ground. If you want to put 2 footswitches in a 1590B you could, as the board is small enough for that. Schematic on FSB.

Steel Panther Pu55y M3lt3r

I've held off in laying this one out just for the name alone (it was banned from Reverb for this very reason), but the circuit is fairly interesting so it was time. It features a MOSFET buffer into a pretty standard opamp gain stage with LED clipping into a MOSFET gain stage. Schematic and discussion over on FSB. I took a few liberties with the power section simplify it and make it all fit in a 1590B.

BK Butler Tube Driver

Apparently it's tube week. Here's the Tube Driver made famous by David Gilmour. It uses a 12AX7 which is pushed by a dual opamp followed by a Fender-style tone stack. I kept the power section from John K's version of the Blue Tube. Fits easily in a 1590BB. Here's the schematic for reference.

Tube Works Blue Tube

Came across John K's vero of this circuit with a few mods (Mid pot, bipolar charge pump) and figured we needed a layout for it as well. Runs on 9-12v. Pots are all board mounted with the tube off board. Here's John's original layout.

Fulltone Ultimate Octave

Happy Fuzz Friday everyone! Had a request for this one. It's basically a Foxx Tone Machine with some value changes and a couple additions, namely a switch to shift the range of the tone control and the octave switch is a footswitch. Here's the schematic for reference.

DOD FX91 Bass Overdrive

Always need more bass effects, right? This was one of the first bass ODs to have a clean blend. Should be an easy fit in a 1590B. Here's the schematic for reference.

OKKO Diablo+

The Diablo is a modified BSIAB circuit and the Diablo+ version has an added boost at the output that's independent from the main overdrive circuit. I've laid it out for a 125B with top mounted jacks for a nice small footprint. Originals have a switch to run at 9 or 18 volts which I've left off-board so builders can choose their preferred voltage doubling method. Trim pots are extra controls, not for biasing, FYI.

Boss FA-1 FET Amplifier

Originally a bit of a flop from Boss, the FET Amplifier was made famous by U2's The Edge. It features a 2-band Baxendall tone stack and the Volume control is more like a gain control. Originals use 2 single opamps that are pretty hard to come by these days, so they've been replaced by a dual opamp. Pots are board mounted and it should all fit in a 1590B.

Prescription Electronics Clean Octave Blend

Got a request for this one for Fuzz Friday. Originals fetch crazy prices online. It's an octave fuzz with a clean blend. If you want a fabricated version of this, check out the Corn Cobb on the store.. Schematic over on FSB. Should squeeze nicely in a 1590B.

Lovepedal Super 6

Here's a simple MOSFET overdrive from Lovepedal. Should be a quick and easy build in a 1590B. The board is designed to fit vertically in the enclosure with this kind of pot soldered on alternating sides of the board (Intense and Volume on the component side, Tone on the solder side). Oh, and the electrolytic caps are just lying flat, but not axial types. Schematic, notes and even a 1590A layout here. My layout below is so symmetrical I had to get a fabricated version on store... Here's the description from Lovepedal:

Reminiscent of the mid 60's Blackface Fender era. Specifically a Blackface Super on 6.

Plug the Super 6 in to a ANY clean amp to nail that mid-60's American amp tone. This unit will turn a small amp into a much larger sounding amp instantly.

With an onboard vintage tone stack to die for, you now have ULTIMATE control over ANY guitar / amp / effects combination.

Jersey Girl Fulltender

Took the Boss OD-1 layout from a few weeks ago and put together the Fulltender. It's just a modded OD-1, but with enough changes that a new layout made sense. Great sounding pedal. And if you'd rather a fabricated version, the Odd One Out is available on the store.

Keeley El Rey Dorado

Here's another Plexi-in-a-box overdrive, this time from the great Robert Keeley. It's a cascaded opamp design running on a bipolar +/-9v supply. The Power Toggle as it's known on the original selects between red LEDs or BAT46s for asymmetrical clipping.

Third Man Bumble Buzz

The Bumble Buzz is sold by Third Man Records, Jack White's record store and was designed and built for him by Union Tube & Transistor. It's a modified Kay Fuzz Tone F-1 with 4 silicon diodes in parallel instead of 2 germaniums like the original and the tone control fixed (so there aren't any controls at all). Easy fit for a 1590B and you might even be able to squeeze it into a 1590A.

There's also a fabricated version of this on the store if you prefer. It mounts directly to a 3PDT footswitch so your board isn't just floating in the enclosure and/or you don't have to mess with standoffs or double-sided tape. There's also 3 other new PCBs on the store as well, so go check 'em out!

Benson Preamp

This one just traced over on FSB. It's essentially a modified Wampler Plexidrive with an added bass control. Unless you're really sure any through-hole J201s you have on hand are in spec/authentic, I'd suggest using MMBFJ201s, which are the SMD version which are still in production and much easier to get in spec than the discontinued through-hole version. SMD to through-hole conversion boards here.

Update August 19, 2019:

Corrected a few values that have now been confirmed by Benson. The traces haven't changed however.

Fulltone OCB

What's the OCB you ask? It's the bypass buffer circuit from the new version of Fulltone's OCD. It allows you to switch between regular true bypass and buffered bypass. There are 2 versions: The first (smaller) inverts the phase of your audio signal when engaged (in bypass mode phase isn't inverted). The second (larger) adds an extra inverting transistor stage so that the phase of the output signal is the same as the signal coming in. If you've built an earlier version of the OCD in the past, you can add the 2nd board to make it into the newer version.

Boss OD-1

This is the precursor to the SD-1 and the TS808. The OD-1 was built by Boss from 1977-1985 and made in 2 versions. Both version are very similar in circuit topology—buffer > gain/soft clipping stage > gain stage > buffer—but the early version used a quad opamp, while the later version used a dual opamp and transistors for the buffer stages. I laid out the later version a while back (and didn't know the quad version even existed at the time), but I wanted to lay the quad version out as most agree this version sounds better. Fits nicely in a 1590B. Schematic for reference.