Mid-Fi Deluxe Pitch Pirate

This was a request from my friend Cody from They Remained Silent blog. The Pitch Pirate is a vibrato/chorus pedal, and the deluxe version adds a PT2399 based delay. It also has the ability to modulate over an octave as well as control the waveform of the modulator, giving you a huge range of tonal options.

Notes:
You can go the home-brew route and put a 1M LDR and LED in some shrink tubing or there should be enough space to use a VTL5C2 photocoupler. Adjust the trimmer at input till there's no unwanted distortion.

Valve WizardEntropy Chorus

Stumbled across this effect while looking for a completely different schematic. It's a low cost chorus designed by Merlin Blencowe (here's his schematic for reference), using a PT2399. It generates deep modulation and a very thick warble (here's a sound clip).

Marshall Guv'nor

The Marshall Guv'nor is one of the more highly regarded overdrive/distortion pedals of the late 80s, early 90s. With it's amp-like dynamics and a wide range of versatile tones, the Mk. I version of this pedal is still highly sought after. Many artists have used it, though Gary Moore is most associated with it, thanks to his "Still Got the Blues" album. 

You can use right angle PCB pots, mounted from the solder-side of the board if you like. It should fit nicely in a 1590B.

Analogman Sunface

The Sunface is a clone of the Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face, with a few tweaks. First, it has a 50k trimmer at the input of the circuit so you can adjust the pregain (it works exactly like the volume pot on your guitar), second it has an external control for biasing Q2 (the Sundial). Original units use a B5k pot here, which in series with the 2.2k resistor doesn't even equal the original Fuzz Face bias resistor of 8.2k. So you might want to up that pot to a B10k.

Analogman has made both a positive ground, germanium version, and a negative ground silicon version. The germanium versions have NKT275 transistors, and the silicon version uses the BC108. The layout reflects both versions with the perf side showing positive ground, and the PCB side showing negative ground.

Lovepedal Amp Eleven

The overdrive section of the Amp Eleven as many of you might know, is pretty much a direct copy of Paul Cochrane's Timmy. The only difference (aside from a few value changes) is the Amp Eleven doesn't have the switch that adds another clipping section that's in the Timmy.

MXR Script Phase 90

The Script version of the Phase 90 is probably the holy grail of phase shifters and was the first effect released by MXR in 1973. It's probably most famous for helping create Eddie Van Halen's brown sound on the first 2 Van Halen albums. It was designed before dual op amps were really affordable, so it used 6 op amps, in addition to 4 JFETs and a PNP silicon transistor. I've wanted to do a layout for the Phase 90 for a while, but all those op amps intimidated me, so I held off till a request for it came in. I used the original MXR board as a starting point. I ended up with 2 jumpers, but original units had a 150k resistor spanning over half the board (going from the base of Q5 to pin 6 of IC5).

One of the weird things about this layout is how the JFETs are oriented. The drain and source pads are further apart than the source and gate pads because the ground fill has to go between those gaps, and this quirk is evident on the original board from MXR. I would imagine 2N5457s would work if you can't get ahold of the original 2N5952s, and a 2N3906 can be swapped for the 2N4125 if necessary. Also, if you're not a fan 741 chips, a TL061 or 071 should work fine.

ColorSound OverDriver

The OverDriver is a dynamic transparent drive that works great with a tube amp. It's essentially a massive clean booster that pushes the amp to overdriven tones. Original units from '69-'70 didn't have a master volume control, but modern versions do and it's a good addition to the circuit. (If for some reason you don't want the master volume, the Volume 3 pad becomes the Out pad.)

I've upped the power filter cap to 47µ and added polarity protection and a pulldown resistor. The original BC transistors used had BCE pinouts, but I've laid the effect out for the more common CBE pinout. Also, the BC169 transistors used for Q1 and 2 will probably be pretty difficult to source, so socket and try out some alternatives (2N3904, 2N5088, etc). Might be a tight squeeze horizontally, but it should fit in a 1590B enclosure.

Here's my build. Haven't boxed it up yet, but I tested it and it seems to work. I used 2N2222s for Q1-2 and a BC550 for Q3, though I plan to try out some different ones. Also, you may want to try a lower value for the gain pot. There's a serious drop in gain once you start turning it down. Since the first stage is based on the Fuzz Face, maybe try a B1 or 2k pot. Reverse log might not be a bad idea either.