Boot-Leg Effectors Rock 'n Roll Party

Here's a very nice sounding British-style overdrive pedal from Boot-Leg Effects in Japan. It uses three-quarters of a TL074 quad op-amp, as well as germanium diodes (most likely 1N60s). Original units use an electrolytic 470n capacitor, but I've laid out the board for a film cap (though the PCB has pads for an electrolytic). I've also added a pull down resistor at the input and some extra power filtering. Here's a demo from another DIY builder.

Sam Ash Fuzz-Stainer

The Fuzz-Stainer is a pretty rare fuzz box made by Sam Ash in the 70s. Don't confuse this with the Sam Ash Fuzzz Boxx/AstroTone, as it's a different circuit. Original units used 2N5173 transistors with BCE pinouts. I've made 2 versions of the layout, one for BCE transistors (on the right) and one for CBE (on the left). 2N2222s or 2N3904s seem like they might be good substitutes. Output is pretty close to unity with the Volume pot maxed, so you may want to replace the 10k pot with a 50k or 100k, and/or reduce or remove the 68k resistor from Volume 2 to Out. To make the trimmer external (like the Jerms clone in the video below), use a B20k pot with lug 3 going to the emitter of Q2, and lugs 1 and 2 going to ground.

MI Audio Crunch Box

Got several requests for this one. The MI Audio Crunch Box is a versatile distortion box, designed to sound like a cranked Marshall. It's very similar to the Marshall Guv'nor, but with a Rat style tone control. Production models have the Presence control as a trimmer internally, but it makes sense to me to have it externally.

ColorSound Wah-Wah

Here's the ColorSound Wah-Wah. I hadn't laid out a wah before, probably because I haven't built one myself before, and I don't use one much when I play. Anyway, the ColorSound Wah-Wah is pretty simple and sounds very good. What makes it unique is that it doesn't use an inductor like most wah circuits. This might be a good candidate to throw a buffer in front, but it's not necessary. There is a volume pot which you could omit if you want (in which case the Volume 3 pad becomes the output). You could also throw this in a 1590a if you wanted a non-treadle/fixed wah pedal. Or if you're really brave, you could mod a 1590a into a treadle pedal like Thomas Hafemann did.

fOXX Tone Machine

The fOXX Tone Machine is a classic fuzz box and a very versatile octave effect as well. Pretty standard controls, and the toggle switch controls the octave effect. I've laid this out for onboard pots and octave switch, and added polarity protection and power filtering. 2N3904s or 2N2222s can also be used in place of the original 2N3565. Hope you're stocked up on 10µ caps!

DOD 280 Compressor

The DOD 280 was DOD's first compression pedal made in the late '70s through the '80s. A great sounding compressor, this fairly simple circuit uses an LDR and LED combination (in the form of a VTL5C2) to compress the signal. This one's laid out for on board right angle PCB pots, mounted from the solder side as per usual). I've added polarity protection and power filtering, as well as an input pull down resistor. You can use a VTL5C9 or CLM6000, or a good ol' 1M dark resistance LDR and an LED in heat shrink in place of the original VTL5C2.

Electro Harmonix Triangle Big Muff (again)

Haven't done a Big Muff layout in a while. This is the Triangle version again and is pretty much the same layout as before, but I changed the orientation of the Tone pot. I was going to build this myself and realized that I didn't like how far down the Tone pot was from the other 2 controls, so I tweaked it a little and I'm happier with it now.